Match the problem to the setting
| What you're hearing | What to change | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong gender, accent, or general feel | Voice | Voice tab → Voice list (press play to preview, click to choose; saves right away) |
| Talks too fast | Speaking speed down (try 0.9 or 0.8) | Voice tab, under the voice list |
| Talks too slowly or sounds sluggish | Speaking speed up (try 1.1 or 1.2) | Same place |
| Too stiff or corporate | Tone → Friendly & Warm or Casual & Relaxed | Voice tab → How it answers |
| Too casual for your practice | Tone → Professional & Polished or Formal & Business-like | Same place |
| The opening line is generic | Greeting (500 characters) | Voice tab → How it answers |
| Doesn't mention parking, policies, and so on | Anything else it should know (8,000 characters), or the Knowledge tab for longer material | Voice tab → What it knows |
| Answers too fast, or leaves long gaps before answering | Patience (Snappy, Balanced, Relaxed) | Advanced tab → Pacing |
| Cuts callers off mid-sentence | Patience → Relaxed, or Words before caller can interrupt | Advanced tab → Pacing → Fine-tune the exact timing |
| Stops talking when the caller says "uh-huh" | Keep talking through (add the filler words) | Advanced tab → When callers interrupt |
| Silence while it looks something up | Speak a filler during actions | Advanced tab → What it says while it works |
| Hangs up on callers who go quiet | Hang up after silence (default 30 sec), or turn on Nudge quiet callers | Advanced tab → Pacing, and When callers go quiet |
| Mishears callers in noisy places | Filter background noise (on by default), Ask callers to repeat when unclear | Advanced tab → Recovery & sign-off |
Everything is under Receptionist → AI Voice. The Voice tab saves with Save Changes in the bar at the bottom (the voice itself saves the moment you click it). The Advanced tab has its own Save changes button.
Speaking speed: how to pick a number
- 0.8–0.9: older patients, complicated information, callers who often ask the AI to repeat itself.
- 1.0: the default. Comfortable for most callers.
- 1.1–1.2: busy practices that want shorter calls. Going much faster makes it easier for callers to miss details.
Change it by 0.1 at a time and place a test call after each change.
Tone: what changes
Tone doesn't change the voice. It changes how the AI words its replies.
- Friendly & Warm (default): warm and conversational, with small acknowledgements like "Great." or "Sure thing."
- Professional & Polished: clear, concise and direct, with no casual fillers.
- Casual & Relaxed: everyday language, a little chattier.
- Formal & Business-like: formal language and complete sentences.
Timing: the Advanced tab
The defaults work for most practices. Change them only if calls feel off.
- Who speaks first: Assistant greets (default) or Caller first.
- Patience: Snappy answers sooner, Relaxed waits longer for the caller to finish. Balanced is the default.
- Fine-tune the exact timing: exact numbers for Wait before responding, Pause after a sentence, Pause mid-thought, Extra pause after a number, Words before caller can interrupt (default 2), Voice before interrupt, Cooldown after interrupt, and Ambient background sound (Off or Office ambience).
- Hang up after silence: ends the call when nobody has spoken for this long (5 to 120 seconds, default 30).
- Nudge quiet callers: the AI speaks up after a stretch of silence ("Are you still there?") instead of waiting. Off by default.
- Sign-offs: how the AI says goodbye. Avoid exclamation marks, which the voice engine reads as high energy.
If something gets worse, Reset to defaults at the bottom of the Advanced tab puts everything back. See Advanced voice settings for every option.
Test after every change
A 30-second test call tells you more than ten minutes of guessing. Call your number, listen for the thing you changed, and decide whether it's better. See the test call walkthrough.