The greeting is the first thing every caller hears, so it deserves five minutes. It lives with the rest of the AI's personality under Receptionist → AI Voice.
Edit the greeting
- Open Receptionist → AI Voice (the page is titled AI Voice) and stay on the Voice tab.
- In the How it answers card, find the Greeting field. It takes up to 500 characters and shows a counter.
- Write the greeting, or leave it blank to use the default (below). Reset to default on the field's label clears your text and saves straight away.
- Click Save Changes in the bar at the bottom (on a phone, the Save changes button). The new greeting is used from the next call.
The default greeting
With the field blank, the AI says:
- "Hi! This is [assistant name] with [practice]. How can I help you today?" when Introduces itself as is filled in, or
- "Thank you for calling [practice]! How can I help you today?" when it's blank.
A caller FrontDesk recognises is greeted by first name ("Hi Maria! …"). A Spanish-only practice gets a Spanish default: "¡Gracias por llamar a [practice]! ¿En qué puedo ayudarle hoy?"
Which name it says
[practice] is the name clients know you by, not the location's own name (a location is often named for its city, and "Thank you for calling Indianapolis" is not a name callers recognise):
- the location's Name clients see under Settings → Client Portal, when it is set, otherwise
- your organization name (Settings → Account, Organization tab).
With one location, that name is all the AI says: "Thank you for calling Bright Path Therapy!" With more than one location, it adds the office the caller reached: "Thank you for calling Bright Path Therapy, Indianapolis office!" (in Spanish, "Bright Path Therapy, oficina de Indianapolis"). When a caller asks which office or location this is, or where you are, it names the office and gives that location's address. A greeting you typed yourself is said exactly as you wrote it.
If a recording notice is turned on under Settings → Phone & SMS → Calls, it plays before the greeting for the callers it applies to. See Understand call recording consent.
Variables
The Insert: chips under the field add placeholders that are filled in on every call:
| Variable | Becomes |
|---|---|
{assistantName} | the name in Introduces itself as; dropped when that is blank |
{businessName} | the name clients know you by (see Which name it says), with the office added on an account with more than one location |
{patientName} | the caller's first name when FrontDesk recognises the number; dropped otherwise |
Use the variables rather than typing names, so the greeting stays right when a name changes.
The assistant's name, tone and pace
In the same card, Introduces itself as (optional) sets the assistant's name (up to 40 characters); leave it blank to answer as your front desk. Tone offers Friendly & Warm, Professional & Polished, Casual & Relaxed and Formal & Business-like, and the Speaking speed slider under the voice list sets the pace. The voice itself is chosen above; see Choose a voice. Voice selection saves as soon as you click it; the greeting and the other fields wait for Save Changes.
Hear it
The play button beside a voice plays a sample of that voice, not your greeting. To hear the real thing, place a test call: the Test button on the Call scripts tab has the AI ring your phone and answer as it would for a client. See Test your AI with call scripts.
Spanish
With Answers in set to Spanish or Bilingual and a Spanish-capable voice selected, Translate to Spanish appears on the Greeting field, and Translate my greeting & knowledge to Spanish at the top of the Voice card translates the greeting and the Anything else it should know box together. Neither saves by itself: review the text and click Save Changes. Switching the AI's language asks Update your greeting?: Reset to default or Keep my greeting. See Spanish and bilingual calls.
After hours and holidays
There is one greeting. Outside your hours the AI follows the after-hours handling on Settings → Phone & SMS → Calls; when that is set to voicemail, a separate voicemail message field appears there (its placeholder reads "We're currently closed. Please leave a message and we'll get back to you on the next business day."). Holiday closures under Settings → Locations close the day and use the same handling. See Configure after-hours behavior.