---
title: "How to choose what your receptionist knows"
description: "Give your receptionist the facts it answers callers from, with your Business Profile, your website, documents and notes, and check what it would say."
url: https://geiavwiyz.gleap.help/en/articles/170-how-to-choose-what-your-receptionist-knows
collection: "Receptionist"
updated: 2026-11-02
language: en
---

# How to choose what your receptionist knows

Give your receptionist the facts it answers callers from, with your Business Profile, your website, documents and notes, and check what it would say.

The receptionist only tells callers what it's been told. Ask it something it doesn't know and it says so, and offers to take a message. It learns about your business from four places: your Business Profile, your website, documents and notes you add, and anything extra you type in its settings.

## See what it knows

1.  Click your initial at the top right and choose **Settings**.
    
2.  Click **Business profile**.
    
3.  At the bottom, click **What your receptionist knows**.
    

You can also get there from the receptionist's **Settings** tab, under **What it knows**.

The page has **Your website**, **From your Business Profile** and **Documents and notes**, each showing whether it's **Ready**, still **Reading…**, or **Couldn't read it**.

## Let it read your website

1.  Under **Your website**, type your website's address.
    
2.  Click **Read my website**.
    

It reads up to 50 pages, such as your services, areas, prices and FAQs, and reads them again every week. It takes a minute or two. Click **Show the pages** to see which ones it read, or **Read it again** after you've changed your site.

## Add a document or a note

-   Click **Add a document** to add a price list, brochure or anything else callers ask about. Use a PDF, Word document or text file under 15 MB. It knows what's in it in a minute or so.
    
-   Click **Add a note** for something short, like "We don't do flat roofs". Give it a **Title (optional)**, type **What it should know**, and click **Add note**. It knows it in a few seconds.
    

To take one away, click the bin next to it and click **Remove**.

## Check what it would say

Under **Ask it a question**, type what a caller might ask, like "Do you do loft conversions?", and click **Ask**. It shows what it would answer from, and where each part came from, marked **Close match**, **Some match** or **Weak match**. If nothing matches well, it would say it doesn't know and offer to take a message.

## Choose where its business details come from

1.  Click **Receptionist** in the sidebar, then the **Settings** tab.
    
2.  Click **What it knows**.
    

With **Use my Business Profile** on, its business name, opening hours, service area and what it knows about your work come from your Business Profile, so you keep them up to date in one place. Click **Edit** to change them there. See _How to fill in your business profile_.

Below that:

-   **Name you answer the phone as (optional)**: what it says when it picks up, like "Good morning, Smith Builders". Leave it blank and it says your business name without "Ltd" or anything in brackets.
    
-   **Anything else the receptionist should know**: facts on top of your Business Profile.
    

Click **Save**. These two need publishing before callers hear them. See _How to put your receptionist live, pause it and publish changes_.

If you turn **Use my Business Profile** off, you type its **Business name**, **What it can tell callers**, **Opening hours** and **Service area** here instead.

## Do I need to publish when I add something?

Not for your Business Profile, your website, documents or notes. The next call knows them. Only the fields on the receptionist's own **Settings** tab need publishing.

## Why did it say it didn't know something?

It isn't in any of the places above, or it's written in a way that doesn't match the question. Ask it the same question under **Ask it a question** to see what it found, then add a note or a FAQ to your Business Profile with the answer.

## Why does it say Couldn't read it?

The page says why next to it. For your website, try **Read it again**. For a document, put the facts in a note instead.