In this article, you will learn how to set up Genius Answering to handle incoming calls and book jobs for your business.

Genius Answering is an AI-powered answering service capable of picking up incoming calls, speaking with your customers about the services they need, and even adding jobs to your schedule. Genius Answering is a powerful AI tool built right into Workiz, eliminating the need for manual training.

After activating Genius Answering, "Jessica" — your business's AI answering assistant — will automatically know a lot about your business based on your Workiz account. You can further configure Jessica to only offer certain services, ask specific questions, and even limit the sort of actions she can take during calls, including:

• Creating a new job
• Taking a message
• Rescheduling an existing job (verified clients only)
• Canceling an existing job (verified clients only)
• Adding a note to an existing job (verified clients only)

Activating Genius Answering

Customizing your Genius Answering script

Once you’ve enabled Genius Answering, you’ll get access to a new settings page where you can tailor how Jessica handles incoming calls for your business. From customizing the services you offer to managing client inquiries and enabling key actions like job creation and rescheduling, you’re in complete control.

With these tools, Jessica works as an extension of your team, ensuring a seamless and professional experience for your clients while streamlining your workflow.

1. From the sidebar menu, select Genius AI
2. Select the Genius Answering tab
3. Select Customize script
4. Customize your script
   1. Business name: Enter the business name that you want Jessica to use 
   2. Business industry: Select the industry that your business falls under
   3. Available services: Select the job types that you want Jessica to make available to clients during calls

      Jessica will match your client's request to one of your selected job types. If a match isn't found, she will inform the client that only the specified services can be booked and will list them clearly.

   4. If a client wants to speak with a human: Enter the message you want Jessica to respond with when clients ask for a human

      When configured accordingly, Jessica can take a message for you to review from the Message Center. We recommend making that clear during this response.

   5. Custom questions: Enter any additional questions you want Jessica to ask when booking jobs over the phone. After entering your question, map the question to one of your existing custom fields so that the information is automatically entered into the correct field. 

      Jessica will automatically know to ask for all of the default fields when creating new jobs, like name, phone number, address, and service date. Use this section to add any custom questions tailored to the specific custom fields you’ve created. Please ensure that the questions you include here are relevant to all job types.

   6. (Recommended) Replace voicemail with Jessica: Decide if you want to automatically update all your call flows to have Jessica handle missed calls instead of voicemail

      Enabling this setting replaces the voicemail step in your call flows with Genius Answering, ensuring all calls are handled without going to voicemail. If disabled, your call flows will revert, and the voicemail step will be reinstated.

   7. Free on-site estimates: Decide how Jessica should handle requests for on-site estimates (e.g., free or minimum fee)
   8. Call capabilities: Decide what sort of actions you want Jessica to take during calls. You can specify which actions (e.g., create a new job, take a message, reschedule a job, etc.) apply to all clients and which ones only apply to verified clients with existing jobs.

      Jessica identifies verified clients by matching the caller’s phone number with the one associated with an existing job in your account.

Inserting Genius Answering into your call flows

This section is only necessary if you chose not to automatically replace your voicemail with Jessica when customizing your Genius Answering script. If you did not enable that setting, you will need to manually insert Genius Answering into your call flows.

1. From the navigation bar, select the profile icon > Settings
2. Under Calls & texts, select Call flows
3. Create a new call flow or edit an existing one
4. From the call flow builder, decide exactly where you want Genius Answering to be triggered and select the plus icon
   
5. Select Genius Answering 

   You have full flexibility to use Genius Answering however it best fits your needs. You can set it up as an after-hours answering service, use it to catch missed calls before they go to voicemail, or even have it handle all incoming calls around the clock. It’s completely customizable to suit your business workflow.

6. Select Save/Create call flow

Reviewing your Genius Answering reporting

With Genius Answering, you'll get access to a dedicated report where you can monitor its impact on your business. 

To learn more about reviewing this report, please see this article.