The phone assistant

The phone assistant answers calls to your TapBook number in your business's name, texts callers your booking link, and takes call-backs. You get a summary of every call. The cards are on Settings while the assistant is on for your business. Only owners see them. If Your phone assistant is missing, email hello@tapbook.au.

Open Settings. The card is Your phone assistant.

Each location has a switch, and it saves at once.

• With no TapBook number, the line says Needs a TapBook number first. The switch stays off. While texts are on, it adds Request one under Texts. See Your TapBook number and texts.
• Off, the line says Off. Calls to the TapBook number ring your own number.
• On, the line says On. It answers calls to the TapBook number.

With one location, the toast says Phone assistant on. or Phone assistant off. and, when you turn it off, Calls ring your number. With two or more, the toast names the location: Phone assistant on for that location.

A location with no TapBook number cannot be switched on. If you try, it says That location needs a TapBook number first.

Under the locations, one form is shared by the business. Choose Save phone assistant when you have changed it. The toast says Phone assistant saved.

1. Where you work is the suburbs or areas you cover. The help gives Casey and Cardinia, or up to 30 km from Narre Warren, as the sort of answer. It holds 300 characters.
2. Common questions is what callers often ask, and your answers, one per line. The help says: such as We don't work on gas appliances. It holds 2,000 characters.
3. Emergencies is what should count as urgent. Urgent calls go to the top of your inbox, and you hear about them straight away. It holds 500 characters. It can start with a list for your trade, which you can change.
4. Tone is Friendly or Formal. It starts on Friendly.

Under the fields, the card says it already knows your services, hours, address and phone from your booking page. Keep those right on the booking page, because a change there is what the assistant says next. See Your booking page, Services and extras and Opening hours and closures.

It says it's a virtual assistant and that calls are transcribed, gives only the prices on your services, and never promises a time.

A field that is too long says Use 300 characters or fewer., Use 2,000 characters or fewer. or Use 500 characters or fewer., matching the field. If the switch does not save, the toast says We couldn't change that. Try again.

1. Turn the switch on for the location, and choose Save phone assistant if you changed the form.
2. From another phone, call the TapBook number in the line On. It answers calls to.
3. Open the inbox. A call-back or a booking from that call lands there. The timeline on it has Call to your assistant.

Calls to the TapBook number already go to the assistant once it is on for that location. To have it answer your own phone when you can't, use the Send calls to it card. See Send your calls to the assistant.

A call the assistant answers shows on the call-back it took, on a booking made from the link it texted, and on the caller's page in Customers. A caller who gives a name is filed under that name. Otherwise the page uses their mobile.

The timeline card is headed Call to your assistant, then the length, such as 3 min, or Under a minute for a short call. The summary follows. Facts that apply sit under it: Urgent, After hours, Link texted to their mobile, and Wants a call-back.

Show transcript opens the call, one line a turn, marked Assistant: or Caller:. Hide transcript closes it. After 90 days the button is gone and the facts end Transcript deleted after 90 days. A call still being summarised says Summary on its way. A call with no summary says The assistant didn't leave a summary of this call. A call it could not answer is a line: Missed call: the assistant couldn't answer.

Urgent calls from Emergencies show as Urgent in the inbox, at the top of each pill. How you hear about a new booking is set in Alerts.