Setting Up Your First Agent

After your discovery call and signup, your Allison dashboard is pre-populated with knowledge from the conversation. This walkthrough covers reviewing and finalizing your agent — most of the work is review and approval, not from-scratch configuration.

Step 1: Get a Phone Number

Either purchase a new phone number through the dashboard or bring your own existing number (BYOT). Each number maps to a location.

Step 2: Review Your Knowledge Base

Your dashboard is pre-populated with knowledge from the discovery call. Review:

• Quick Facts — short answers like accepted insurance, parking, payment methods, and cancellation policy. Correct anything that's wrong. (Hours and address are configured separately in Schedules and Locations.)
• FAQs — common questions and answers. Add any that are missing.
• Intents — the types of calls you receive. Enable or disable as needed.

Most agents are 80% configured from the discovery call. You're adding the last 20%.

Step 3: Connect Integrations

If you use Google Calendar, connect it from the Integrations page with one OAuth click. For HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, and other tools, connect via Allison's API and outbound webhooks — see the "Connecting via API and Zapier" help article for step-by-step examples.

Step 4: Set Business Hours

Configure your schedules — business hours, holidays, after-hours behavior. Each location can have its own schedule.

Step 5: Add Team Members

Add your team members who might receive transferred calls. Set their name, title, department, tags, and phone number. Configure transfer hours — when the agent can route calls to each person.

Step 6: Test

Call your Allison phone number and test as if you were a customer. Try scheduling an appointment, asking about your hours, requesting a transfer. Check the dashboard for call summaries and quality scores.

Step 7: Go Live

Your agent is ready. Forward your business phone to your Allison number, or give out the new number directly. Allison starts answering calls immediately.

Ongoing Configuration

After your agent is live, you don't need to open the dashboard every time something changes. Ask Allison directly — "add a new FAQ about gift cards" or "change our Saturday hours" — through the dashboard chat or by calling Allison. She confirms the change before making it. For a full list of what you can configure conversationally, see Configuring Your Agent Through Conversation.