Choose how the Front Desk answers

The Front Desk is the AI in your Inbox. It answers customers on WhatsApp from your own answers and records, in the customer's language, and passes the conversation to your team when it should.

Before you start

• Connect WhatsApp first. See connect your WhatsApp number.
• You need to be the owner or a manager.

Steps

1. Open Inbox → Front desk settings.
2. Under Ready to, check what the Front Desk can do now: Answer questions, Understand voice notes, Look at pictures, Take orders, Take bookings, Send order updates after 24 hours. Each item that is not ready says what is missing.
3. Under Who answers, pick a mode:
   • Off: nothing answers; messages still reach the inbox.
   • Drafts: the assistant writes, your team sends.
   • Pilot: automatic for the numbers you list, drafts for everyone else. Type one number per line under Pilot numbers, with the country code.
   • Automatic: the assistant answers everyone.
4. Under Name and tone, type The assistant's name, pick a Tone (Friendly, Formal or Brief) and, if you like, a Welcome message.
5. Select Save.

What happens before the Front Desk answers

Some messages are answered by fixed rules, before the Front Desk sees them:

• Stop words (STOP, unsubscribe, a stop word in the customer's language, or your own under Extra opt-out words): the customer gets one confirmation and nothing more until they write again.
• "A person please": the conversation goes to your team. See take over a conversation.
• Greetings, thanks, your address and opening hours, abuse, and attempts to change the assistant's instructions get a fixed reply.
• Yes / no to a waiting order or booking: carried out or dropped by rule. The Front Desk can never confirm anything itself.

Good to know

• The 24-hour window. WhatsApp allows free replies only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that, only an approved Order update template can go, for the status of an order.
• Voice notes are transcribed (when set up). A note it cannot make sense of gets "I heard … did you mean …?" instead of an action. The audio is not kept.
• Pictures are passed to the Front Desk and shown to your team. See files and pictures customers send.
• Orders and bookings: with online orders on, it can take orders (your delivery areas, fees, minimum and hours apply); with Bookings on, it can book from your online booking page. Prices and stock always come from your records. See take orders and take bookings through the Front Desk.
• A message it is not sure was sent is never sent again blindly; the inbox shows Not confirmed with Send again.
• Limits: the assistant's answers a day follow your plan (set a lower number under Limits and keeping). Past the limit, customers get one line a day saying the team will answer, and nothing is paused.
• AI credits: the Front Desk's replies are counted in conversation blocks of up to 8 replies within 24 hours to one customer. See AI credits for the Front Desk.
• Customers' messages go through Meta, answers come from Anthropic's model, and voice notes are transcribed by OpenAI.
• In the Inbox, the Front Desk's messages are labelled AI and its drafts wait for a person; see work with the Front Desk in the Inbox. On e-mail and the web chat, each team's AI mode applies instead; see let the Front Desk answer e-mail and web chat.
• Next: teach the Front Desk your answers.