Quickstart: your first business

Create a business, add website chat and an AI receptionist, train knowledge from your website, and take your first test call — in about fifteen minutes.

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This walkthrough takes a brand-new workspace to a working front office: a website chat answering from your real content, and an AI receptionist on a real local number. Nothing here requires code.

1
Create the business
From the dashboard, New business. Name it after the actual company — the AI introduces itself with this name on calls and in chat.
2
Add your first services
Inside the business, Add service. Start with Website chat and AI receptionist — each gets its own backing AI agent automatically. Add CRM so every conversation has somewhere to land.
3
Train the knowledge
Open Knowledge and paste your website URL. OpenAgent deep-crawls it (sitemap + linked pages) and reports every page found and trained. Add the price list, hours, and service area as text or Q&A pairs — the things customers actually ask.
4
Try the chat
Open the website chat service and use the live preview. Ask what a customer would ask ("how much is X?", "are you open Sunday?"). If an answer is wrong, fix the knowledge — not the prompt.
5
Get a phone number
In the receptionist service, search and buy a local number ($10/mo). Set the greeting. In sandbox you can simulate calls before anything is live.
6
Take a test call
Use the in-dashboard test call (or dial the number) and hear the business answered in its own voice: hours, prices, bookings, messages.
7
Turn on the missed-call redirect
On the business's existing phone, dial *71 followed by the AI number. From now on, only calls nobody picks up roll to the AI. *73 cancels it.
8
Add your first workflow
Open Workflows → create "Missed call → text back". Trigger: A call goes unanswered. Step: Send a notification → SMS → "Sorry we missed you — reply here and we'll get you booked." Publish it.

That's a front office

Calls answered after one ring too many, chats answered from your real content, every conversation written into the CRM, and a text going out for every miss. Everything else in these docs builds on this.

What to add next

More doors — WhatsApp, Instagram & Messenger, SMS (SMS needs a one-time A2P registration — start it early, approval takes days).
Forms — a CRM form from a template for your trade, embedded on the website or shared as a link.
The scheduler — a booking page the AI can offer in chat and on calls.
Your vertical's playbook — the exact flows, workflows, and campaigns for your kind of business.

What is OpenAgent

Core concepts