Help center

AI Virtual Assistant guide

Everything you need to set up your AI front desk and run it day to day, step by step.

Start free 14-day trial About the Virtual Assistant

Get started in five minutes

The Virtual Assistant is a front desk for businesses that work by appointment. It chats with your customers, books appointments in your free times, sends confirmations and reminders, and passes messages to you.

1Sign in to AI Ekip and open Virtual Assistant in the sidebar. Every plan includes it, including the 14-day free trial.
2Click New assistant. The setup has three steps: your business, your services and hours, and a review.
3When it is created, the Channels tab gives you a booking page link, one line of code for your website, and lets you connect WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS.
4Open the booking page and try the chat yourself before you share it with customers.

Your booking page works as soon as you create the assistant, but nobody finds it until you share the link or add the code. You can change everything later.

Tell it about your business

The assistant answers only from what you write in Settings. When the answer isn't there, it says so and offers to take a message, so the more you write, the more it can answer.

Business information: Address and directions, parking, prices, payment methods, cancellation policy, languages you speak, what to bring, and answers to the questions you hear every day. Plain sentences work best; you can write up to 20,000 characters.
Your instructions: How it should behave, for example "New patients start with a free consultation." or "Offer the earliest free time first."
Tone and language: Friendly, professional or formal. The default language is for its first reply; customers who write in another language get answers in theirs.
First message: The greeting customers see when they open the chat.
AI model: Keep the default unless you have a reason to change it. Every reply uses tokens from your wallet.

Don't write anything you wouldn't tell a customer: the assistant may quote it.

Services, opening hours and time off

These are rules, not suggestions. The booking system checks them every time someone books, whatever the AI says. You find them on the Services & hours tab.

Services: A name, a length in minutes, an optional break after it (to clean up or travel), and an optional price and description. Switch Bookable off to hide a service without deleting it.
Opening hours: When appointments can start and end on each day. A day can have several ranges, for example 09:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:00 for a lunch break. Days without hours are closed.
Time off: Block holidays and afternoons you are away. Appointments already booked in that time are not cancelled; move or cancel them on the Appointments tab.
Booking rules: Minimum notice (2 hours by default), how many days ahead customers can book (60 by default), and how often start times are offered (every 30 minutes by default).
Timezone: Hours and times use the timezone in Settings, and customers see times in that timezone too.
Your calendar: At the top of the tab, create a private calendar address and subscribe to it in Google Calendar (Other calendars → From URL), Outlook or Apple Calendar to see every appointment there. Keep the address private; make a new one if it leaks. Two-way sync is coming soon.

If customers see no free times, check that the service is bookable, the day has opening hours, and the minimum notice and booking window allow it.

Put it on your website and share it

Open the Channels tab. It gives you a booking page link, and one line of code that adds a chat button to your website.

Booking page: aiekip.com/assistant/your-name. Customers can chat or book with a form. Add it to your Google Business Profile as an appointment link, to Instagram and WhatsApp, to your email signature, or print it as a QR code for the front desk.
Chat button: Copy the code and paste it just before the closing </body> tag on every page of your site. A round chat button appears in the bottom-right corner, in your brand colour.
WordPress: Use a header and footer code plugin and paste the code in the footer section.
Wix: Settings → Custom code → Add custom code. Choose all pages and place it at the end of the body.
Squarespace: Open Code injection in your site settings and paste the code in the Footer box.
Webflow: Site settings → Custom code → Footer code, then publish the site.
Shopify: Online Store → Themes → Edit code → theme.liquid, and paste it just above </body>.

Some website builders only allow custom code on paid plans. If yours doesn't, share the booking page link instead. You paste the code once: changes you make in AI Ekip show up on your site straight away.

Connect WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and email

Customers can also write to your own messaging accounts, and the assistant answers there. Connect them at the bottom of the Channels tab; every chat lands in the same inbox.

Telegram: In Telegram, open @BotFather, send /newbot and choose a name. Paste the token it gives you and click Connect Telegram. That is all: messages to your bot reach the assistant at once.
WhatsApp: You need a WhatsApp Business number in a Meta app (developers.facebook.com). Paste its Phone number ID, a permanent access token and the App secret, then copy the callback URL and verify token shown in AI Ekip into WhatsApp → Configuration and subscribe to messages. The status turns Connected when Meta checks the webhook.
SMS: Use a number from your own Twilio account. Paste the Account SID, auth token and the number in international format; we point the number's SMS webhook at your assistant for you.
Email: Choose one of your connected mailboxes (Gmail, Outlook or IMAP) and click Connect Email; if you have none yet, the card links to where you add one. New mail is checked every minute and answered from that address, in the same thread. Mail already in the inbox is left alone, and so are newsletters, automatic replies and replies to your Sales Agent outreach. A dedicated address such as hello@ works best.
Booking there: On WhatsApp, Telegram and SMS customers can book without an email address: the confirmation, reminder and any change are sent in the same chat. If they give an email, they get the emails too.
Your replies: When you reply from the inbox, your message goes out on the same app.
Rules of each app: WhatsApp only allows replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message; later replies are refused and shown as not delivered. On SMS, a customer who texts STOP gets nothing more. Email replies count toward the mailbox's daily send limit, shared with the Sales Agent.

You use your own accounts, so Meta and Twilio bill their messaging fees to you directly. Turn a channel off with its switch, or disconnect it, at any time.

Answer phone calls

The assistant can also pick up calls to your Twilio number. Connect the number for SMS first, then switch on Answer phone calls on the same card in the Channels tab.

On a call: It greets the caller with your greeting, listens, and answers in short spoken sentences, in the assistant's language. It can answer questions, book, move or cancel appointments and take a message, just like in chat.
Putting callers through: Add a number under Put callers through to. When a caller needs a person, the assistant says so and transfers the call. Leave it empty and the team calls them back; you get the message in your inbox.
After the call: The whole call is in your inbox as a transcript. A reply you write there is texted to the caller. Reminders for appointments booked on a call are texted too, and the caller can answer OK or NO.
When it can't answer: If the assistant is offline, paused or out of conversations, callers hear that no one can take the call and you get a missed-call message, or the call goes straight to your forwarding number.

Each turn takes a few seconds while the assistant thinks; callers hear a short pause. Twilio bills call minutes and speech recognition to your Twilio account.

What your customers see

Customers book in the chat or with the form on the booking page. Either way, the same rules apply.

1In the chat they ask questions and ask for a time. The assistant only offers times you are free.
2Before booking it asks for their name and email (and phone, if you require it), repeats the service and time, and books once they agree.
3On the booking page they can also choose a service, pick a free time and fill in a short form.
4They get a confirmation email with a calendar file for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar, and a link to change or cancel.
5They can move or cancel in the same chat, or any time before the appointment with the link. You are notified of every change.

The assistant can only see and change appointments booked in the same chat. For anything else it points the customer to the link in their email, or takes a message for you.

Confirmations and reminders

Emails go to the customer automatically. You don't need to send anything yourself.

Confirmations: Sent when an appointment is booked, moved or cancelled, with the calendar file and the change or cancel link.
Reminders: An email before each appointment, 24 hours ahead by default. Change the timing (up to a week ahead) or set it to 0 to turn reminders off, under Services & hours → Booking rules.
Short-notice bookings: When someone books inside the reminder window, the confirmation counts as the reminder, so they don't get two emails.
Replies: When a customer replies to one of these emails, the reply goes to you: the address in Settings, or your account email.

Appointments booked on WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS also get their reminder there, and the customer can reply OK to confirm or NO to cancel. Confirmed appointments show it on the Appointments tab.

Your inbox: messages and hand-offs

The Inbox tab is where the assistant brings you what needs a person. You also get an email and a notification in the app.

Message taken: A customer asked for a call back or left information for you, with their phone and email. Messages that can't wait are marked Urgent.
Hand-off: A customer asked for a person, complained, or raised something sensitive. The AI stops replying in that chat and tells them someone will get back to them.
Reply: Open the chat and write. Your reply shows in the customer's chat, and the AI stays quiet in that chat until you click Hand back to AI.
Done and Close: Mark an alert Done when you have dealt with it. Close a conversation to file it; its open alerts are resolved too.

When the assistant can't reply at all (it is paused, out of tokens, or the AI fails), the customer gets a polite note and the message comes to your inbox, once per conversation.

Appointments and contacts

The Appointments tab shows a week at a time: the customer, the service, their notes, and where it was booked (chat, booking page or you).

New appointment: Pick a service and a free time, or switch on Any time to book outside your opening hours; it still can't overlap another appointment. Choose a contact or type a new one. They get a confirmation email if you add their email address.
Move or cancel: Use the menu on each appointment. The customer gets an email with the new time or the cancellation.
Completed and no-show: Mark appointments after they happen to keep your records and no-show numbers right.
Contacts: Everyone who books or gives their details is saved on the Contacts tab with notes, appointments and chats. Details typed in a chat fill in missing fields but never overwrite a contact you already have.

Pause, take offline or delete

Pause: The AI stops replying. Customers can still write and book with the form; their messages come to your inbox. Click Resume to turn it back on.
Offline: Switch off Online in Settings to stop the booking page and the website chat, for example while you set things up or close for a holiday. Customers can still cancel with the link in their email.
Delete: Removes the assistant with its services, appointments, contacts and conversations. It can't be undone, and booked customers are not notified.

Plans, limits and billing

Every plan includes the Virtual Assistant. Plans differ in how many assistants you can run and how many customer conversations they handle each month.

Plan	Assistants	Customer conversations a month
14-day free trial	1	100
Basic	1	500
Standard	3	2,000
Premium	5	5,000

Conversations: One conversation is one customer chat. When the monthly limit is reached, the assistant stops answering new chats and passes their messages to you. Booking with the form keeps working.
Tokens: Every AI reply uses tokens from your wallet, like our other agents. The Overview tab shows the tokens used this month. If the wallet runs out, the assistant passes messages to you instead of replying.

Activity Center, webhooks and MCP

Activity Center: Every booking, change, message and reply is logged in the Activity Center next to your other AI agents. Filter by Virtual Assistant, search, and export to CSV.
Webhooks: In Settings → Webhooks, add an https URL and every booking, change, confirmation, message taken and hand-off is POSTed there as JSON, signed with X-AIEkip-Signature (HMAC-SHA256 with your signing secret). Use it to update your CRM or start an AI Ekip automation. Send a test event to check it.
MCP: Manage assistants, services, hours, appointments and the inbox from Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients through the AI Ekip MCP server at api.aiekip.com/mcp.

Privacy and safety

Other customers: The assistant never shows a customer anyone else's appointments or details, whatever they type.
Advice: It gives no medical, legal or financial advice, and tells people to call their local emergency number in an emergency.
Health records: It is not a medical records system. Don't ask customers for health records or ID numbers in the chat.
Chats: A customer's chat can only be opened from their own browser. You see every chat in your inbox.

Troubleshooting

The booking page shows no free times

Check that the service is switched on as Bookable, the day has opening hours, there is no time off, and the minimum notice and booking window allow the date. Times already booked, including the break after each appointment, are not offered.

The chat button doesn't appear on my website

Make sure the code is on every page, just before </body>, and that you published your site after adding it. The assistant must be Online in Settings and your plan active.

A customer didn't get their confirmation

Ask them to check their spam folder, and check the email address on their contact. Appointments you add without an email address don't send emails.

The times are an hour off

Check the timezone in Settings, for example Europe/Istanbul. Opening hours and all times use that timezone.

The assistant gave a wrong answer

It answers from your business information. Add or correct the answer in Settings → Business information, and it will use it from the next message.

Can it use my Google Calendar or Outlook?

Subscribe to your assistant's private calendar address (Services & hours → Calendar) to see every appointment in Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar. Two-way sync, where your own events block free times, is coming soon; until then, add busy times as time off.

Can it answer phone calls?

Yes, on your own Twilio number. Turn on Answer phone calls in the Channels tab: callers talk with the assistant, which answers questions, books, moves or cancels appointments and takes messages. When someone needs a person, it can put them through to your phone. Twilio bills call minutes to your account.

Still stuck? Contact us and tell us which assistant it is about.