Last updated: April 2026 · Receptionist, Inc.
What the Business Brain is
The Business Brain is the body of information Aria draws from when answering caller questions. It is plain-language text that you write and maintain from your dashboard under **Settings → Business Brain**. When a caller asks a question, Aria consults the Business Brain, decides whether she has enough information to answer confidently, and either answers directly or tells the caller she will take a message.
The quality of your Business Brain is the single biggest lever you have on how well Aria performs. A thin Business Brain makes Aria cautious and frustrating. A well-written Business Brain makes Aria feel like a receptionist who has been at your business for years.
What to include
At minimum, the Business Brain should cover:
•**Services.** Every service you offer, with a one-sentence description of what it is and roughly how long it takes. Include the price or price range, or explicitly say "pricing varies, please book a consultation" if you prefer not to quote over the phone.
•**Business hours nuances.** Aria already knows your hours from your Business Hours settings, but it helps to explicitly describe any nuances — "we are closed Sundays but return messages Monday morning," or "our last appointment of the day is at 4pm."
•**Location and directions.** Your full address, cross streets, parking instructions, and whether the entrance is where people expect it. Callers ask "where are you located?" constantly.
•**Cancellation and rescheduling policies.** How much notice you require, whether you charge for late cancellations or no-shows, and how customers can reschedule.
•**What to bring or how to prepare.** If customers need to bring anything, arrive early, fill out forms, or do any prep, describe it here.
•**Frequently asked questions.** Anything callers ask that is not covered above. Review your call transcripts weekly for the first month and add anything Aria had to take a message for.
Example — a plumbing business
We are Maple Plumbing, a family-owned plumbing service based in Littleton, Colorado. We serve the south Denver metro area including Highlands Ranch, Centennial, Parker, and Lone Tree. We are open Monday through Saturday, 7 AM to 6 PM. We do not take service calls on Sundays except for true emergencies — for those, we have an after-hours number.
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Our services include drain cleaning, faucet and fixture installation, water heater repair and replacement, toilet repair, leak detection, and full bathroom remodels. Typical service call is $95 for the first hour and $85 per hour after that, plus parts. For emergency after-hours service, we charge $150 for the first hour.
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Our address is 1234 Main Street, Littleton CO 80120. We have a small parking lot behind the building — enter from Alder Avenue, not Main Street.
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If a customer asks for a free estimate, tell them we do free estimates for jobs over $500, and book them for a 30-minute consultation. For smaller jobs, we charge a standard service-call fee even for estimates.
That kind of plain-language description is exactly what Aria needs. No structured fields, no categories, no XML — just natural English that describes your business the way you would describe it to a new employee on their first day.
Keep it current
Update the Business Brain whenever your business changes. Seasonal hours, new services, holiday closures, price changes, new locations — all of these should go into the Business Brain the same day they take effect. Aria reads the latest version on every call, so changes take effect immediately.
The most common reason Aria gives a wrong answer is not that the AI is confused — it is that the Business Brain has not been updated to match the current business reality.