Set up your business

Right after you sign up, a short setup opens at /dashboard/welcome. It asks for your business, how we reach you, your team, your voice and your email choices. Every step but the last can be skipped, and the dashboard opens either way.

Before you start

• You arrive here signed in, straight from Create your account.

• The setup belongs to the people who manage the business: the account owner and every Admin. A Member who opens it is taken to the dashboard.

How the setup looks

On your first arrival, the setup opens with the keypad mark on a black screen. Then each step shows a title, one line under it, its fields, and its doors: Back (from the second step on), Skip, and the step's main door. A row of dots under the column shows how far you are. On a wide screen, the right half plays a slow picture of the dashboard. On a phone, the column takes the whole width.

Step 1: Set up your business

The step reads Set up your business, with "Choose how your business appears in The Call Guy".

1. Check Business name. It is filled in from sign-up, with your business's initials beside it.

2. Choose your Industry: Automotive dealership, Automotive service, Dental & healthcare, Home services, Real estate, Fitness & wellness, Retail, or Another industry.

3. On the account owner's own login, choose Customers on your list (optional): Under 500, 500 to 1,500, 1,500 to 5,000 or 5,000 or more.

4. Type your Website (optional) if you have one. A bare address is fine: the setup adds the "https://".

5. Select Continue. It reads Saving… while it saves.

The step needs a business name and an industry. Without them it says, for example, "Choose your industry to continue."

With 5,000 or more customers, or with Several locations chosen at sign-up, a line under the list size offers a twenty-minute walk-through with The Call Guy team, the quickest way to plan your first campaign and the bundle that fits. Select Book a walk-through to pick a time in a new tab, or carry on with the setup. Your list size is saved on your account when you select Continue, and the team hears about it when a walk-through was offered.

Step 2: How we reach you

The step reads How we reach you, with "Your phone number and time zone".

1. Read Your phone number. The number you gave at sign-up shows on one line: "We'll reach you at" your number, or "We'll reach you and ring callbacks at" your number when callbacks ring this phone too.

2. To use another number, select Change, then type it after the +1. A note under the field can read "The number you signed up with." and "Customers who call you back ring this phone too, until you choose another number in your dashboard."

3. Check Business time zone. It is filled in from the province you chose at sign-up. Choose another if your business keeps a different clock.

4. Select Continue.

• The number must be a ten-digit Canadian number. Otherwise the step says "Enter your ten-digit phone number to continue." or "Enter a Canadian phone number to continue."

• Without a time zone, the step says "Choose your business's time zone to continue."

• While your business has no callback number yet, this phone becomes the first one. See Callback numbers and where calls ring.

• On the account owner's own login, a number changed here also becomes Your mobile in Settings, Profile.

• This step finishes the setup of your business: a business name, an industry, a time zone and a callback number. See Your business's time zone.

Step 3: Invite teammates

The step reads Invite teammates, with "Bring your team in to run campaigns with you".

1. Type one or more email addresses in Invitations. Put commas, spaces or new lines between them.

2. Select Send invitations. It reads Sending… while they go out.

• Everyone invited here joins as a Member. To invite an Admin, use Team. See Invite your team.

• An address that could not be invited stays in the box, with the reason.

• What you typed stays in the box if you reload the page, until it is sent.

Step 4: Get your campaign line (only sometimes)

This step shows only when a campaign line number can be bought for your account at that moment and you hold none yet. It reads Get your campaign line, with "One local number for every campaign you send", and three rows: Callbacks ring your phone, Every call matched to its campaign ("Calls to your campaign line. Counts calls to that number only.") and One number on every campaign.

1. Select Choose a number.

2. Search by area code or city, and select a number from the list.

3. Read the line under the list. It gives the price before anything is bought: $10 a month for the number, on a monthly invoice.

4. Select Get this number. It reads Getting your number… while it works.

• If your industry is Automotive dealership, one more field follows: Your CRM's lead address (optional), with "Callbacks and text replies on your new number go there as leads your CRM can read." Type the address and select Continue, or leave it blank. See Send leads to your CRM.

• Select Skip to go on without a number. You can get one later from Campaign line in the sidebar. See Get a number.

Step 5: Add your voice

The step reads Add your voice, with "Choose the voice your customers hear", and three rows: Your voice or your team's, House voices, ready now and Hear it before anything sends.

1. Select Record my voice to record once the setup is done, or Skip to choose a voice later. A house voice can be picked inside your first campaign.

• Record my voice records nothing yet. It decides where Finish takes you: the voice library, with the recorder open.

• Recording your voice needs credits on your balance. With none, the step says "Recording your voice opens once credits are on your balance, so Finish takes you to bundles first."

• See Record your own voice and The house voices.

Step 6: Stay in the loop

The step reads Stay in the loop, with "Choose the emails you get from us". There is no Skip here.

1. Set the two switches: Getting-started emails (on at first) and Product updates (off at first).

2. Select Finish. It reads Finishing….

• The switches save your choice with your login. If the save fails, a note says "Your email choices couldn't be saved just now. Try again."

• If you chose Record my voice, Finish opens the voice library's recorder instead of the home. With no credits, it opens Billing on the bundles.

Come back to it later

1. Open your setup checklist in the corner of the dashboard. Or select Help in the top bar, then Getting started.

2. Select Finish setting up your business.

• Back moves to the step before. It saves nothing and undoes nothing.

• When nothing is left to do, the setup's address takes you straight to the dashboard.

The business profile page

/dashboard/setup holds the same details on a light page called Business profile. While the setup is not finished, your business's page in Settings says "Your setup isn't finished", and its Finish setup opens this page. For a store in a dealer group, the setup checklist opens this page too.

1. Let's get started ("Tell us about your business."): Business name, Industry and Website. Select Continue.

2. How it goes out ("Your time zone and the phone your callbacks ring."): the callback number and Business time zone. Select Finish setup.

3. Your business profile: the Business and Delivery rows, each with Edit, then Start a campaign myself and Build it with us.

• Save for later saves what you typed and keeps you on the step.

• A Member reads the profile and cannot change it: "An admin can update these details."

Good to know

• Nothing in the setup is required before the dashboard opens.

• Your business's time zone is the clock every campaign goes out on.

• Two steps act at once: invitations are emailed when you send them, and a number you get is billed monthly. The other steps only save your answers.

Related

• Create your account

• Your setup checklist

• Send your first campaign

• Your profile and your store's details

• What the campaign line is

• Email preferences