How to set up, test and launch your AI customer service agent today

It is 9:40 on a Tuesday night. Someone is on your website with a question you have answered a hundred times, and your phone line went to voicemail three hours ago. They will not wait until morning. They will try the next business on the list.

Can you really set it up yourself and have it answering today? Yes. You can set up your own Guru, by yourself, and have it answering your website, your email and your phone today. No developer, no sales call, no credit card. Below is exactly what happens, what it costs, and the two channels that take a few days longer, so nothing surprises you.

Step 1: Give it your website (a few minutes)

You enter three things: your website, your name and your work email. We send a 6-digit code to confirm the email. If your email is not at your website's domain, we ask you to prove the site is yours; the easiest way is to paste the one line of chat-widget code, which installs your Guru and proves ownership at the same time.

Then your Guru reads your website. A typical small site, under 50 pages, takes about five minutes. Larger sites take longer, roughly an hour or more for every 1,000 pages, and you do not have to watch: we email you when it is ready.

Step 2: Make it yours (about three minutes)

You choose a password, then give your Guru a name, colors, a greeting and up to four starter questions your visitors can tap. We draft its job instructions from your own site, and you edit what you like. Everything here uses sensible defaults, so you can launch first and fine-tune later.

Step 3: Test it before your customers do (about 15 minutes)

Before anyone else sees it, chat with it privately: your console shows a picture of your own website with your real Guru on it, so you can open the chat and try it exactly as a customer would. Ask it the questions your customers ask most, a few hard ones, and two or three it should not be able to answer. Check that it answers from your own content, that it says so when it cannot find an answer, and that it hands off on the topics your Instructions send to a person. Every test conversation appears in your Chat Dashboard. If an answer is wrong or missing, fix it on your website, in a Knowledge File or in the Instructions, then re-index. Our guide How to build the most accurate customer service agent shows what to prepare.

Step 4: Your website (one line, or no code at all)

Add one line of code to your site. On WordPress or WooCommerce, install our plugin instead, with no code. On Shopify, turn on our app under Themes, Customize, App embeds. Squarespace, Webflow, Wix and most other platforms are covered step by step in our admin guide. (One catch: Wix allows custom code only on a Premium plan with a connected domain.)

Step 5: Your email (minutes)

Your Guru gets a private inbox address of its own. Forward your support email to it, from Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or any provider, and your Guru replies to every message. There is nothing to install, no mailbox password to share and no DNS to change. If you want replies to come from your own domain rather than ours, add a few DNS records; they usually take effect in 5 to 30 minutes. When a teammate replies in a thread, the Guru steps aside.

Step 6: Your phone (minutes, with one requirement)

Your phone line runs on your own Twilio account, so you keep the number and Twilio bills you directly. You need a Twilio account with a payment method on file. Then you connect it once from our console with Twilio's secure sign-in, and we get you a new number by area code (about $1.15 a month in the US, plus usage), or you move a number you already have in Twilio. Click "Start answering on this number," and calls are answered right away.

What takes a few days longer

Text messages. US carriers require every business that texts customers to register. We file the registration with Twilio for you: you enter your business details and add our ready-made texting and privacy wording to three pages of your site. Approval of your business usually comes within 1 to 3 days, and of the texting campaign typically in 2 to 3 days, occasionally up to a week. Carrier fees are about $19.50 once and $1.50 to $10 a month.

WhatsApp. You need a Facebook account that can manage your business on Meta and a phone number that can receive a verification code. You can create the WhatsApp Business account inside Meta's own sign-up window. Meta's review also typically takes 1 to 3 days; once connected, your Guru answers WhatsApp messages immediately.

What it costs

Every channel is free for 7 days with no card, or 14 days if you add a card (nothing is charged until the trial ends). After that, plans are priced per channel, starting at $95 a month on Starter for up to 100 pages and 1,000 chats a month across all channels. Web, email and phone together on Starter come to $285 a month, plus what Twilio charges you for the number and calls. Paying annually saves 25 percent, you can cancel any time, and if it is not for you, ask within your first 90 days and every subscription payment is refunded in full.

What it will and will not do on day one

• It answers from your published information. When it cannot find an answer, it says so instead of guessing.
• It hands off to a person on every channel: on the phone, by bringing your live agent into the call during the hours you set; in chat, email, text and WhatsApp, with a link to Live Connect, our free live-agent app, whenever one of your agents is signed in.
• It answers text channels in over 100 languages; phone lines speak English, Spanish, French, German, Italian or Portuguese.
• It starts on defaults. The best Gurus get a little tuning in their first week, from the questions real customers actually ask.

Prefer a hand?

You do not have to do any of this alone. If you would rather have someone walk you through it, or simply do it for you, contact our team. We are glad to help with any part of your onboarding, from preparing your content to connecting your phone line, and there is no such thing as a question too small.

My view: the hardest part of this is not the setup. It is deciding to stop letting the 9:40 p.m. question go unanswered. The setup takes less time than reading this guide did.