How do I …?
Step-by-step guides to everything Harkbell does, with the names of the buttons you will actually press. Search, or browse by what you are trying to get done.
Getting started
From an account to an agent answering for your business.
- Create your Harkbell accountSign up with an email and password, with Google, or with a one-time email link, then create your first business workspace.
- Set up your agent: the setup wizard, step by stepWhat each of the seven setup steps asks for, from the business profile to review and publish, and where to change each answer later.
- Choose your kind of businessPick the trade that matches your business so your agent starts with the right rules, services and questions, and find out who can change it later.
- Test-call your agent before you go liveHear how your agent answers from your browser, before and after you publish, and what a test call uses.
- Publish your agent and go liveWhat Publish does, what to check on the review screen, and how later edits reach callers, including saving a version.
- Share your hosted page and print a QR codeNo website? Give customers a link or a QR code that opens a page where they can talk to your agent from their phone or browser.
- What the Free plan includesWhat you can do on Free, what needs a paid plan, and how to switch from the Plan step or Billing.
Your agent
What it says, how it sounds, and what it knows.
- Change your agent's name, greeting and toneRename your agent, choose Warm, Professional, Concise or Friendly, and rewrite the greeting and closing callers hear.
- Edit your agent's instructionsDescribe your business, set the rules the agent follows, list names it mishears and tell it when to bring in a person.
- Choose your agent's voiceListen to samples, filter by gender, accent, age and style, and save the voice your callers will hear.
- Set the language, background sound and interruptionsTell the agent which language most callers speak, choose how much office sound sits under its voice, and add phrases that do or do not interrupt it.
- Set up keypad options (press 1 for…)Let phone callers press a key to reach your team, leave a message, hear your hours or book, and have the agent announce the options.
- See your agent's version history and restore an earlier versionCompare a saved version with your settings now, and bring an earlier one back if a change made things worse.
- Add your services and pricesList what you offer, how long each takes, what it costs and any deposit, so the agent books the right length and quotes the right price.
- Set your opening hours, holidays and closuresSet the weekly schedule your agent uses to say whether you are open, and add dated closures such as holidays or time away.
- Add knowledge: answers, text and documentsGive your agent the facts callers ask about by writing question-and-answer pairs, adding text sections, or uploading documents.
- Have Harkbell read your websiteAdd your website so the agent can answer from what it already says, choose how much to read, and set how often it re-reads.
- Answer knowledge gaps: questions your agent could not answerSee the questions callers asked that the agent had nothing for, answer them once, and the agent uses the answer from then on.
Phone and website
Where your callers reach it, and how it hands them to you.
- Get a phone number for your agentClaim a real phone number that rings your agent: which plans include one, how to search and connect it, and what to do if you want to change or release it.
- Forward your existing business number to HarkbellPoint the number your clients already call at your agent, for every call or only the ones you miss, with the dial codes for AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, landlines and phone systems.
- Transfer calls to a personSet the number the agent puts callers through to when they ask for a person, limit transfers to opening hours, and tell the agent when to stop and get you involved.
- Add the talk button to your websitePut your agent on your site with a script, an iframe or a link button, style the button, and limit which websites can load it.
- Install the WordPress pluginAdd your Harkbell agent's talk button to a WordPress site: upload the plugin, paste one key, choose the pages, and fix a button that does not appear.
- Call recording and what the agent tells callersChoose whether the agent tells callers it is an AI and that the call is recorded, pick the wording, and find the recording and transcript afterwards.
- What happens when you run out of minutesHow you are warned at 80% and again when your talking minutes are spent, what callers hear in the meantime, and how to get the agent back on air.
Calls and contacts
What it took, who it owes a call, and the calls it makes for you.
- Read call transcripts and summariesFind a call in Conversations, read what was said, play the recording, and filter by channel, assignee or unread.
- Work the callbacks queueFind who needs a call back, assign it, record an attempt, mark it done or dismiss it, and add one by hand.
- Have the agent call someone with a noteWrite a short note and let the agent ring a client, a caller or a contact, deliver it, and report back in Conversations and your notifications.
- Set up reminders before appointmentsRemind clients before their appointment by email, and have the agent also ring them from your own number, with the hours it will and will not call.
- Send one message to many contactsStart a campaign to a list of your own contacts by call and, where connected, WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram, with the limits, pacing and calling hours that apply.
- Find, edit and merge contactsSearch your contact list, add or edit a person, tag them, leave a note for the agent, merge two cards for one person, and delete a contact.
- Import contacts from a CSVBring your client list into Harkbell from a spreadsheet: the columns, the 1,000-row limit, tagging in bulk, and what happens to people already on file.
- Stop the agent calling someoneWhat happens when a person says stop, how to record a do-not-call or consent yourself, and why an offer will not ring someone without consent.
- Read your dashboardWhat each card and number on the Dashboard means: calls answered, minutes used, call outcomes, callbacks due and unanswered questions.
Bookings
The diary, booking requests, and how clients pay a deposit.
- View, add, move and cancel bookings in the diaryUse the Bookings diary to see each day by column, add a booking by hand, move it, mark an arrival or a no-show, and cancel it.
- Add diary columns and set your servicesUnder Bookings › Setup, add a column for each artist, chair or room, list your services with length, price and deposit, and decide what the agent may book.
- Choose how the agent books: live or by requestDecide whether the agent books straight into a diary on the call or takes a request that you confirm. Includes the per-service and per-column overrides.
- Approve or decline booking requestsWhen the agent takes a request instead of a booking, confirm it with one tap from the link in your email, or from the Requests page. Includes what happens if you do nothing.
- Set up deposits and ways to payAdd Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, PayPal, a Stripe or Square link or a bank transfer, set a deposit per service, and hear exactly what the agent will say. Harkbell never takes the money.
- Set up appointment reminders and review requestsUnder Settings › Client messages, turn confirmations, reminders and review requests on or off and choose how long before or after each appointment they go out.
Booking systems and calendars
Square, Calendly, Acuity, Google Calendar, Outlook and Slack.
- Connect Square AppointmentsConnect your Square account so the agent books into Square itself, and your team, services and appointments are mirrored into the Harkbell diary.
- Connect CalendlyConnect Calendly so the agent books callers into your event types, under the names you choose. Booking through Calendly's API needs a paid Calendly plan; a Free account cannot be written to.
- Connect Acuity SchedulingPaste your Acuity User ID and API Key so the agent offers your appointment types and books into Acuity. Needs an Acuity plan that includes API access.
- Connect Google Calendar or Outlook so the agent avoids busy timesConnect a Google or Microsoft account once, pick a calendar for each diary column, and the agent stops offering busy hours while confirmed bookings are copied onto the calendar.
- Get Harkbell alerts in SlackAdd Harkbell to your Slack workspace, choose a channel, and decide which alerts, such as booking requests, urgent messages and call summaries, are posted there.
- Pause or disconnect a booking system or calendarPause bookings to keep your Square, Calendly or Acuity connection while the agent takes requests, or disconnect it. Learn what happens to bookings already mirrored.
Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp
Answering in writing, taking a thread over, and templates.
- Connect Instagram so your agent answers DMsConnect an Instagram professional account in Integrations and your Harkbell agent answers its direct messages, with every reply landing in Conversations.
- Connect Facebook Messenger to your PageShare your Facebook Page with Harkbell and the agent answers its Messenger conversations with your real prices, hours and diary.
- Connect WhatsApp to your agentConnect a WhatsApp number through Meta's sign-up window so your agent answers messages, including a number you already use in the WhatsApp Business app.
- Reply to a message yourself and pause the agentSend a reply in Conversations and the agent steps back for that client. Replies typed in Messenger or the WhatsApp Business app pause it too.
- Write saved replies and Meta messagesCreate saved replies and tappable Meta messages (chips, buttons and cards) that your team sends from the inbox in one tap, with no approval needed.
- Submit a WhatsApp or Messenger template for approvalWrite a WhatsApp template or a Messenger template, submit it for Meta's review and send it once approved. WhatsApp's templates carry messages after the 24-hour window.
Account, team and billing
Your team, your plan, your notifications and your sign-in.
- Invite your team and choose their rolesInvite a teammate by email in Settings › Team, pick a role, resend or revoke invitations, and hand over ownership when you need to.
- Run more than one business or branchAdd another business from the workspace switcher, move between them, and see how many your plan allows before you need to add a branch.
- Choose or change your plan, and top up minutesPick a plan in Settings › Billing, move to another one, add a branch or buy extra minutes for the month. Only an Owner can do this.
- Cancel your plan or ask for a refundCancel from the Stripe billing portal and keep what you paid for until the period ends. A new subscription can be refunded in full within 30 days.
- Choose how Harkbell notifies youSee every alert on the Notifications page, turn on push alerts for your phone or browser, and learn what each kind of alert means in Settings › Notifications.
- Change your password and turn on two-factor sign-inChange your password, add an authenticator-app code to every sign-in, sign out other devices, and see how Google sign-in differs.
- Get back in when you forgot your passwordHarkbell has no reset form: request a one-time sign-in link by email, sign in with it, then set a new password within fifteen minutes.
- Delete your data or close your accountWhat you can delete yourself in Harkbell, and how to ask us to erase contacts, a business or your whole account by email.
Developers and automation
API keys, webhooks and Zapier.
- Create an API keyCreate a key under Settings › Developers to let Zapier, Make, n8n or your own code read events and add contacts and callbacks. It is shown once.
- Send Harkbell events to your own URL with a webhookPoint Harkbell at a public https address, tick the events you want, and verify each delivery's signature with your signing secret.
- Connect Harkbell to ZapierCreate an API key, paste it into Zapier and start Zaps from bookings, callbacks, calls and contacts, or write contacts and callbacks back.
Still stuck?
Write to us and a person who built Harkbell will answer, on working days.