Onboarding checklist
This is your complete path from signed to live, stage by stage. For each stage you will see who leads it (you or SpiderLabs) roughly how long it takes, and the done-when signal that lets the next stage begin. Nothing touches a real customer call until the final go-live verification passes.
At a glance
- SpiderLabs leads the technical setup; you provide your business’s ground truth and forward the calls you choose.
- Most stages take minutes to a day. The whole launch is typically days, not months.
- Every stage has a clear done-when signal, so you always know where you stand.
- The last stage proves it works, a real test call, a visible transcript, and a captured callback, before any real traffic.
Think of this as the checklist your account team works from during your founder-led launch. It maps the same stages as Getting started, but with the detail you need to know exactly what is expected of you at each step and what marks it done.
Sign and day 0
Led by You sign; SpiderLabs provisionsTypical time: Same dayDay 0 begins the moment your agreement is signed and your first payment clears. This also puts your Business Associate Agreement on file, which is required before any patient information can flow. From there SpiderLabs provisions your account, your dedicated AI phone number, your receptionist, and your dashboard, while you gather the details for the next stage.
You are done when- Your agreement and BAA are on file.
- Your dashboard sign-in works.
Your number and call forwarding
Led by SpiderLabs + your phone providerTypical time: Minutes to a dayYou keep your existing number. SpiderLabs provisions a dedicated AI receptionist number, and your phone system forwards the calls you choose to it: overflow, after-hours, or full coverage. There is no port and no downtime, and the cutover is reversible in minutes. The forwarding change itself takes minutes, though scheduling it with your provider can take up to a day. The full breakdown of forwarding modes is in Phone setup & forwarding.
You are done when- A call to your number reaches the AI receptionist under the coverage rule you chose.
Teaching the assistant your business
Led by You provide; SpiderLabs configuresTypical time: About an hour of inputThe receptionist only sounds like your practice if it knows your practice. You provide the ground truth, your hours, the services you do and do not offer, and answers to the questions customers ask most, and SpiderLabs loads it so voice and web chat give the same answers. You can refine this any time from your dashboard as your services or hours change.
You are done when- A test question about your hours or a service gets the answer you would give.
Inviting your team
Led by YouTypical time: Minutes per teammateAdd the staff who will work the inbox and callback queue, and give each person the right role: owner, admin, member, or viewer. The people you add are the ones who receive callback alerts, so this is also what makes notifications reach a real person. Roles and how to invite are in Team & roles.
You are done when- Each teammate has accepted, signed in, and can see the inbox at the role you chose.
Your dashboard daily rhythm
Led by You and your front deskTypical time: A few minutes, several times a dayOnce you are live, your day runs from the dashboard, and the rhythm is simple: skim the inbox for what the receptionist handled, work the callback queue so nothing sits unseen, and confirm any appointment requests that need a staff decision. Most teams check it a few times a day and clear the queue like a short worklist.
This stage is ongoing- Your callback queue is at zero when every follow-up is handled.
Channels beyond the phone
Led by SpiderLabs enables; you paste the snippetTypical time: MinutesThe phone is the start, not the whole product. A web chat widget, one line of code on your site, answers the same questions in text and lands in the same inbox. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are rolling out; when they are enabled for your account, those messages appear beside your calls and chats. See Channels for what is live today and what is coming, and Image Studio for creating graphics to post.
You are done when- Web chat answers a test question in your dashboard.
- Social channels stay marked rolling out until your account team turns them on.
Practice-management integration
Led by SpiderLabs + you, if applicableTypical time: Part of setupThis stage applies to dental practices on Open Dental. Connecting it lets the receptionist read real availability and, once a booking test passes, write appointments straight into your schedule. Until that test passes, bookings stay callback-first, captured as requests your staff confirm. SpiderLabs generates the key and guides the connection; you paste it into Open Dental, founder-assisted for your first launch. The connection steps and the write-mode gate are in Connecting Open Dental, and the difference between the two modes is in Booking modes.
You are done when- A create/cancel test appointment writes to your schedule and is removed cleanly.
- Or, if you are callback-first, you skipped this stage entirely.
Go-live verification
Led by SpiderLabs runs it; you watchTypical time: One sessionNothing goes live on guesswork. Before your customer traffic moves over, SpiderLabs proves the whole path with you watching: a real call from outside your network reaches the receptionist and appears in your dashboard, its transcript loads, and a follow-up is captured as a callback your team can see. Only when every go-live gate is green does your traffic move.
You are done when- A real outside call reached the receptionist and appeared in your dashboard.
- Its transcript loaded, and a follow-up was captured as a callback your team can see.
- A real staff notification proved to arrive.
Green gates only
Once you are live, keep Troubleshooting handy for the common what-ifs, a missed name, a booking that needs confirmation, or a notification you did not get, and work your dashboard as your daily home base.
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