From creating your account to having a live AI receptionist on your website takes about 15 minutes. This guide walks through every step so you know exactly what to expect — and how to get the most out of it from day one.
No credit card is required to start. Every plan comes with a 14-day free trial.
Step 1: Create your account
Head to hellomaggie.com.au and click Start free trial. You can sign up with your Google account or an email and password — whichever you prefer.
Once you're in, you'll be taken straight to the setup wizard. This is where you give Maggie the information she needs to represent your business accurately.
Step 2: The setup wizard
The wizard walks you through six steps. It's designed to be completed in one sitting — most people get through it in 10–12 minutes. Everything you enter here becomes the knowledge base your AI works from, so take a few extra minutes to be specific rather than vague.
Step 1 of 6: Business details
Enter your business name, business type, suburb or city, and phone number. The business type helps Maggie understand your context — a physio clinic and a law firm field very different questions, and this setting shapes how she handles edge cases.
Step 2 of 6: Business hours
Set your opening hours for each day of the week. Maggie uses these to give accurate answers when visitors ask "are you open now?" or "what time do you close on Fridays?" — questions that come up constantly. If you're closed on certain days, leave those blank.
Step 3 of 6: Services and pricing
List your services with brief descriptions and prices where you're comfortable sharing them. This is the most important step to get right. Specific information leads to specific answers — if you write "massage" you'll get generic responses; if you write "60-minute remedial massage targeting neck and back tension — $95" you'll get responses that actually help.
If your pricing varies by job (common for tradies and project-based work), write a realistic range or note that pricing depends on the scope and Maggie will quote accordingly.
Step 4 of 6: FAQs
Add the questions you get asked most often — written the way customers actually ask them, not the way you'd phrase them on a brochure. Think about your last week of enquiries: what did people ask? Common ones include cancellation policies, parking, whether you bulk bill, how long appointments take, whether you work with specific insurance, and what to expect on a first visit.
Each FAQ you add is one less question that falls through the cracks at 9pm on a Sunday.
Step 5 of 6: Booking link
Paste in your online booking URL — whether that's Calendly, Cliniko, HotDoc, Timely, Fresha, Acuity, or any other system. When a visitor is ready to book, Maggie will send them directly there. If you don't have online bookings, you can skip this step and Maggie will direct people to call or email instead.
Step 6 of 6: Widget appearance
Choose a brand colour for your widget and write your opening greeting message. The colour should match your website — visitors will notice if the widget looks out of place. For the greeting, keep it short and welcoming. Something like "Hi! I'm [name], the virtual receptionist for [Business]. How can I help you today?" works well.
You can also give Maggie a custom display name here — many businesses use a name that matches their brand rather than "Maggie".
Step 3: Install the widget on your website
After completing the wizard you'll land on the installation page. There's a single line of code — copy it, then paste it into your website's footer. That's it.
The steps vary slightly depending on your platform:
- WordPress: Use a plugin like Insert Headers and Footers, paste the script into the Footer section, and save.
- Squarespace: Go to Settings → Advanced → Code Injection → Footer and paste the script there.
- Wix: Open your site editor, go to Settings → Custom Code, and add the script to the body of all pages.
- Webflow: In your project settings under Custom Code, paste the script into the Footer Code section.
- Shopify: Edit your theme's
theme.liquidfile and paste the script before</body>. - Custom HTML site: Paste the script directly before the closing
</body>tag on any page you want the widget to appear.
Once the script is on your site, the widget goes live immediately. Open your website in a browser and you should see it in the corner.
Your dashboard
Once you're set up, your dashboard gives you a live view of everything happening on your website. Here's a quick overview of what's available.
Leads
Every time a visitor shares their name and contact details during a conversation, a lead is automatically created and added to your pipeline. The leads page uses a Kanban board with four columns: New, Called, Booked, and Not interested. Drag leads across columns as you follow up to keep track of where each one is at.
Conversations
The conversations page shows every chat session your widget has had. Click any conversation to read the full transcript. This is useful for spotting gaps in your knowledge base — if Maggie gave a vague answer to a question you see repeatedly, add a specific FAQ for it.
Analytics
The analytics page shows your conversation and lead volume over the last 30 days, average messages per conversation, lead conversion rate, device breakdown, and traffic sources. This helps you understand where visitors are coming from and which channels are driving the most engaged traffic.
Settings
The settings page is where you can update your business name, retrieve your widget install code if you need it again, configure lead notification emails, and optionally set up a webhook to push lead data to another system. The widget live preview on the right lets you see changes in real time before anything goes live on your site.
Optional: proactive messages and quick replies
These two features are off by default but worth turning on once you've got the basics running.
Proactive message bubble
Instead of sitting quietly in the corner, the widget can send a proactive message to visitors after a few seconds on the page — something like "Got questions? I'm here to help." This significantly increases the number of visitors who start a conversation, particularly on high-intent pages like your services or pricing page.
Quick replies
Quick replies are buttons that appear when the widget opens — common questions visitors can tap rather than type. Things like "What are your fees?", "How do I book?", or "Are you available today?" make it easier for visitors to get started, especially on mobile. You configure these in your knowledge base settings.
A few things worth knowing
- Keep your knowledge base current. If you change your hours, add a service, or update pricing, update the knowledge base to match. Outdated information leads to outdated answers.
- Test it yourself. Open your website as a visitor would and ask the questions your customers ask. Gaps in the knowledge base show up quickly this way.
- Check the conversations tab regularly. The full transcripts tell you what visitors are actually asking. Use that to improve your FAQs over time.
- Notification emails keep you responsive. Enable lead notifications in settings so you're alerted as soon as someone leaves their details — faster follow-up means more conversions.
The businesses that get the most out of Hello Maggie aren't the ones with the fanciest websites — they're the ones who took the time to write a thorough knowledge base and check in on their conversations.