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15 min setup

Up and running
in 15 minutes.

From zero to a fully operational AI agent for your business. Here's exactly how to do it.

6 steps
15 min read
All skill levels
1
Step one

Create your account

Sign up at getchime.ai with your business email. No credit card is needed for setup. Once you've submitted your details, you'll be taken directly to your Chime dashboard — a clean, centralised view of everything your agent is doing for your business.

The signup form takes under two minutes. You'll provide your name, business name, and industry so Chime can pre-configure a few sensible defaults for your agent before you've uploaded a single piece of information.

getchime.ai/signup
Business email required — no credit card needed
Pro tip
Use your business email address — it makes it significantly easier to hand off dashboard access to a team member later on, without any account ownership complications.
2
Step two

Tell Chime about your business

This is where the intelligence begins. Your agent needs to understand what your business does, what it offers, and how it operates before it can represent you. Upload your menu, service list, pricing guide, or paste in your website URL — Chime reads everything and builds an internal knowledge base automatically.

You can provide information in virtually any format. Typed text, PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, photos of physical menus or printed price lists — Chime's document parser handles all of it and extracts the relevant details.

Menu or services list with pricing
Business hours and location details
Your website URL (Chime will scrape it)
Booking policies and FAQs
Pro tip
Don't worry about formatting. A photo of a handwritten menu works just as well as a perfectly structured spreadsheet. Chime's parser is built to handle the messy reality of how small businesses actually keep their information.
3
Step three

Set your tone and boundaries

Choose how your agent sounds — professional, casual, or custom. This is about more than vocabulary: it's about the personality your customers experience when they reach out. You can dial in warmth, formality, and how proactively your agent makes recommendations.

Equally important are your boundaries. Set topics it should always escalate to you — complaints, refund requests, large orders, or anything you need to handle personally. Define your hours so your agent knows when to offer to take a message versus when you're available for live handoff.

Pro tip
Your agent will naturally mirror the way you write. If you want a specific style, paste 3–5 sample responses you'd send yourself — messages you've actually sent to customers before. This calibrates the tone more precisely than any preset option.
4
Step four

Connect your messaging channel

Link your iMessage Business number or WhatsApp Business account. This step takes around five minutes — you'll authenticate with your messaging provider and verify the number you want your agent to use. After the connection is confirmed, your agent is live on that channel and will begin responding to incoming messages immediately.

If you're connecting WhatsApp, you'll need a dedicated phone number registered through Meta's Business Manager. If you're connecting iMessage, you'll need to have completed Apple Business Register verification, which typically takes 2–3 business days if not already done.

Settings → Channels
Connect iMessage, WhatsApp, or both
Pro tip
You can run both iMessage and WhatsApp simultaneously on the Growth and Pro plans. All conversations appear in the same unified dashboard — no need to switch between apps.
5
Step five

Test it like a customer

Before you direct real customers to your new number, test it thoroughly from your personal phone. Send a range of messages — ask about pricing, availability, something unusual, and a question your knowledge base doesn't directly answer. Observe how Chime handles each scenario.

If a response feels off, flag it in the dashboard and add a note about what the correct answer should have been. Chime incorporates your corrections and updates its behaviour. The more you test now, the fewer corrections you'll need to make after going live.

Ask a pricing question your menu covers
Ask about booking availability
Ask something vague or ambiguous
Trigger one of your escalation rules
Pro tip
The more you test, the sharper your agent gets. Think of the first week as a calibration period. Even 10–15 test conversations during setup will meaningfully improve quality before your first real customer arrives.
6
Step six

Share your number

You're live. Now it's time to direct customers to your new Chime number. Update your Instagram bio, your Google Business profile, your website contact page, and any other place where customers currently reach out to you. Replace the old number or add the Chime number as the primary messaging contact.

Consider adding a short line in your bio that tells people what to expect — something like "Message us for availability and bookings — we reply instantly." This sets the right expectation and increases the rate at which people actually message you.

Update Instagram bio link
Update Google Business profile
Update website contact details
Add to printed materials if applicable
Pro tip
If you run paid ads, update your DM call-to-action to your Chime number. Paid traffic converts significantly better when customers can message and get an instant, intelligent reply rather than waiting hours for a response.
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