Opening a new location means a long list of setup tasks, and the phone line is easy to treat as an afterthought—until the first week of missed calls makes it obvious it shouldn't have been. Magicdesk AI can be live at a new location quickly, but a rushed setup leads to wrong hours, missing FAQs, and awkward escalations in the first weeks. This checklist walks through what to configure in Magicdesk AI before launch, what to test during a pilot period, and what to review once real calls start coming in.

Whether you're opening your first location or your fifteenth, the same core sequence applies. Use this alongside our guide to custom greetings for seasonal promotions if your launch coincides with a seasonal push, and our guide to backup plans during an outage to understand what happens if anything goes wrong on day one.

Before Launch: What to Load Into Magicdesk AI

Everything Magicdesk AI says on day one comes from what you've configured beforehand. Rushing this stage is the most common cause of an uneven first few weeks.

• Hours of operation: including any differences for holidays or seasonal schedules.
• Location-specific FAQs: parking, accessibility, directions, and anything unique to this site.
• Services or products offered: especially if they differ from other locations in your business.
• Pricing language: only what you're prepared to state confidently—Magicdesk AI should never guess at pricing.
• Escalation contacts: who gets the call when something needs a human, and their availability windows.
• Greeting script: tailored to this location's brand voice and any local details.

Setting Up the Phone Line Itself

Number porting or provisioning

Decide whether Magicdesk AI is answering a brand-new number or an existing line being ported over. Number porting has its own timeline that's worth planning around your launch date rather than assuming it happens instantly.

Call forwarding and routing rules

Confirm how calls reach Magicdesk AI—direct answering, overflow from a existing line, or after-hours only to start. Many locations ease into full coverage rather than switching everything over on day one.

Integration connections

If this location uses a POS system, scheduling calendar, or other tool Magicdesk AI needs to connect to, get that wired up before launch rather than during it. See our guide to AI receptionist integration with POS systems for what to check during this step.

Testing Before You Go Live

Before real customers call, run through the scenarios Magicdesk AI is most likely to face at this location. A short internal test round catches obvious gaps before they become customer-facing problems.

1. Call in and listen to the full greeting for accuracy and tone.
2. Ask the most common questions this location gets and confirm Magicdesk AI answers correctly.
3. Test an escalation scenario and confirm the right person actually gets notified.
4. Verify hours display and after-hours behavior are both correct.
5. Check that any POS or calendar integration returns accurate, current data.
6. Have a team member unfamiliar with the setup try to "break" it with an odd question.

Consent and Compliance Basics Before You Launch

If this location will use Magicdesk AI for text confirmations or reminder calls, get consent language squared away before launch rather than adding it later. See our guide to SMS consent and opt-in best practices for what to build into your scripts from day one, and our guide to outbound calling for reminders and follow-ups if this location plans to place reminder calls.

The First Two Weeks: What to Review

Launch day isn't the finish line—the first couple of weeks of real call transcripts tell you far more than any amount of pre-launch testing. Set aside time to review how Magicdesk AI is actually performing against real customer questions, not just the scenarios you anticipated.

• Sample a batch of transcripts daily during week one, then a few times a week after that.
• Track how often calls escalate and whether those escalations were actually necessary.
• Note any question Magicdesk AI couldn't answer confidently and add it to the FAQ set.
• Confirm the team member receiving escalations is actually seeing and acting on them.

This tuning period is where a lot of the long-term value gets locked in—see our guide to measuring first-call resolution for how to turn this review process into an ongoing metric rather than a one-time check.

Planning the Launch Like Any Other Business Milestone

Opening a new location involves dozens of moving pieces, and the phone line deserves the same structured planning as inventory, staffing, and signage. The Small Business Administration publishes general checklists for opening a new location that cover many of the same sequencing principles worth applying to a Magicdesk AI rollout—get the foundational pieces (hours, contacts, core information) locked down first, then layer in refinements once the location is actually operating.

It's also worth thinking about your new location's phone number itself. If you're porting an existing number rather than provisioning a new one, that process has a timeline of its own—the Federal Communications Commission outlines general consumer protections around number porting that are useful background, and it's worth building that timeline into your launch plan well ahead of opening day rather than assuming it happens instantly.

Rolling Out to Multiple Locations

If you're standardizing Magicdesk AI across several sites, resist the urge to copy one location's configuration exactly onto another. Hours, local FAQs, and escalation contacts almost always differ even within the same brand. Build a base template you reuse for consistency, then customize the location-specific details for each site individually before it goes live.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get Magicdesk AI live at a new location?

Many businesses can have Magicdesk AI answering calls within days once hours, FAQs, and escalation contacts are ready; more complex integrations like POS or scheduling connections can extend that timeline somewhat.

Should we run Magicdesk AI as overflow before switching over fully?

Many businesses do exactly that—starting with after-hours or overflow coverage, reviewing transcripts, then expanding to full-time answering once the team trusts the configuration.

What's the most commonly missed step in a new location setup?

Location-specific FAQs are the most frequently overlooked item—teams often reuse a generic script and forget to add the details unique to the new site, like parking instructions or a different service menu.

Launch Your Next Location with Magicdesk AI

A new location deserves a phone line that's ready on day one, not one that's still being figured out during the first busy week. Work through this checklist before you flip the switch, and Magicdesk AI will be ready to answer real calls accurately from the start. Talk to the Magicdesk AI team about setting up your next location today.