Getting started with Esek

What happens after you sign up, in the order it happens, and how long each step takes. Steps that have their own guide link to it.

1. Sign up

Sign up in the Esek app on iPhone or Android, or at esek.io in a browser. Describe the business in a sentence, or enter your website, and we draft the basics from it. Then check them in one place: the business name, your products and prices, opening hours and location. Fix anything that is off, and create your account with your phone number.

2. Try it from your own phone

Your workspace starts on the Esek test drive number. It answers only phones added for testing, and the phone you signed up with is added for you, so you can message your AI agent straight away. To test from another phone, add it from the Test drive card on the Home screen.

Your customers do not reach the AI yet. That starts when your own number is connected.

3. Connect your WhatsApp Business number

In the app, go to Go live and press Connect WhatsApp. Meta's own window opens: log in with Facebook, pick or create a Business portfolio, pick the number and verify it with a code, then press Finish.

• Have the Facebook login of whoever owns the business on Meta.
• Do not use the number you sign in to Esek with.
• Number on the WhatsApp Business app (version 2.24.17 or later)? Keep it. You connect by scanning a QR code and keep using the app alongside Esek. Up to 6 months of chat history comes across once you approve sharing it.
• Number on personal WhatsApp? Move it to WhatsApp Business first. It is free and keeps your chats.
• Meta may offer business verification along the way. Connecting does not need it, and it can be done later.

Step by step, and what to do when Meta's window gets stuck: Connecting WhatsApp Business. No spare line: Getting a number for your business.

Instagram and Messenger connect from the same Go live screen.

4. Answer calls with the AI secretary

Your phone keeps ringing first. When nobody answers, the call forwards to Esek and the AI secretary picks up. Setup happens in the app:

1. Switch on the AI phone line, a monthly item paid from your balance.
2. Add your business number and verify it with a code by SMS or voice call.
3. Start forwarding setup. The line gets its own forwarding number, usually within a few minutes. When one has to be set up by hand, our team does it, usually within one business day.
4. On the business phone, dial the forwarding codes shown in the app, or ask your carrier to forward unanswered calls.
5. Let a test call ring unanswered if you like, then choose when the AI secretary answers: Always on, or Business hours.

You need a phone line whose carrier allows forwarding of unanswered calls. Your carrier may charge for forwarded calls. Guide: Setting up call forwarding.

5. Teach the AI about your business

What you checked at signup is the starting point. Add to it whenever you like:

• Read your website for answers to common questions, then keep the drafts you want.
• Upload documents, or choose them from Google Docs.
• Import products and services from a CSV file or a Google Sheet.
• Import contacts from a CSV or vCard file.

See Integrations and implementation for calendars, payments, invoicing and other connections.

6. Go live

Once your own number is connected, customer messages to it land in Esek and the AI answers them. Once forwarding is on, unanswered calls reach the AI secretary. Every conversation is in your inbox, and you can reply yourself at any time.

7. Timeline at a glance

8. Help along the way

Guided setup call. Free, one per workspace. A member of our team sets everything up with you, live, at a time you pick in the app: the number, templates, opening hours and your service menu. Sign in to your account to book it. Useful to have ready:

• A phone number for WhatsApp: one not registered on WhatsApp, or one you are willing to move over.
• A Facebook account with a Meta Business portfolio. We can create the portfolio together on the call.
• Your payment provider details, if you want to take payments.
• An export from your current system, if you are moving from one: contacts, customer notes and products as a CSV, Excel or vCard file.

Support. Message us on WhatsApp from any page on esek.io, or email info@esek.io. More answers in the FAQ.

9. What it costs to start

Esek is free, and signing up and testing need no payment method. Usage beyond the weekly free allowance, and monthly items such as the AI phone line, are paid from a prepaid balance. See the prices.