Getting started: your first five steps
Getting started
FirstFiveMin answers a new lead in the first five minutes: you get a claim window to call first, and if you cannot, the AI assistant calls, qualifies, and books onto your calendar. Setup takes about fifteen minutes. The Getting started card on your Leads page tracks these steps from your real account state and disappears when they are all done.
1. Finish the setup wizard and activate
The wizard (Setup) walks through Business → Plan → Agent → Hours → Number → Activate. On the last step press Activate. Until you do, the assistant does not act on any lead, and a red banner on every page says so.
- The Business step asks only what the assistant needs: your industry, your business name, the name leads see, and your time zone. The texting registration details (legal name, EIN, website, contact, policy links) sit under Needed for your own texting number — folded, because you can do them later; calls work right away and texting on your own number activates once the carriers approve.
- The Number step starts with the FirstFiveMin shared number when the platform has one: tick I understand, then "Continue with the FirstFiveMin shared number for now". Calls and texts go out from it until you add your own — getting your own number is right below.
Where your leads come from
After the Number step the wizard asks Where do your leads come from? Pick every place new customers reach you (My website, No website, Lead emails, Ads, My phone line) and press Save and set them up. Each pick shows its setup right there: your own link with a Copy button, the address to forward your lead emails to, or the door to forwarding the calls you miss. Then send yourself a test lead through one of them: open your link on your phone and send a request with your own name and number, forward one lead email, or call your business number from another phone.
The wizard says You are live only after a lead has actually come in. Until then it says Almost there — send your first test lead, and a red notice on every page says no lead source is connected; it disappears the moment a lead arrives. A test lead made with the console's Send a test lead button checks your alerts, but it does not count here, because it does not come in through one of your sources.
2. Connect your calendar
On Calendar → Calendar sync, press Connect Google or Connect Outlook. Busy time on that calendar blocks your openings, and every booked appointment is copied out. FirstFiveMin always keeps the full record even if the sync fails.
3. Set your working hours
On Calendar → Your working hours, pick a template or set each day. These are the only hours the assistant may offer a lead. Set the appointment length, the gap between appointments, and the minimum notice.
4. Teach the assistant your business
On Settings → What your AI knows, press Import from my site or add facts by hand. When the assistant knows your services, area, and price ranges, its answers get specific; when it does not know something it says so and offers to book.
5. Run a test lead
Place your lead form (Get leads → Embed snippet) or open your short link, submit it with your own phone number, and let the claim window expire. The assistant will call you. Then open Conversations to read the transcript and see the booking it made. This is the fastest way to see the whole flow and to hear your greeting as a lead hears it.
Hear it now
The last setup screen offers Hear it now. Call my phone has your assistant call your verified cell from the number your leads see, with the same greeting and the same rules as a real call; answer it and talk as a lead would. It is a test: it is not a lead, it is not billed, and it ends by itself after five minutes. If your cell is not verified yet, the screen offers Verify my cell instead. Talk in the browser opens the same test from the Leads page.
Your setup checklist
On every page, a blue Finish setting up card lists what is left — turn on your assistant, add your phone number, connect where your leads come from, add your cell — with how many are done and about how many minutes remain. Each row opens the exact screen. A row disappears the moment that step is real, and the whole card goes away when they are all done. A red notice is kept for things that are actually wrong, such as a limited account, a calendar that stopped syncing, or texts that are failing.
Act from the alert
When a new-lead alert reaches your phone, tap its link: it opens one screen for that lead with three big buttons — Call, Text and I'll take it — and no login. Call and Text open your phone's own phone and messages with the lead's number ready. I'll take it claims the lead so the assistant does not call them; tapping it twice changes nothing. Opening the link on its own never claims anything. If the lead has asked not to be contacted, the Call and Text buttons are not shown. The link works for seven days.
Today and the bottom bar
On your phone, a bar along the bottom has five tabs: Today, Leads, Calendar, Share and More (More opens the full menu). Today shows what needs you now: leads to claim, with Call, Text and I'll take it; recent leads to call or text back; today's appointments; and your assistant. Pause it for today switches the assistant off and turns it back on by itself when your calling hours open again; while it is paused, new leads wait for you and the assistant will not call or text them. Turn it back on ends a pause early. Share has your page and your card, each with Open and Copy link. The menu (on the left on a computer, behind More on a phone) is sorted into three groups: Every day (Today, Leads, Calendar, Conversations, Your assistant, Lead sources and Reports), Your setup and Your account. Get leads, My card and Revive are reached through Lead sources.
Customize Today. At the bottom of Today, Customize Today lets you show or hide each card and move it up or down, or go back to the standard layout. It is saved for you only (a helper on your account keeps their own), it follows you to any device, and hiding a card hides no alert - it only changes what you see on that page. At least one card always stays shown.
Where you land
After you sign in you land on Today, the first item in the menu on a computer and the first tab on a phone. Callers who asked for a person and are still waiting for one come first on Today, each with Call, Text and Handled; press Handled once you have called them back or dealt with it.
What we call things
Your account now uses plain names. Your head start is what these help pages call the *claim window*: the minutes you get to call a new lead yourself before the assistant does. An AI conversation is a conversation the assistant actually has with a person — a call that connects or an inbound call it answers — and the number your plan counts. After-hours texting is the *Night Window*: the after-hours chat that replaces your form on your page while calling is closed. Text registration is *A2P / 10DLC*: the carrier registration that lets your number send texts. These help pages keep the technical names so you can match them with other guides.
Explore before you pay
You can set up the whole product without a plan: the wizard's plan step has Set up first, pay when you are ready, and the calendar, working hours, your lead form, settings and the knowledge base all work. Leads you capture are stored and you are alerted. Nothing expires and nothing is deleted. A reminder email arrives after 3, 7 and 14 days with the link to the plan step, and the notice at the top of every page says the same until you activate. Activating turns the AI on and starts your plan.
## Where your account stands Your account is in one of five states:
- Trial — a new account starts a free trial with no card: the assistant works your leads on the shared number for 7 days or 10 AI conversations, whichever comes first.
- Trial ended — the trial is over and no plan is chosen yet: setup keeps working and your leads are stored and you are alerted, but the assistant does not call or text anyone.
- Not started — no trial and no plan: the same as a trial that has ended.
- Paid — the assistant works your leads within your plan.
- Paused — you pressed Pause it for today: new leads wait for you, and the assistant turns back on by itself when your calling hours open again.
What FirstFiveMin is (and isn't)
FirstFiveMin is an automated responder, not a phone system. Not a phone system. The number you get from FirstFiveMin — or the shared FirstFiveMin number you start on — is a lead line, not a phone. Leads call and text it; the assistant answers, and it rings your own phone first when you want it to. You cannot dial out or type a text from it, and there is no inbox. Your phone, your carrier and your existing numbers stay exactly as they are — forward them here if you like, and take your FirstFiveMin number with you if you ever leave. When a lead calls, texts or fills out a form, the assistant answers, qualifies, books or takes a message, and hands the conversation to you. Nobody — not you, not us — can place a call or type a text from FirstFiveMin: every call and every text is triggered by a lead's own action and passes the consent, quiet-hours and opt-out checks first.
Common problems
- The banner says "not activated": open Setup and press Activate on the last step.
- No text alerts arrive: check the My cell field on Settings, and that text registration is not still pending on the Phone numbers page.
- The assistant never called your test lead: it only calls inside your calling hours and never outside the legal calling window for the lead's area. Try during business hours, and confirm the claim window has expired.