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What an AI receptionist is
An AI receptionist is a voice assistant that answers your practice's phone calls the way a trained receptionist would. It greets callers by your practice name, tells them they're speaking with an AI assistant, works out why they're calling and then does something useful about it: books the appointment, answers the question, takes a proper message or puts the call through to a person.
It isn't a phone tree. Callers don't press 1 for bookings or sit through a menu of options. They talk normally, and it talks back in a calm, natural voice. It isn't voicemail either. Nothing waits in an inbox until someone has time to listen to it.
Behind the scenes, it's set up around your practice: your services and appointment types, your opening hours, your fees and policies, the questions your front desk answers every day, and your rules for what counts as urgent. You approve all of it before it takes a single call.
What it handles on a normal day
Most calls to a practice fall into a handful of types. An AI receptionist is built to handle each of them properly, and to know when a call needs a person.
New bookings
It checks your calendar or practice management system for free appointments that match what the caller needs, offers a couple of options and books the one they choose. It follows your rules for appointment lengths, buffers, which practitioner sees what, and how far ahead people can book. The caller gets an SMS confirmation straight away.
Reschedules and cancellations
Existing patients and clients can move or cancel an appointment without waiting on hold. It confirms who they are, finds the booking, offers new times and updates your calendar. If you charge for late cancellations, it explains your policy in your words.
Messages and enquiries
When a call needs a person, it takes a message worth reading: the caller's name and number, what they need, how urgent it is and when they're free for a call back. Your team receives it as a short, clear summary instead of a rushed voicemail.
Common questions
Opening hours, fees, where you are, where to park, whether you bulk bill, what to bring to a first appointment. It answers from the information you've approved, and it says so when it doesn't know.
Urgent calls
You decide what urgent means for your practice. When a call matches those rules, it puts the caller straight through to your team or an on-call phone. If no one answers, it takes a detailed message and alerts you by SMS. For anything life-threatening, it tells the caller to hang up and call 000.
- 10:52pmChest pain. Told to call 000, on-call GP notifiedEscalated
- 6:12pmStandard consult with Dr NguyenMon 9:00am
- 7:40pmSkin check, new patientTue 2:30pm
- 9:05pmChild immunisationMon 11:15am
- 6:48pmRepeat script request for Dr NguyenFor nurse
- 8:21pmTest results query, callback requestedCallback
- 7:02pmSaturday opening hoursAnswered
- 11:30pmParking and wheelchair accessAnswered
Why practices miss calls
Missed calls are rarely anyone's fault. They tend to happen in the same three places.
The first is when the front desk is busy with someone in front of them. A patient is checking in, someone is paying, a client has a question at the counter. The phone rings out, and the caller tries the next practice on their list.
The second is after hours. People call when they get a moment: before work, in a lunch break, after the kids are in bed. If they reach voicemail, many hang up without leaving a message, and the ones who do often leave half a phone number.
The third is the peak. Monday mornings, school holidays, the week before Christmas, the first cold snap of winter. One person can only take one call at a time, so the rest wait on hold, ring back later or give up.
An AI receptionist answers in all three situations, and it can take more than one call at once. Your team still takes the calls they want to take. It picks up the rest.
Hear it answer a call the way it would for your practice
Pick a scenario and run an example call in your browser. The transcript shows as it goes.
How it sounds to callers
The worry we hear most is that it will sound robotic. Modern voice AI doesn't sound like the automated systems most people are used to. It speaks in full sentences, at a natural pace, in a voice you choose. It copes with interruptions, people changing their minds and callers who give their details out of order.
It also behaves like a good receptionist. It's polite and unhurried. It reads back names, dates and phone numbers to confirm them. If it didn't catch something, it asks again rather than guessing. And if a caller would rather speak to a person, it takes a message or puts them through, without arguing.
The best way to judge is to hear it. Try the demo on this page and ask it the kind of questions your callers ask.
AI receptionist vs answering service vs voicemail
Most practices weigh up three options for the calls they can't answer themselves. Here's how they compare.
- AI receptionist
- Answers every night, weekend and public holiday
- Answering service
- Yes, often at a higher rate
- Voicemail
- Records a message
- AI receptionist
- Answers several calls at once
- Answering service
- Depends on staff on shift
- Voicemail
- Callers often hang up
- AI receptionist
- Into your calendar, using your rules
- Answering service
- Sometimes, often as a request
- Voicemail
- No
- AI receptionist
- Set up on your services, fees and policies
- Answering service
- Works from a script for many businesses
- Voicemail
- No
- AI receptionist
- Puts them through using your rules
- Answering service
- Passes them on if instructed
- Voicemail
- Wait until someone listens
- AI receptionist
- SMS and email summary of every call
- Answering service
- A message by email or SMS
- Voicemail
- Audio to listen to and write up
- AI receptionist
- Monthly plan plus setup
- Answering service
- Usually per call or per minute
- Voicemail
- Usually part of your phone plan
A human answering service is a sensible choice if you want a person on every call and your callers mostly need messages taken. Voicemail is fine if your phone rarely rings. If you want calls booked and handled properly at any hour, an AI receptionist is usually the better fit, and plenty of practices use one alongside their own front desk rather than instead of it.
Booking, messages and urgent calls, in detail
Booking into your system
Where your system allows it, it books directly into your calendar or practice management system and follows the same rules your team does. Where direct booking isn't possible, it takes a booking request with the caller's preferred times, and your team confirms it from the summary. We'll tell you which applies on the discovery call, before you commit to anything.
Messages your team can act on
Each message is written up in plain English with the details your team needs to act on it. You choose who receives which messages, so script requests go to nurses, billing questions go to the practice manager and new enquiries go to whoever handles them.
Rules for urgent calls
Urgent rules are specific to your practice. For a dental clinic, it might be facial swelling or a knocked-out tooth. For a vet, an animal that's been hit by a car. For a law firm, a client with a court date tomorrow. You write the rules with us, and you can change them at any time.
Privacy and caller consent
Callers are told they're speaking with an AI assistant in the greeting, every time. You approve the scripts before anything goes live, including how it responds to sensitive questions. It doesn't give clinical, legal or financial advice, and anything sensitive is passed straight to your team.
Each call is transcribed so your team gets an accurate summary. Whether audio is also recorded is agreed with you before go-live. Call records stay in the account we set up for you, and you can ask us to delete them at any time. Our privacy policy sets out the detail in plain English.
What setup involves
Setup starts with a discovery call where we learn how your phones, calendar and team work today. We then write the scripts and rules with you, connect it to your calendar, and give you a test number. You and your team call it, try to trip it up, and we refine it until it sounds right.
When you're happy, you forward your existing number to it, either all the time or only when you choose, such as after hours or when the front desk doesn't pick up within a few rings. You keep your number. Each month we review calls with you and tune the answers.
What it costs
AI receptionist plans start from $129 a month, plus a one-off setup fee. Prices are in AUD and exclude GST. The plan you need depends on whether you want booking, SMS confirmations and call transfer, and whether you'd like the admin after the call automated as well. See pricing
Is it right for your practice?
An AI receptionist tends to suit practices where the phone matters: where a missed call is a missed booking, where the front desk is stretched, or where people call outside business hours. It's less useful if your phone rarely rings, or if almost every call needs a qualified professional from the first word. If we don't think it's worth it for you, we'll say so on the discovery call.