Booking
The enquiry becomes an appointment while they are still on the phone
Booking automation for private clinics: the system checks real availability and books the appointment during the conversation, rather than taking a message for somebody to action tomorrow. What it can book into depends on the practice management system you run, which we check before quoting anything.
The outcome
Every step between wanting an appointment and having one is somewhere to lose the patient
Somebody rings on Sunday evening ready to book. They leave a message. On Monday your reception rings back twice and gets voicemail, because that person is now at work. By Wednesday nobody has an appointment and neither party feels responsible. Nothing went wrong, exactly. There were simply four opportunities to drop it, and a patient who was ready on Sunday is a patient who has stopped being ready by Wednesday.
What booking during the conversation actually requires
- Real availability, not a callback promise
- The system reads what is genuinely free rather than offering a slot somebody then has to confirm. A held appointment that turns out not to exist is worse than no appointment, because now the patient has been let down by name.
- Your rules about who books what
- Appointment types, durations, which clinician, how far ahead, what needs a person to approve it. These are your clinical and commercial decisions and they stay yours; the system applies them rather than deciding them.
- Anything clinical goes to a human
- It never judges a clinical question in order to make a booking fit. Where a case needs a clinician's view before an appointment type is chosen, it escalates by rule with the details already captured.
- Whatever it cannot book, it captures
- Not every enquiry should end in an appointment and not every system can be written to. Where booking is not possible the enquiry is still answered, qualified and routed, so nothing falls back to a voicemail.
What it’s worth
The gap between ready and booked is where the value goes
Work it against your own numbers: the enquiries you get outside the hours somebody can book them, and what a first assessment is worth to you. That is the recoverable amount, and it is recoverable from enquiries you are already generating and already paying for.
Twenty enquiries a month arriving when nobody can book them, of which half never come back. At £800 an assessment that is £8,000 a month lost between wanting an appointment and having one. Invented numbers, your own arithmetic.
How it’s built
Your diary, your rules, your data
The system writes into the practice management system you already run rather than replacing it with a calendar you would have to migrate away from later. Your team keeps working the way it works, the appointment data stays yours, and if we part company the diary is exactly where it always was.
- Registered to your businessThe numbers, the database, the automations, the website and every call record sit in accounts in your organisation's name.
- We hold access, not ownershipOur route in is a permission you grant, and one you can withdraw without anything stopping.
- If we stop working togetherThe system keeps running and nothing has to be exported, because none of it was ever somewhere else.
What it takes
We check your system before anybody quotes you anything
What can be booked automatically varies with what you run, and any supplier who promises otherwise before looking has not looked. The Leak Check establishes what is reachable, alongside what is currently happening to enquiries arriving out of hours. You keep the report whatever you decide.
What owners ask first
Does it work with our practice management system?
That depends on which one you run, and it is the first thing we check rather than the last. Some systems can be written to directly, some need an intermediate step, and a few cannot be reached at all. Where booking is not possible the enquiry is still answered, qualified and routed, so the out of hours gap closes either way.
Can it double book us?
It books against real availability rather than a copy of it, which is the difference between booking and offering. Where a slot cannot be confirmed, it captures the enquiry and hands it to a person instead of promising something that might not hold.
Who decides what can be booked?
You do. Appointment types, durations, which clinician sees what, how far ahead the diary is open, and which cases need a person to approve them. Those are clinical and commercial decisions and the system applies them, it does not make them.
What about a patient who needs a clinician to decide first?
That escalates to a human by rule with everything already captured, and the system does not attempt to choose an appointment type on clinical grounds. That limit is deliberate rather than a gap.
Will patients accept booking without speaking to reception?
Most prefer it, particularly out of hours, and it is honest about what it is rather than pretending to be a member of staff. What it replaces is not a conversation with your receptionist, it is a voicemail nobody was going to return until Monday.
What happens to appointments made this way?
They land in your diary like any other and your team works them the same way. There is no separate system to check and nothing new for anyone to learn.
Free · No install · Results in 48 hours
Find out what's recoverable in your clinic
We mystery-shop your clinic the way a patient would, by search, phone and web form, then show you the patients you could be winning. Scored on three things: are you found, is the enquiry answered, does anyone chase it.