New patient appointment
You register and get an appointment in one conversation, at a time the practice really has, and a chatbot asks you nothing about your teeth.
- Industry
- Dental
- Shape
- They come to you
- Plan
- Starter and above
Across Dental: Reception work only — scheduling and admin. No clinical questions, no triage.
The situation it is for
New patients are the practice's growth and they arrive as messages out of hours. Every one that waits until Monday is one that rang somebody else on Saturday.
Somebody who is not on the practice's books wants to come in — a check-up, a check-up with the hygienist, or an appointment for a child. The bot asks which, asks whether they are moving from another practice, takes their details, offers the times the practice really has free and books it.
Who runs it
General dental practices taking on new patients.
It starts when somebody types
- “register as a new patient”
- “i'm a new patient”
- “join the practice”
- “new patient appointment”
- “can I sign up with the practice”
The conversation
What it asks
6 questions, asked in this order. Every answer is written down for whoever picks the job up.
- 01What you need
“Which appointment would you like — a new patient examination, an examination with hygiene, or an appointment for a child?”
Decides how long the appointment is, which item on your price list is booked, and how the next question is worded.
- New patient examination
- New patient examination with hygiene
- New patient examination — child
- 02How soon
“When suits — the soonest we have, a particular day of the week, or around work?”
A scheduling preference, written onto the appointment. It is not a judgement about anything and nothing clinical is inferred from it.
- The soonest appointment you have
- A particular day of the week
- Before or after work, or at a weekend
- 03Name
“And who should we put this down for?”
The name the appointment or enquiry is recorded under.
- 04Phone
“What's the best number to reach you on?”
The only way to reach the customer if anything changes.
- 05Email
“And an email address for the appointment?”
The email address it is recorded against.
- 06Where you're registering from
“Are you moving from another practice, or registering for the first time? (moving from another practice / registering for the first time)”
Administrative only: it tells reception which paperwork to have ready. A fixed choice rather than a free-text box on purpose.
- Moving from another practice
- Registering for the first time
Those options are the starting set. The services you configure — and, where a process asks for them, the languages you work in — replace them, and the wording follows.
The rules that run
Checks, not judgement calls. The same answer every time, from your own settings.
- Is this a number that actually dials?
- Is this time still free?
What you need set up
Settings in your own account. Nothing here is guessed on your behalf.
- Your opening hours
- Your timezone
- Your services, their length and their price
- Your price list
Without your hours and timezone there are no times to offer, so the process hands every customer to a person instead of inventing one.
How it can end
The complete list. There is no other ending it can reach.
- Appointment booked
- Nothing free — handed to a person
- Handed to a person
- Visitor left
- Something went wrong — handed to a person
Available now
The limits
This process runs end to end. These are the boundaries it still has, published with it so nobody finds them on a Tuesday afternoon with a customer waiting.
- The bot never presents itself as a clinician, never gives clinical advice, and never decides what a person needs.
- A confirmation email is sent. No SMS is sent from any process.
- If a visitor volunteers something clinical mid-flow, the turn is classified as an aside and falls through to the normal assistant.
- No individual member of staff is chosen.
- No money changes hands inside a process.
- The answer about a previous practice is recorded, not acted on. It tells reception what paperwork to have ready, and that is the whole of it.
- The 'when suits' question is a scheduling preference and is worded to stay one.
More for dental
Built on the same engine and the same settings — they come to you is one of 6 shapes the whole catalogue is made from.
- DENTAL-02Available, with a limit
Existing patient — change a booked appointment
Dental
You give the details the appointment is under and either pick a new time from what is genuinely free or cancel it — without ringing the practice at lunchtime.
- DENTAL-03Available, with a limit
Treatment, cost and plan enquiries
Dental
You get a straight answer about who is picking your question up and that they have your details, in one exchange — rather than a booking form for a consultation you have not decided to have, or a figure guessed at you by a chatbot.
Run this one on your own hours, services and postcodes.
Starter and above. Your settings decide the wording, the durations, the prices and the times it offers — nothing on this page is a template you have to accept as written.