The practice's two receptionists were also running the front desk, so a third of calls went to voicemail at lunch and after 5pm. They wanted every call answered and every cancellation refilled, without hiring.
Three things kept going wrong, and each cost the business time, money or a customer.
Reception and booking agents, connected to the systems the business already ran on, with approvals on anything irreversible and a full log of every action.
We spent an afternoon with the practice manager writing down the rules that had only ever lived in the receptionists' heads: which emergencies are seen the same day, who sees new patients, what to say about pricing. The agents ran in shadow mode for four days, drafting but not acting, while the desk marked each call right or wrong. By day four the wrong marks were about tone rather than substance, and we went live on a Monday.
The phone is answered every time, including at lunch and after 5pm, which is when a third of calls used to reach voicemail. Cancellations are offered to the waiting list within minutes rather than left empty. The receptionists still greet every patient; they are just no longer split between the person at the desk and the phone.
'The phone used to win. Now the patient in front of us does.'
Practice manager
Enquiries arrived through Instagram, the website and WhatsApp at all hours, and the clinic replied the next working day. By then many had booked elsewhere. They wanted every enquiry answered within minutes and turned into a consultation.
New enquiries sat in a shared inbox until someone had a gap, often two days. Prospective clients had usually instructed another firm by then. They wanted every enquiry qualified and booked the same day.
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