AI receptionist
AI receptionist for UK private clinics
We design, build and run an AI receptionist for your clinic, by voice, text or both. It will answer when your team can't, book what it can and pass anything clinical to your team. Every one we build will tell callers it's an AI, and any caller can ask for a person.
What it is
What an AI receptionist will do for your clinic
An AI receptionist can answer your clinic's calls and messages when your team can't. We set it up to ask the questions your reception team would ask, book a consultation where it can, and pass everything else to the right person.
The idea is the same whether you run a dental practice, an aesthetics or cosmetic surgery clinic, or a hair transplant, laser eye or other private clinic. What changes is the rules it will follow for your sector. We build those in with you, and you approve the wording.
Here's how it could work. This is an illustration, not a real call or patient.
Picture 13:10 on a Tuesday, with everyone on your team busy. Someone rings to ask about a consultation. Your AI receptionist will answer, say it's the clinic's AI assistant, and ask a few booking questions. Where your booking software allows, it can offer a time, say Thursday at 10:30. Where it doesn't, it will pass the details to your team with a summary.
If the caller asks whether the treatment is right for them, that's a clinical question. It will explain that your clinical team will answer it, and pass it on.
It will never pretend to be a person or a clinician.
Sound familiar?
The calls your team can't get to
None of this means your team isn't trying. It's what happens when a small team is busy looking after the patients in front of them.
Calls ring out while your team is with patients
The phone rings and rings, then stops. Was it a new patient ready to book? Often, nobody knows.
One receptionist juggling the desk, the phone and the inbox
They're checking someone in, another patient has a question, and the phone goes again. Something has to wait, and often it's the caller.
Lunchtime and early-evening gaps
Lunch cover is often thin, and the end of the day is often busy with patients leaving. That's also when someone on a lunch break, or just finished work, might finally ring.
Evening and weekend enquiries waiting until morning
Someone rings on Sunday evening, hears your closed message and hangs up. By Monday morning, they may have booked elsewhere.
Voicemails nobody gets to
The messages build up. By the time someone listens and rings back, the caller may have moved on or may not pick up.
Callers ringing the next clinic
Not everyone leaves a message. Someone ready to book may simply try the next clinic on their list.
Your rules
When it answers, and how
You decide when it picks up and what it passes on.
When your lines are busy
All lines engaged, lunchtime, or the whole team with patients. It can pick up the calls nobody can get to.
Out of hours, as you choose
Evenings, weekends and bank holidays, or only some of them. You set the hours.
By voice, text or both
It can answer phone calls, messages, or both. You choose what suits your clinic and your patients.
Hand-offs on your rules
You decide who gets what: bookings to reception, clinical questions to a clinician, complaints to your practice manager.
Done for you
What we build, and how we set it up
Every AI receptionist we build will be custom. We design, build and run it for you.
Start with a free lead leak audit
Our free lead leak audit shows where new patient calls and messages slip through. Then we can both see whether an AI receptionist would help.
Agree the scope with you
We agree what it will handle. For example: booking consultations, answering common questions with information you approve, sharing prices only as you approve them, and passing complaints to the right person.
Build it around your clinic
Your tone, hours, rules and hand-offs. It can book into your diary where your software allows, or hand each enquiry to your team with a summary.
Test it with your team
Your team tries it before any patient does, including awkward questions, so you can check what it says and how it hands over.
Run and improve it
We run it and review it with you, adjusting answers and hand-offs as your clinic's needs change.
The rules that never change
What's fixed in every build
Every AI receptionist we build will follow these rules. Everything else is agreed with you.
No medical advice
Questions about symptoms, suitability, side effects or aftercare will go to your team. The MHRA says what a maker claims, including on its website, helps define what software is for (MHRA guidance). The ASA warns against ads that let AI "play doctor" (ASA). That's one reason we keep it to admin.
No pretending to be a person
It will tell every caller, at the start, that they're speaking to an AI.
No prescription-only medicines
We build it so it never names or discusses them. Any question about them will go to your team.
No calls out to patients
It will only answer incoming calls and messages. It won't ring patients.
A person whenever a caller asks
Any caller can ask for a person. It will pass them to your team or, if no one is free or it's out of hours, take their details so your team can call them back.
Your urgent-care message, in your words
It will give your clinic's own urgent-care message, such as your out-of-hours number and "in an emergency, call 999", when it answers out of hours and whenever a caller says their problem is urgent. It won't judge how urgent anything is. We agree your wording when we build it.
Callers told if calls are recorded
If calls are recorded or transcribed, callers will be told.
An 18+ question for cosmetic bookings
Before booking an aesthetics or other cosmetic consultation, it will ask the caller to confirm they're 18 or over. It can't verify age, so your team still checks at the consultation.
Your type of clinic
Built for your type of clinic
Choose your clinic type to see the rules your AI receptionist will follow there. You approve the wording.
Aesthetics
AI receptionist for aesthetic and skin clinics
It will use consultation-led wording, such as "a consultation for lines and wrinkles". It won't name prescription-only medicines, even when asked, and will pass any question about medicines to your team.
Its answers will say who carries out the consultation, the way you describe it. That way, a caller knows who they'll see before they book.
Before booking, it will ask the caller to confirm they're 18 or over. It can't verify age, so your team still checks at the consultation.
It will never push a booking with countdowns or offers that expire. Callers get time to decide.
Cosmetic surgery
AI receptionist for cosmetic surgery clinics
Choosing surgery is a big decision, and callers need time and accurate information. Your AI receptionist will describe procedures only in the words you approve. It won't call any procedure "safe", "minor", "easy" or "pain-free".
Titles such as "surgeon", "consultant" and "specialist" have set meanings in UK advertising guidance. So it will only use the titles you've approved for each person, and never add its own.
Before booking a consultation, it will ask the caller to confirm they're 18 or over. It can't verify age, so your team still checks at the consultation. It will never push a booking with countdowns or offers that expire.
Questions about risks, recovery or suitability will go to your team.
Dental
AI receptionist for dental practices
The GDC says dental professionals must give patients clear information about their arrangements for emergency care, including out of hours (GDC Standards, 2.3.9). Your AI receptionist will give callers your practice's arrangements, in the words you approve. It will never assess how urgent a problem is.
The answers you approve will follow GDC guidance too. No dentist will be called a "specialist" unless they're on a GDC specialist list. Your practice will be described as NHS, mixed or private, the way you describe it.
For teeth whitening, and any other treatment you treat as cosmetic, it will ask the caller to confirm they're 18 or over before booking. It can't verify age, so your team still checks at the consultation. It will never push a booking with countdowns or offers that expire.
Dental answering service
Practices cover busy lines and out-of-hours calls in different ways. Some use voicemail that gives their urgent-care arrangements. Others use a dental answering service, where trained people take messages or book appointments. An AI receptionist is another route, on its own or alongside the others.
Hair transplant
AI receptionist for hair transplant clinics
Hair restoration surgery is listed as a cosmetic intervention in UK advertising guidance. So we treat it like other cosmetic bookings: the same 18+ question before booking, and no countdowns or offers that expire.
Your AI receptionist will talk about a "hair loss consultation", and never name prescription hair-loss medicines. It will never describe results as permanent, or say treatment can prevent, cure or reverse hair loss.
It can explain what happens at a consultation, using information you approve. Questions about suitability, recovery or medicines will go to your team.
Laser eye
AI receptionist for laser eye clinics
It will never describe laser eye surgery as "permanent" or "safe". It won't say it suits everyone, or that a caller will "never need glasses again".
It won't mention deals that run out, buy-one-get-one or friends-and-family offers, or prizes, and it will never push a booking with a deadline. Callers get time to decide.
Questions about suitability, such as a caller's prescription, eye health or age, will go to your clinical team. It can book a consultation or pass the details to your team.
If your clinic uses a standard statement about the risks of eye surgery, the answers you approve can include it, word for word.
Other private clinics
AI receptionist for other private clinics
Fertility, dermatology and other private clinics will get the same fixed rules as every other build.
Fertility enquiries are often personal and sensitive, so we keep what it handles especially narrow. Questions about treatment options, chances of success or costs will go to your team.
At a dermatology or skin clinic, a caller may describe a rash, a mole or another symptom. It won't comment on it or suggest what it might be. Whenever a caller describes a symptom, it will give your clinic's own message for that, in your words, such as contacting their GP or, in an emergency, calling 999, and pass the details to your clinical team. If the caller asks to book, it can offer a consultation.
Some rules and regulators differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so the answers you approve should reflect where your clinic is.
People first
Your team stays in charge
An AI receptionist won't replace your reception team. We build it to answer when they can't, and to pass enquiries back to them. Your team makes the decisions that matter.
We haven't found research on how private clinic patients feel about AI receptionists. The closest evidence is from the NHS. A local survey reported by Healthwatch England found people were generally happy for AI to handle admin, but not health questions. Healthwatch England also wants people always involved in booking appointments (Healthwatch England).
Some callers may find an AI harder to use, because of an accent, a speech difficulty or language. A local Healthwatch report found one NHS GP AI phone system didn't respond well to regional accents or speech impediments (Management in Practice).
That's why any caller can ask for a person, and why we test it with your team before patients use it.
Your data
Patient calls, messages and data
Patient calls and messages often include health information, which has extra protection under UK data law.
We'll sign a data processing agreement with your clinic before anything goes live, and collect only what's needed to handle each enquiry.
Call recordings and transcripts: we'll agree with you what's kept. If calls are recorded or transcribed, callers will be told.
Before go-live, check the setup with whoever handles data protection for your clinic.
Choosing
An AI receptionist or a telephone answering service?
Some clinics use a telephone answering service when the desk is busy or closed. Others use voicemail with their urgent-care arrangements. Both are reasonable choices.
A telephone answering service has trained people who take messages or book appointments for you. An AI receptionist is built around your clinic's own rules, and will answer by voice, text or both when your team can't. It will hand over anything outside the scope you've agreed.
Some clinics may use both: people for some hours, an AI receptionist for others. Your audit helps you see where the gaps are.
Missed-call text-back is a simpler route: a text sent when a call goes unanswered. It's part of the lead conversion system we're building, set up around your clinic's lawful basis for sending texts.
Before you choose
Questions to ask any AI receptionist provider
Whoever you choose, ask these. They're a starting point, not legal advice.
Does it tell callers it's an AI?
Patients should know who they're talking to. Ask how and when it says so.
What does it do with a clinical question?
It should pass it to your team, not answer it. Ask exactly where it goes.
How does a caller reach a person?
Some callers will need one. Check there's always a way through, including out of hours.
Who approves its answers?
Your clinic should approve what it says about treatments, prices and policies.
What's kept, where and for how long?
Calls can include health information. Ask about recordings, transcripts, hosting and deletion.
Can it book into your diary?
Ask whether it books directly into your software, or hands over with a summary.
Does it ever make outbound calls?
Calling patients is a different matter from answering them. Know exactly what it will and won't do.
Next step
Start with your free lead leak audit
Not sure an AI receptionist is right for your clinic? Start with our free lead leak audit. We enquire like a patient by phone, through your website and on the pages your ads lead to, and time every response. Then we estimate what lost enquiries cost you, using your own numbers.
Carl Ashfield, Flovio's founder, does every audit himself. If an AI receptionist would help, we'll say so. If it wouldn't, we'll say that too. We price after the audit, once we can both see the return.
Questions clinics ask
Will an AI receptionist replace our reception team?
No. We build it to answer when your team can't, such as busy lines and out of hours, as you choose. It will pass enquiries back to your team.
What happens if a caller asks a clinical question?
It won't give medical advice. Questions about symptoms, suitability, side effects and aftercare will go to your team. If a caller says it's urgent, it will give them your clinic's own urgent-care message, in the words you approve. It won't judge how urgent anything is.
Will callers know they're speaking to an AI?
Yes. Every AI receptionist we build will say so at the start, and any caller can ask for a person.
Can it book appointments into our diary?
Where your booking software allows it. Where it doesn't, it will hand each enquiry to your team with a summary. We'll check which applies to your software before we agree the scope.
Does it answer by phone or by text?
Either or both. You choose, and we set it up around how your clinic works.
Are calls recorded, and what happens to patient data?
We'll agree with you what's kept. If calls are recorded or transcribed, callers will be told. We'll sign a data processing agreement with your clinic before anything goes live, and collect only what's needed to handle each enquiry.
Does it make calls to patients?
No. It will only answer incoming calls and messages.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Each one is custom, so we agree the scope first. We price after the audit, once we can both see the return.
Related pages
How many patients are you losing to slow replies?
Our free lead leak audit enquires like a patient, times every response and puts a £ figure on what's leaking.