How the agent chooses a slot
What the agent checks before it offers a time, and how your booking rules shape the answer a caller hears.
3 min read
Stages of a booking call
Every booking call to your practice moves through the same stages:
- Understand. The agent works out what the caller wants, which provider they are asking for, how urgent it is, and who they are. Identity is verified on date of birth.
- Check availability. The agent reads open slots from your schedule live, filtered by provider, visit type, duration, location and the window the caller asked for.
- Book. The chosen slot is held, your booking rules are applied, and on a reschedule the old slot is released.
- Write back. The appointment is written into your practice system over its official API, encrypted and audit-logged.
- Confirm. The patient receives a confirmation by SMS or WhatsApp, with reminders 24 h and 2 h before the visit.
Terms
- Visit type. The kind of appointment in your practice system, such as a new patient visit or a follow-up.
- Booking rules. The rules your practice sets for who can book what, with whom and where.
- Window. The days or time of day the caller says suits them.
What the agent looks at
| Question | Where the answer comes from |
|---|---|
| Which visit type? | What the caller describes, matched to the visit types mapped for your practice |
| Which provider? | The provider the caller names, or the providers who see this kind of concern |
| How long? | The duration set for that visit type |
| Which site? | The location the caller asks for, if you have more than one |
| When? | The window the caller prefers |
If the caller describes a concern rather than naming a provider, the agent matches the concern to the providers who see it. It then offers their times.
How times are offered
The agent reads out a short choice of times, starting with the ones closest to what the caller asked for. A short list is easier to choose from on the phone than a whole day read aloud.
When the requested provider has nothing in the caller's window, the agent looks further ahead for that provider's earliest opening, across the sites where they work. If the caller would rather be seen sooner, it offers a colleague in the same specialty. If your practice books into a team rather than a named clinician, the agent offers times from the team's shared availability.
The second check
Your schedule changes during the call, because your front desk is booking too. So the agent reads the slot again at the moment of booking. If someone else has just taken it, your system refuses the write and the agent offers the next open time.
The caller hears a confirmation only after your practice system has accepted the appointment.
Your booking rules
Your rules are set up during onboarding and applied on every call. Typical examples:
- which visit types a new patient can book
- which providers offer which services at which sites
- the duration of each visit type
- visit types your staff always book themselves
Anything outside your rules, such as a request to change provider on a confirmed visit, goes to your staff with the details already captured. See visit types and provider templates for how the rules are mapped.
Questions
Does the agent ever double-book?
The slot is read again at the moment of booking and your practice system validates it. A slot that has just been taken is refused, and the caller is offered the next opening.
Can it book at more than one location?
Yes. Each site is mapped during setup, and the agent offers times at the site the caller asks for.
What happens if a caller is urgent?
Urgency is part of the first stage of the call. Urgent calls follow your escalation rules and reach a person. See how urgent calls reach a person.
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