AI phone receptionist for physiotherapy clinics
Quick summary
- Both hands are on the patient; the person who would pick up cannot leave the table.
- Ask first visit, follow-up or cancel first — those are three different pieces of work in the book.
- A first visit needs the longer time you set. A follow-up does not fit that same gap, and the other way round is worse.
- Follow-ups stay with the same therapist if that is how you work. Dimitris already sees Maria — do not offer whoever has a gap.
- It checks your calendar before it offers a time, writes the booking in, and texts the confirmation.
- It books time only. Ice, exercises, how many sessions, and whether they should still come are not answers it may give.
TL;DR
Both hands are on the patient when the phone rings. The physiotherapist cannot leave the table. The caller wants a first visit, a follow-up with the same person, or to cancel a session. An assistant answers every line at once, asks which of those three it is, checks the calendar before it offers a time, books the table, and texts the confirmation. It will not say what to do for the pain, how many sessions they need, or whether they should still come. It books time. The physiotherapist treats.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the existing clinic number with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so whoever is free at the desk still takes the call.
- Make the first question first visit, follow-up or cancel — before it looks at a time.
- Write the first-visit length and the follow-up length you actually use, and do not let it mix those gaps.
- Tell it which therapist a follow-up stays with, and who takes a first visit when that person is full.
- Set the cancel notice you already say out loud, and offer the freed time only when the length matches.
- Write one line that forbids treatment advice — ice, rest, exercises, how many sessions, whether they should still come.
What an AI phone receptionist does in a physiotherapy clinic
An AI phone receptionist answers the clinic number, talks the way a person at the desk would, and then does something with what it heard. It books a table, sends the confirmation, or writes down what the caller asked for and puts that note in front of whoever is free.
The first thing it has to get right is which call this is. A first visit, a follow-up and a cancel take different times and belong to different people. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” will put a new patient into Maria’s thirty-minute gap. It asks which of the three it is. After that it checks the calendar you already use, offers only a time that is free and that fits, books it, texts the confirmation, and says the cancel notice you already use.
A caller who rang in English gets the confirmation in English. A caller who rang in Greek gets it in Greek. The assistant works in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
Both hands on the patient
Late afternoon. The patient is on the table. One hand is under the knee. The other is on the shin, taking the last few degrees of the bend. The phone rings at the desk in the next room.
The physiotherapist cannot pick up. Letting go now means starting the movement again, or leaving someone in a stretch with no one holding them. The patient cannot be left.
In a lot of Greek clinics there is no one sitting at a desk all day. You are the person who would have answered, and your hands are on the patient. If there is someone at the front, they are walking the last patient out, taking a card payment, or handing out the next towel. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller listening to a busy tone.
The rush is after work and after training — from about five until you lock the door. That is when first-visit callers ring, when a coach rings for a player, and when someone already on your book rings to say they cannot make seven. A person you hired for Tuesday mornings does not touch that window.
The caller who wanted a first visit tonight is often already looking at two other numbers. They will not wait on voicemail. They hang up and dial the next clinic.
First visit, follow-up, or cancel
That is the first question. Not “what time”, and not “what is wrong with the knee”.
First visit. A new patient, or someone you treat as new. Longer time. Intake. Often a paper from a doctor. Often a question about EOPYY or a private time. The assistant takes the name, asks whether they have been before, and only then looks at a gap that is long enough. Body area is a booking fact — who they were sent to, whether you have a person who takes that kind of first visit — not a diagnosis. The assistant does not decide what the shoulder is.
Follow-up. Someone already on the book. Shorter time. Same therapist if that is how you work. The assistant asks who they usually see and offers that person’s next time. It does not treat a follow-up as any free thirty minutes.
Cancel. A time that is about to go empty. The assistant takes which appointment, releases it if they are inside the notice you set, and can offer that table to the next caller — but only when the length matches. A cancelled follow-up is not a hole you drop a first visit into.
If the caller cannot say which of the three it is, the assistant asks once more. It does not pick the short time to be helpful.
The first visit
A first visit is not a follow-up with a longer hello. The notes take time. The person on the table has not been here, so nothing is already set up. Write the length you actually use. The assistant should not invent one.
What it may ask, because you already ask it at the desk: have they been here before; who they were sent to; whether they have a paper from the doctor; name and telephone, and AMKA only if you said so, only as a detail for the desk; private time or EOPYY time, if you run both.
What it may not ask as if the answer were a plan: where exactly it hurts so it can see what to do, how bad the pain is on a scale, what the MRI said. Those questions turn the call into an examination. The physiotherapist examines. The assistant books.
If the only evening gap is thirty minutes, that gap is not a first visit. The assistant says what it has that fits, or takes a callback. Squeezing a new patient into a follow-up hole is how the whole evening runs late, and how the next follow-up is the one who waits in the corridor.
A coach who rings for a player is still a first visit unless that player is already on your book. Take the player’s name, take the coach’s number if that is who should get the SMS, and book a first-visit time. Do not let the call become advice from the sideline.
Follow-ups and the same pair of hands
Maria has been treating Dimitris’s shoulder for four weeks. The next session belongs on Maria’s hours. Booking it with whoever has a hole at six is a different appointment, and Dimitris will say so when he arrives.
Write it the way you would for a new hire at the desk: who is in, which follow-ups stay with which person, who can take a first visit when that person is full, who is off on Thursday. The assistant will honour a list it can see. If the list is empty, it will offer times that nobody can actually take.
A series is not a plan the assistant invents. If you already booked six follow-ups, the assistant can move one, cancel one, or add the next one when you allow that. It must not say they will need ten sessions because a caller asked how long this takes. How long it takes is a clinical sentence. It does not belong on this phone.
If two people treat in the same room on alternate hours, mark the room as well as the person. A follow-up with Maria at six cannot sit on the table Nikos still has until ten past.
A cancel that can still fill the table
Someone rings at noon to cancel the five o’clock. That table can still be offered — to the person who called at 11:40 and was told this evening was full, or to the next caller who wants a follow-up of the same length.
Set the notice you already say out loud. The assistant should say it at the end of a booking, and treat a cancel inside that window as a time that is free again, not as a note for the morning. A cancel after the window is still a cancel. You would rather hear it than find an empty table. It is not a refill you can count on.
Do not offer a cancelled thirty-minute follow-up as a first visit. Length first, then the name on the book. If the cancel rule is written for the next day, a cancelled seven o’clock stays empty, and the first-visit caller who rang at four is already somewhere else.
Questions it must not answer
The caller will ask for treatment.
“Should I ice it until I come?” “Which exercises can I do over the weekend?” “Is this a disc?” “How many sessions will I need?” “It hurts more today — should I still come?” “Can I take a painkiller and come after training?”
The assistant does not answer any of those. It books time. Ice, heat, rest, a cream, a movement, a session count, and whether they should still come are all treatment. A polite sentence that starts with “usually we…” is still advice.
“I can’t advise on treatment — only the physiotherapist can.” Then a time, or a note. A caller who wants to know if they should still come gets the time they already have read back, and a note on your list. They do not get a yes or a no.
If they describe the pain in detail, write it down in their words and stop. Do not turn the description into a reason to book sooner, later, or not at all. Urgency is a decision you make. An assistant that says “that sounds like you should come in today” has already treated.
Do not put home-exercise lists in the notes and hope the assistant will only use them when it fits. It will read them out. If a sentence must not be said until someone has seen the patient, do not give the assistant that sentence.
A referral is a paper to bring, not a plan
Plenty of first visits arrive with a paper from an orthopaedic, a neurologist, or the doctor they saw last week. Plenty ask if you take EOPYY. Both are booking facts in a Greek clinic. Neither is a diagnosis the assistant may speak.
It can ask whether they have a paper from the doctor, and private or EOPYY if you marked those as different books. It can say what they should bring and where to park. It cannot read the referral aloud, or say the fund will cover eight sessions.
Someone at the desk checks the paper. The assistant takes the request and puts them on the book you said that kind of first visit belongs on. If you reserve certain hours for EOPYY and keep evenings for private first visits, mark that the way you mark a lunch. The assistant will honour a mark it can see. If the mark is missing, it will offer the first gap that fits the length, and you will spend the evening untangling it.
A caller who has no paper and wants EOPYY is not a clinical problem on this phone. It is a booking rule. You write what the assistant should say — take a private first visit, take a callback, take a note. It should not invent a workaround.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the door. A forwarding rule at the provider sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave the clinic.
- Every line is answered at once. The evening rush is a set of conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the clinic you described. First-visit length, follow-up length, who takes which, whether you run EOPYY hours, where to park, the cancel notice you already say.
- It asks first visit, follow-up or cancel, then looks at the book. A time is offered only after that fact exists, and only if the gap fits.
- It checks the real calendar before it offers a time, and writes the booking into the same book the team already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind before the appointment.
- It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — a treatment question, a complaint about last week’s session, a referral the desk has to see — as a tagged note, not as a guess.
- You get the transcript, the summary, and which of the three the caller was.
What it will not do
It will not treat. Ice, rest, heat, a cream, a movement, a session count, and whether they should still come are all out. It will not read a referral as a plan, or say what EOPYY will cover. It will not put a first visit into a follow-up gap, or a follow-up onto whoever is free when you named a person. If the caller does not know whether they have been before, it asks. If they still cannot say, it does not pick the short time. A description of pain is written down. You decide whether it is urgent.
What these calls sound like
The order is the type, then the person if it is a follow-up, then the offer, then the cancel notice said out loud. There is no ice. There is no “I’m sure we can squeeze you in at six” over a thirty-minute gap. There is no number of sessions. There is no reading of a paper the assistant cannot see.
If the assistant is friendly and still books the wrong length of time, the evening runs late. Put the person who rang about a first visit at 17:10 on the book, not on the third clinic they dialled from the pavement.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the door with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the desk still takes the call. Then the three call types and the two lengths, who takes a first visit, who a follow-up stays with, the cancel notice you already say out loud, and whether EOPYY and private sit on different books.
Give the assistant the lines it may repeat — bring the paper, arrive early, park in the side street, the door is on the left — and do not give it a sentence about ice, exercises, or how many sessions. Write one line that forbids treatment advice. Add opening hours, who is in on Thursday evening, how to find the door.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hands on the table | Every line answered at once | One call, if they can let go | Depends who was rostered |
| Asks first visit, follow-up or cancel first | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| First-visit length vs follow-up length | Offers only a gap that fits | Yes — they know the book | Uses a flat menu time |
| Same therapist on a follow-up | Honours the person you named | Yes, if they remember | Books whoever is free |
| Cancel, then offer the table | Releases the time and offers it | If someone is free to rebook | Takes a message |
| Speaks the caller's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | No ice, exercises, or session count | Can examine the patient | Reads a script aloud |
What unanswered evening first-visits cost a one-table clinic
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- One treatment table, weekday evenings 17:00–20:00 — put your own hours in.
- In that window both hands are on a patient, so nobody picks up.
- This example uses four first-visit calls a week that go unanswered in that window. Change the four.
- Two of those four book with someone else. Change the two.
- A first visit is worth about €40 to the clinic — YOUR figure, and this is the number to change first.
- Two first-visit callers a week book somewhere else.
- 2 × €40 = €80 a week.
- 46 working weeks × €80.
About €3,680 a year, from evening first-visit calls nobody could take.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give up the clinic number?
No. You keep the number on the door, the Google listing and the cards you hand out after a session. You add one forwarding rule with your telephony provider — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If someone at the desk picks up, the call never leaves the clinic and is never charged.
Can it tell a caller to ice the knee, or which exercises to do?
No. Those are treatment. The assistant books time. It can repeat a line you wrote — bring shorts, arrive ten minutes early, park in the side street — and it can say that only the physiotherapist answers questions about the pain. It must not say ice, rest, heat, a cream, or a movement. A caller who asks “should I still come if it hurts more” gets a note for you, or the time they already have confirmed, never a yes or a no from the phone.
Will it put a first visit into a follow-up gap?
Not if you wrote the two lengths. A first visit is the longer time you set. A follow-up is the shorter one. The assistant asks which it is, then offers only a gap that fits. If the calendar cannot confirm that longer stretch, it takes a callback rather than squeezing a new patient into the next thirty minutes.
Can follow-ups stay with the same therapist?
Yes, once you say so. If Maria has been treating Dimitris's shoulder for four weeks, the next session is hers. The assistant asks who they usually see and offers that person's next time. If that person is off, it follows the rule you wrote — wait, offer a named deputy, or take a callback — and it does not invent a swap to sound helpful.
What about a doctor's referral or EOPYY?
It can ask whether they have a paper from the doctor, and whether they want a private time or an EOPYY time, if you marked those as different books. It takes the name and what they said they are bringing. It does not read the referral as a plan, does not say how many sessions the fund will cover, and does not decide entitlement. You set whether an EOPYY first visit needs a slot you reserved for that paper. The assistant honours the mark. It does not interpret the paper.
What do we see after a call?
A transcript, a short summary, whether it was a first visit, a follow-up or a cancel, who they asked for, and whatever was booked or left for the desk. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call. You read the evening list the way you already read the paper book — except the ones nobody could pick up are on it too.
