Book first visits and follow-ups at a physio clinic
Quick summary
- A first visit, a follow-up and a cancel are three different pieces of work. They do not share one gap.
- Ask which of the three it is before anyone names a time. A new patient does not fit Maria's thirty minutes.
- A follow-up stays with the same therapist if that is how you work. Dimitris already sees Maria.
- It checks the calendar you already use before it offers a time, writes the booking in, and texts the confirmation.
- A paper from the doctor and an EOPYY time are booking facts. They are not a plan the assistant may speak.
- 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. The caller wants a first visit, a follow-up with the same person, or to cancel a session. Those are three different bookings. An assistant asks which of the three it is, checks the calendar before it offers a time, and only offers a gap that fits. A follow-up stays with the therapist you named. A first visit does not go into a thirty-minute hole. It confirms by SMS in the language of the call. It will not say ice, how many sessions they need, or whether they should still come. It books time. You treat.
Key takeaways
- Write the first question as first visit, follow-up, or cancel. Nothing useful goes into the book before that.
- Set the first-visit length and the follow-up length you actually use. 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.
- Mark the table as well as the person if two of you treat in the same room on alternate hours.
- A cancel has to go back on the book the same hour, and only be offered when the length matches.
- Write one line that forbids treatment advice. Confirm by SMS at the moment of booking, in the language of the call.
The first question is not what time
The receptionist, if you have one, is walking someone out. You are at the table. The phone starts.
Someone wants a first visit tonight. Someone already sees Maria on Tuesdays and wants the next one. Someone needs to cancel five o’clock. A coach is calling about a player. Someone has a paper from the orthopaedic and asks if you take EOPYY. A few stay on long enough to ask whether they should ice the knee, or how many sessions a shoulder takes, or whether they should still come because it hurts more.
“I need a time this week” is one sentence on this telephone. It is not one job.
A first visit is longer than a follow-up. A follow-up belongs to a person if that is how you work. A cancel is a table that can still be offered. If the assistant hears every one of those sentences as a free time, you spend the evening moving people. The first visit goes into a follow-up and the next two wait in the corridor. Dimitris goes onto whoever has a hole at six. The cancel lives only in a transcript and five o’clock stays empty.
Ask which of the three it is. Then look at the book you already use. Offer only a gap that is free and that fits. Confirm by SMS. Say the cancel notice you already use.
Two lengths, not one menu time
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.
A follow-up is the shorter time. It does not stretch because the caller asked for “a bit longer.” Changing the length is a clinical decision, or at least yours. The assistant books the follow-up you named.
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.
Teach the types the way you teach a new person at the desk. First visit. Follow-up. Cancel. Each type has a length that comes from last month’s book, not from a default. The assistant may book the types you already let the desk book without asking you. Everything else is a callback with a complete note: name, what they asked for, in their words.
If those names do not exist, the assistant will do what a new hire does and put the caller in the first empty time it can see. That is how a first visit goes into Maria’s thirty minutes, and how a follow-up lands on a first-visit hour you were holding for a new patient.
Follow-ups stay with 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: 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.
If Maria is off, the assistant follows the rule you wrote. Wait for her next time. Offer a named deputy. Take a callback. It does not invent a swap to sound helpful. “Anyone free at six” is how a shoulder that has been Maria’s for a month becomes a first visit in disguise.
Read the therapist back with the time. “Tuesday at 18:00 with Maria” is the sentence. “Tuesday at 18:00” is not enough if Tuesday at eighteen is Nikos and the caller is Maria’s patient.
The table, and the room
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 one-table clinic is simpler and stricter. There is one gap. The length has to fit. The person has to be free. The room is the same room. If you pretend there are two tables because the software has two columns, you will book two people for one bench.
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.
Adding “the next one” is allowed if you said so. Inventing the rest of the course is not.
A paper from the doctor, and EOPYY
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.
Body area is the same kind of fact. “Shoulder” or “knee” can decide who takes the first visit, if you work that way. It is not a reason for the assistant to say what the shoulder is, or how long it will take.
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.
Let people cancel through the assistant. Write it back immediately. A cancellation that lives only in a transcript cannot be offered to the next caller.
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. A cancel after the window is still a cancel. You would rather hear it than find an empty table.
Do not offer a cancelled thirty-minute follow-up as a first visit. Length first, then the name on the book. If you have a waitlist, the assistant can ring those names — that is outbound work. On this call it can offer the freed time only to the person already on the line, and only if the length matches.
A move is one change: find the appointment, release it, place the new one, same type, same therapist. Split into cancel and then book, and they are told they cannot have Thursday because Tuesday is still in the book.
A coach, a child, two names
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. Book a first-visit time. Do not let the call become advice from the sideline. “Should they train tonight?” is a treatment question. The assistant does not answer it.
A parent who says it is for their daughter is giving you the person who belongs on the record. The name on the book is the child’s. The parent’s number is the number to call. Do not put the booking under the adult who happened to hold the phone.
Two siblings are two appointments, or a paired type you created. They are not one time stretched to eighty minutes on a one-table book. If you have not set up a pairing, the assistant takes both names and hands the pairing to the desk.
What it must not treat as a booking
“Should I ice it until I come?” is not a reason to offer 18:30. It is a treatment question. Refuse it. Then, if they still want a first visit, book the first-visit type.
“How many sessions will I need?” is not a series to write into the book. Take the first visit or the next follow-up. Leave the count to you.
“It hurts more today — should I still come?” is not a yes, a no, or a same-day squeeze. Read back the time they already have. Write a note. You decide.
“Can I take a painkiller and come after training?” is the same family. The assistant does not answer it.
A home-exercise question is the same family. Do not put lists in the notes. The assistant will read them out.
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.
A complaint about last week’s session is a note, not a free extra time. The assistant takes what they said. You decide whether to call back.
Times you are still giving out today
Same-day first visits look empty in the software. They are not empty in the building. You are spending the evening deciding who those gaps are for. An assistant that treats them as the first available “today” will spend them on people who wanted a result they cannot have — a session count, a yes they should still come — and on first visits that do not fit the hole.
Keep those times closed to the assistant until you have watched a week of ordinary first visits and follow-ups and still want this. Even then, a treatment question must win. “Anything today” plus “it hurts more” is not a same-day request. It is a note for you.
If you open same-day first visits at all, they must be their own type, the long length, and read after the first week. Most one-table clinics should not open them.
If the calendar does not answer
If the calendar cannot be reached, the assistant takes a callback. It does not guess a Thursday. An appointment the patient believes in and the clinic has no record of is worse than no booking at all. They will arrive. The table will not be free. The next follow-up will wait in the corridor.
The same rule applies when every time of that type is taken. Say so. Take a callback. Do not offer Nikos’s last gap because Maria is full, unless you named a type that may go to either of them.
When it does book, it confirms by SMS at the moment of booking, in the language of the call — 70+ languages. That removes the second call that begins “did I actually get the 18:00?” The SMS names the person who will be seen, the therapist, the type, and the time. For a child, it names the child, not the parent who placed the call. For a player, it names the player. It says the cancel notice you already use.
What you set up first
Two lengths: the first visit you actually run, the follow-up you actually run. Who takes a first visit. Who a follow-up stays with. The room and the table if two of you share one. Whether EOPYY and private sit on different books.
Unlock those. Keep same-day first visits, long reviews you still place by hand, and every treatment question as a callback or a note. SMS on, at the moment of booking. Cancel notice said out loud, and written back the same hour.
A forward after fifteen to twenty seconds while someone might still be free at the desk. An immediate forward once the desk is empty.
Read the first fifty bookings by hand. You are looking for a first visit in a follow-up, a follow-up on the wrong therapist, a cancel that never freed the table, and a caller who was told to ice the knee. Any one of those is a type you have not finished naming, or a line you have not forbidden.
Rates are published once, on the pricing section of the home page.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checks the calendar before offering | Yes, against the live calendar | Yes | Usually takes a message |
| 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 |
| Table and room as well as the person | If you marked both | Yes | Rarely |
| Private time vs EOPYY time | If you marked those as different books | Yes | Writes "appointment" |
| Cancel, then offer the table | Releases the time and offers it when the length matches | If someone is free to rebook | Takes a message |
| Ice, session count, should I still come | Refused — time or a note | Can examine the patient | Reads a script |
| Confirmation | SMS, immediately, in the language of the call | If the desk has time | Sometimes |
What a first visit in a follow-up gap costs the evening
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- One treatment table. Evening book of follow-up times and a few first-visit times — put your own counts in.
- This example assumes two first visits a week land in a follow-up gap when the types are not named. Replace two with what your own week shows.
- Each one runs about twenty minutes over. The next follow-up waits in the corridor. Recovery at the desk — a move, an apology, a squeezed extra — is about fifteen minutes. Use your own figure.
- A first visit that then has to be moved, or that never comes back, is worth about €40 to the clinic — YOUR figure, and this is the number to change first.
- This example assumes one of those two mismatched first visits is lost or has to be redone. Change that one.
- Two mismatched first visits × fifteen minutes = thirty minutes a week of desk recovery, and an evening that ran late.
- One of those two is lost. That week is €40 that should have been a proper first-visit time.
- 46 working weeks × €40.
About €1,840 a year from first visits that went into the wrong gap — before counting the follow-up who waited in the corridor. Put your own figure in.
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
Can it book a first visit, or only follow-ups?
It can book a first visit if you wrote that type, with its own length, and you already let the desk place those without asking you. If a first visit still needs a word from you — a paper you have to see, an EOPYY hour you reserve by hand — keep it as a callback. Do not let the assistant drop a new patient into the first follow-up it can see.
Will 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.
Can it move a follow-up that is already in the book?
Yes, as a single change: find the appointment, release it, place the new one on the same type and the same therapist. If that is split into cancel and then book, their own time is still in the book and they are told they cannot have it. A series you already booked can be moved one session at a time. The assistant must not invent the rest of the series.
Should it book people who want something today?
Most clinics say no at the start for same-day first visits, and they are right. The gaps you are still giving out this evening are ones you are managing while you treat. The assistant takes the request and hands it over, unless you opened a first-visit type for that window and the gap is long enough. “Should I still come tonight” is not a same-day booking. It is a note for you.
What if the calendar cannot be reached?
The assistant takes a callback. It does not guess a Thursday. An appointment the patient believes in and the clinic has no record of is worse than no booking at all. They will arrive. The table will not be free. The evening will be spent moving the people who were already in that hour.
