A front desk that never closes

A busy practice whose enquiries arrived when nobody was there to answer them.

Linden is a private dental practice in Clifton, Bristol, offering general dentistry, hygiene, Invisalign, whitening and implants. Reception is open from eight till six, but nearly half the practice's enquiries came in after it closed.

The practice wanted those people answered and booked straight away, without an assistant ever giving clinical advice.

Evening questions became morning voicemails.

Most enquiries were the same dozen questions: how much is Invisalign, are you taking new patients, is there parking, can I spread the cost. Asked after six, they turned into voicemails and contact-form emails that reception worked through the next morning, by which time many people had booked elsewhere.

Whatever the assistant said had to be right and safe: no diagnoses, no guessed prices, and a quick route to a person for anything urgent.

Ask a question, get a straight answer, book in the same window.

The assistant sits in the corner of every page in the practice's colours. It answers from a knowledge base the practice controls, quotes prices only from the published price list, and shows where each answer came from.

When someone is ready, it offers real consultation slots from the diary and books one without the visitor leaving the chat.

It knows what it shouldn't answer, and who should.

The assistant never gives clinical advice. Mention pain, swelling or an injury and it points to the right urgent help, then passes the conversation to reception with a note of what was promised, such as a call at eight the next morning.

Questions it can't answer from the knowledge base go to reception too, and are logged so the practice can add the answer once.

What patients ask, and when they ask it.

Reception sees every conversation, every booking the assistant made and every hand-off waiting for them. A monthly view shows when people get in touch, what they ask most and which questions still need an answer.

The same assistant, in the app patients already use.

Patients can message the practice on WhatsApp and get the same answers, the same slots and the same hand-off to reception. Appointment reminders go out there too, and a reply confirms or rearranges.

Mornings start with bookings instead of voicemails.

Almost half of all conversations now happen after reception has gone home, and they get an answer straight away instead of the next morning.