Cut unanswered calls at peak hours from three in ten to almost none for a two-location physiotherapy clinic
Client snapshot
A physiotherapy clinic with two locations in the Denver area: six physiotherapists, two front desk staff, and Cliniko for bookings. Most new patients call before they book, usually between 8 and 10am or over lunch, which is exactly when the front desk is busy checking people in.
The problem
At peak hours about three calls in ten went to voicemail. Few people leave a message for a physio; they call the next clinic on the list. The calls that did get answered were mostly the same questions: prices, which insurers the clinic works with, parking, what to wear to a first session, and whether there was anything this week. Every call pulled someone away from the patient standing at the desk.
What we built
A phone receptionist that answers every call on the first ring, books straight into Cliniko, and knows when a person has to take over.
The agent runs on Retell, with a prompt written from the clinic's own FAQ sheet: prices, insurers, both locations, hours, parking, cancellation policy, and what to bring. It doesn't give clinical advice or say whether physio will help. Questions like that get a friendly "the physio will go through that at your assessment".
Before anything else, on every turn, it listens for red flags: chest pain, sudden weakness or numbness on one side, loss of bladder or bowel control, a recent fall with a head injury. If it hears one, it tells the caller to hang up and call 911, and flags the call to the clinic straight away. Anything else it can't handle, such as billing disputes, a specific physio by name, or a caller who just wants a person, goes to the front desk as a live transfer during opening hours and as a callback request outside them.
Booking runs through a custom function that calls n8n, which checks Cliniko for open slots at the right location and with the right type of appointment, books it, and sends the patient a confirmation text with the intake form link. Rescheduling works the same way. After every call, the front desk gets a short summary by email: who called, why, what was booked, and anything that needs a follow-up.
Before launch the agent went through ten scripted test calls, from the easy ones to a caller who changed their mind halfway through a booking. Each problem and its fix went into a log the clinic keeps.
Results, 90 days in
- Calls unanswered at peak hours: about 30% → under 3%.
- Around 18 more new patient bookings a month across both locations.
- The front desk spends about two hours less a day on the phone.
- No red-flag call has waited in a queue since launch.
Quote
"The phone used to own the front desk. Now the front desk gets to look after the people in the room." Clinic manager
Build snapshot
- Timeline: 5 business days, including the ten test calls
- Stack: Retell, Claude, Cliniko, n8n, Twilio, Gmail
- Investment: $1,800
- Who owned it: the clinic manager owns the FAQ sheet and approves prompt changes; the front desk handles transfers and callbacks.
The pattern
This is the pattern we ship in the Missed-Lead Rescue engagement. Here the agent answered the call itself instead of following up by SMS after a missed one. Any practice that books by phone, from dental to vet to physio, gets the same build with its own FAQ, booking system and red flags swapped in.
This is an illustrative composite drawn from operator engagements. Names, identifying details, and exact metrics are anonymised. The workflow, stack, and approach are real.
Looks like your situation?
A 30-minute call tells us whether the same pattern fits your operation, and what it would cost to ship it.