"Assessment" was too vague
The problemThe word in the appointment menu was too vague, and the assistant booked patients with the wrong dentist.
How it endedWe caught it on the second complaint and fixed it.
Case study
Clínica Santa Maria dos Olivais
Clínica Santa Maria dos Olivais0 calls sent to voicemail in nine months at a dental clinic
About €4,400 a month in estimated revenue and 148 appointments through October 30, with about 22 calls a month answered while the clinic was closed.
1 · Where we started
For a dental practice, the phone is everything
Callers who get no answer often don't call back. They try the next dentist.
- 6dentistsEach with their own specialties and their own days.
- 1receptionist, on her ownOne for six dentists.
- About tenmissed calls a dayThat's the clinic's own estimate: nobody counted them before.
The real obstacleThe owner wasn't comfortable putting an AI on the phone with her patients
And who could blame her: if the assistant gets it wrong, she's the one who looks bad.
2 · Trust
We started small, then she trusted it
We didn't try to win her over with a presentation.
Calls per month872 in total
81Feb
45Mar
50Apr
34May
June · Google Maps154Jun
168Jul
275Aug
65Sep
September through the 9th.
February to May
Only the ads number
Whoever calls that number has already seen the ad and knows what they want. If anything had gone wrong, we could have switched it off in an afternoon without anyone at the clinic noticing.
From June
The Google Maps number
The owner handed everything over to the system: the assistant's number went on Google Maps, the one anyone searching for the clinic finds.
In May the assistant answered 34 calls a month. In August, 275. It didn't get eight times better: the number people call changed.
By the numbers
February 1 to September 9, 2026
Production data.
- 872
calls the assistant received
in seven months - 527
closed by the assistant, without reaching the receptionist
60% of calls - 114
appointments booked
all in the calendar
Where the 872 calls went
- 527Closed by the assistant60%
- 223Passed to the receptionist26%
- 122Hung up within 10 seconds14%
- 193
came in after hours or while another call was in progress
22% - 385
different people it spoke with
- 1 min 37 s
average length of a conversation
- 20.2
hours of phone time handled
3 · A call
A real call, from the request to the appointment
A call from June, translated from Portuguese and anonymized. The assistant works out what is needed, finds the right slot and offers two times.
A callReal call, anonymized
- CallerI'd like to book a cleaning for next Saturday.
- AssistantOf course, I can help you book a dental cleaning. Is this your first visit with us, or are you already a patient?
- CallerMy name is .
- AssistantThank you. Could you give me your phone number, please?
- Caller 847
- AssistantLet me check availability for Saturday. I have room for a dental cleaning with the doctor on Saturday, June 6 at ten or at eleven. Does one of those work?
- CallerYes, ten works.
- AssistantYour dental cleaning is booked for Saturday, June 6 at ten in the morning, with the doctor. Can I help you with anything else?
Four things have to line up
- The treatment
- The dentist who does it
- The day that dentist is in
- A slot still open
4 · The receptionist
One call in four goes to the receptionist
223 out of 872. The assistant doesn't pass a call on just because the caller asks: it first asks why, and if it's something it can handle, it tries to handle it itself. It only transfers if the person insists.
Why the call is passed on
- Insists on a person, after the assistant has tried111
- Implant cleaning: by clinic policy only the receptionist books it26
- Doesn't want the call recorded25
- Emergency or pain21
- Couldn't be classified40
Classified automatically from call summaries, so take these as indicative.
Everything else
It handles it on its own
Including canceling and rescheduling an appointment, which people usually assume has to go through a person.
A case we can't count
The assistant offers times, the caller turns them down one after another, and after a few tries the call goes to the receptionist. It shows up too rarely in the summaries to put a number on it.
5 · Mistakes
What we got wrong, and fixed
If we only told you what went well, it would be an ad.
A reassurance that planted doubt
The problemWhen someone asked to speak to a person, the line the assistant used to reassure them said it was an artificial intelligence, and planted exactly the doubt it was meant to remove.
How it endedWe rewrote it in neutral terms.
An update on the third attempt
The problemThe latest update went live on the third attempt.
How it endedOur tests rejected the first two before they ever reached real calls.
6 · The list-price math
What it's worth, at list price
These are the clinic's list prices, applied to what the assistant logged: for each appointment, the treatment and whether the patient was new. The revenue that comes out is calculated, so it's an estimate: only the clinic knows the real figure.
Appointments booked, at list price€5,200
Treatments requested by new patients+€1,400
Implants, assuming half of the 23 first visits become a treatment+€25,400
List-price total over seven monthsabout €32,000
If every implant visit became a treatment: about €57,000
Math on the clinic's price list. Implant visits are valued at the average of the treatments in the clinic's implant program, about €2,200 each: from €745 for a single implant to €4,800 for a full arch. New patients' first visit at €20, and no-shows are not subtracted. The implant part depends on how many visits turn into a treatment, and it's the only assumption in the calculation.
In seven months23 first visits for implants
In our view it's the number that matters most. It's the most expensive part of the price list, and a single one turning into a full arch is worth almost €5,000.
In detail
Behind the scenes, if you want to see it
Languages, the dentists' calendar and emergencies.
LanguagesSix languages, and it switches on its own
Lisbon is a multicultural capital, and Portuguese alone doesn't cover everyone who calls.
- European Portuguese
- English
- Italian
- Spanish
- French
- German
And other languages too, if needed.
- 1
It starts in Portuguese
Every call starts in Portuguese.
- 2
It switches right away
If the caller changes language, or asks for another one, the assistant switches in its very next reply.
- 3
Without a fuss
It doesn't announce it, doesn't ask permission and doesn't transfer the call to anyone.
The calendarFinding a free slot was already a job
Six dentists, none of them full-time. They work half-days and each one does different things.
Who's in, and when
MonTueWedThuFri
Orthodontics
Pediatric dentist
Root canals
Implants
Monday to Friday, everyone on half-days. Implants follow the clinical director's schedule.
Some treatments exist on only one day of the week. Finding the first free slot takes more than checking the calendar.
- 1The treatment
- 2The dentist who does it
- 3The day that dentist is in
- 4A slot still open
21treatment types
Working out what the caller means
Nobody on the phone says "endodontics": they say it hurts, a crown fell off, they want braces or a cleaning.
There are twenty-one treatment types, and they have to be recognized from the way people talk, because that word decides which dentist the patient sees.
Two times at a time, then it stops
- 1It always offers two times: never just one, never a list.
- 2If neither works, it looks for two more further ahead, and never offers a rejected time again.
- 3If the calendar returns the same times, earlier times or nothing, it counts that as a logical failure and stops after two attempts.
- 4At that point it doesn't push: during opening hours it passes the call to the receptionist, after hours it offers a callback.
A system that keeps querying a full calendar until something turns up is very easy to write, and the worst thing to put on a phone line.
EmergenciesWhere it has to say something uncomfortable
The clinic works by appointment only and has no emergency slots.
It doesn't promise anything
When the assistant realizes the caller has an emergency, it acknowledges it in one sentence and explains that the first slot could be tomorrow or a week away.
- A
The first free slot
The assistant offers the first free slot.
- B
The receptionist
If the clinic is open, the call goes to her.
Promising a same-day slot to someone in pain is easy to program and impossible to keep. That's the difference between a demo and a system that has been running for seven months.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us most
How many calls did the AI voice receptionist handle?
From February 1 to September 9, 2026 it answered 872 calls: 527 were wrapped up without reaching the front desk, 223 were passed to the receptionist and 122 were hung up within the first 10 seconds. It booked 114 appointments.
Which languages does it speak?
It can answer in European Portuguese, English, Italian, Spanish, French and German, and in other languages too if needed. Every call starts in Portuguese, and if the caller uses another language the assistant switches in its next reply, without transferring the call.
What happens when a patient calls with an emergency?
The clinic has no emergency slots, and the assistant doesn't promise any. It acknowledges the problem, explains that the first slot could be tomorrow or a week away, and offers the first available slot or the front desk if the clinic is open.
When does it hand the call to a person?
When the caller insists on a person after the assistant has tried to help, for implant cleanings, when someone doesn't want the call recorded, and for emergencies. That happened on 223 calls out of 872.
Where should you start with an AI voice receptionist?
In our view, with a single line, the way we did here with the ads number: if something goes wrong you switch it off in an afternoon, and if it works you expand it.
If you'd like to see how it works before we talk, here's how the AI voice receptionist works.
Do you run a clinic or a practice? Let's work out which part of the phone to start on
Thirty minutes, and we'll tell you where we'd start.
Want to see more cases? Systems already at work in other businesses, with their numbers.
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