An AI voice agent for clinics: answer every call

These problems usually start with a call nobody took:

• Staff on phone all day booking appointments. Your receptionist spends 3 hours daily taking appointment calls — time that could go to actual patient care.
• 20-30% of patients don't show up. An empty consultation slot at 11 AM — the patient forgot, no one reminded them. Doctor's time wasted.
• Post-visit follow-up never happens. Patient visited for high BP check. Nobody followed up in 2 weeks. They went to a different clinic next time.

Clinics field a high volume of short calls about timings and availability, which tie up reception while patients wait at the desk.

Most calls are administrative: booking, rescheduling, "is the doctor in today?", fees, timings, reports. Many come from older patients and from family members booking for someone else, who prefer to talk. They cluster when the clinic opens and between consultations, exactly when reception is checking patients in and cannot pick up.

Vajra, Reputoo's voice agent, runs the same workflows over the phone that the WhatsApp agent runs in chat:

1. Patient books via WhatsApp 24/7 — Bot shows doctor availability and confirms appointment — no calls, no waiting on hold.
2. Reminder + confirmation sent automatically — 24hr WhatsApp reminder with one-tap confirm or reschedule. Doctor's slot never wasted.
3. Post-visit follow-up on Day 7 — 7 days after visit, automated check-in: "How are you feeling? Any questions?" with re-booking prompt.
4. Follow-up check after visit — Automated check-in two hours after the appointment, with care instructions attached.

After each call the caller can get a WhatsApp message with the details, and staff see the call in the call log.

• 36 languages, switching to the caller's — useful where customers mix languages in one sentence.
• After hours it takes the booking or the message instead of letting the call ring out.
• Live transfer to a staff member when the caller asks for one or the call needs a person.
• Outbound calls for reminders and follow-ups, within the calling hours you set. Appointment reminders a day before; report-ready messages as soon as reports are released; follow-up reminders on the date the doctor set.

What stays with your staff: Symptoms, medication questions and anything urgent must reach clinical staff — and the automated reply should say so plainly.

If a caller describes chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, a stroke's signs or anyone unconscious, the agent's first and only instruction is to call emergency services or go to the nearest emergency department now — then it offers to alert the clinic. For non-urgent symptoms it does not advise; it offers the earliest appointment and passes the caller's words to clinical staff, or transfers to a nurse if one is available. These scripts should be written and approved by a doctor.

• Any clinical question — the agent routes it to clinical staff.
• Report results — the agent can say a report is ready, never what it says.
• Billing disputes and insurance specifics — to the billing desk.
• Callers who ask for a doctor or a nurse by name.

A monthly voice add-on of ₹1,999 (or $29) on top of your Reputoo plan, plus call minutes billed from a prepaid wallet at ₹4–12 a minute depending on the number and route.

Compare that with the cost of the calls going unanswered, or with the hours staff spend on routine calls, and decide from your own call volume.

"Is Dr Mehta in today? Is she running late?" is a call the agent answers from the live schedule, saving patients a wasted wait. If the doctor is delayed, it can offer to move the caller's appointment or tell them the new expected time — and follow up on WhatsApp.

The agent confirms appointments and report status only to the patient's registered number, or after confirming identity with the details you choose. A caller asking about someone else's appointment or reports is offered a callback to the patient's registered number. Never let the agent read out anything from a medical record on the phone.

A clinic taking 45 calls a day at about two minutes each uses around 90 minutes a day, roughly 2,700 a month. At ₹4–12 a minute from the prepaid wallet that is ₹10,800–₹32,400 a month in minutes, plus the ₹1,999 monthly add-on. Forwarding only unanswered and after-hours calls brings it down. Set it against reception time and appointments lost to unanswered calls.

1. Connect doctors' schedules and add fees, timings and practical details.
2. Have a doctor approve the emergency and symptom scripts, in every language your patients use.
3. Choose forwarding: unanswered, opening rush, or after hours.
4. Test a booking, a booking for a family member, a reschedule, a symptom call and an emergency call.
5. Review every call summary daily for the first two weeks with the clinical lead.

"How many patients are ahead of me?" and "can I come now?" are frequent calls during walk-in hours. If reception keeps the queue current, the agent answers directly and can issue a token over the phone, so the caller arrives near their turn. It keeps the waiting room calmer and reception free to deal with the people in front of them.

Callers can book a lab test or a home sample collection: the agent confirms the test, reads the preparation instructions your doctors wrote, takes the address and time window, and sends everything to WhatsApp. Questions about what a test is for, or what results mean, go to clinical staff.

Answer with the clinic's name and say the caller is speaking to the clinic's assistant, with reception or a nurse available if needed. Keep the pace unhurried — many callers are elderly or worried — and confirm every booking back slowly and clearly before sending it to WhatsApp.

Patients call in the language they are most comfortable in, especially when unwell. The agent follows the caller's language and switches if they do. The emergency and symptom scripts exist in each language you serve, each approved by a clinician.

After closing, the agent books appointments for coming days and answers administrative questions. For any caller describing a worrying symptom, the emergency instruction comes first; non-urgent clinical questions are logged for the morning with the caller told when to expect a callback.

Compare a month before and after: calls that rang out, appointments booked by phone, and the morning queue at reception. Review call summaries weekly with the clinic manager, and every symptom or emergency call with the clinical lead, to confirm the scripts held.

Some callers ask to speak to the doctor directly. The agent explains that the doctor is with patients, offers a nurse if one is available, or takes a message with the patient's name, number and question for the doctor to return. It never pretends to pass on medical guidance from the doctor, and never leaves a caller who asked for a person arguing with the assistant.

Patients who cannot make it often do not call, and the slot is wasted. The agent makes cancelling or moving an appointment as easy as booking it: it finds the booking by the caller's number, offers the same doctor's next slots, and releases the old one for a patient waiting for an earlier date. Every change is confirmed on WhatsApp.

"Are my reports ready?" is answered from report status for callers from the registered number or who confirm identity. The agent says the report is ready and how to collect or receive it; it never reads out values or says whether results are normal. If the patient wants to discuss results, it books a consultation or a callback from the doctor.

When a doctor is on leave or running late, the agent tells callers before they travel: it offers another doctor of the same speciality, a later slot, or the first date after the leave, and moves the booking if they agree. Each change is confirmed on WhatsApp so the patient has it in writing.