Outbound campaigns turn a list of clients into booked appointments. Pick who to call, choose whether the AI agent or your team places the calls, set your calling window, and FrontDesk dials, has the conversation, offers real open slots, and books straight into your calendar, logging every outcome.
Outbound calling is a regulated activity. You are the caller as between you and FrontDesk, and you are responsible for having a lawful basis (including any required consent) to contact each person on your list. See the Acceptable Use Policy for the full rules.
Where to find it
Open Campaigns in the left navigation and click New campaign. Or, from Patients, select people and click Add to campaign.
Step 1: Who to call
Pick one:
- Overdue for recall: last cleaning more than 7 months ago, no future visit booked.
- Diagnosed but never scheduled: recommended treatment nobody has booked.
- No-showed in the last 90 days: missed a visit and never rebooked.
- Pick specific patients: search your patient list and choose who to call.
- Upload a list: a CSV from somewhere else. Columns: First Name, Last Name, Phone (required), and Email.
Re-uploading is safe: FrontDesk matches on phone number and updates the existing contact instead of creating a duplicate. Contacts marked do-not-contact or on your blocked list are skipped automatically.
Step 2: The call
- Goal: Book an appointment, Bring back a lapsed patient, Book diagnosed treatment, Confirm an upcoming visit, Follow up after a visit, or Something else (write what the call should say and do).
- Who places the calls: AI agent ("Auto-dials the whole list and books on its own") or Your team ("Builds a call queue someone works through by hand").
- Tone for AI calls: Friendly, Professional, Warm, or Concise. Click Hear the script to preview it.
Step 3: Rules and review
- Name it (required; only your team sees it).
- Calling window: the days, hours and time zone shown at the top. Click Change to edit the days, the Between and and times, and the Time zone. It starts as your practice's time zone. Hours are checked in this time zone, and in each person's own time zone when FrontDesk knows it.
- Find the best times automatically? (AI campaigns): Smart Timing on (the default) learns which hours your patients pick up and book, then leans into those hours inside your window. Even pacing spreads calls evenly. See Smart Timing.
- If nobody picks up? Once, Twice, or 3 tries, two days apart.
- Restricted states: if any contacts are in a restricted state, you see how many won't be called and can enable each state (see below).
- What kind of calls are these? Appointment or treatment (recorded as prior express consent) or Marketing or promotional (recorded as prior express written consent). Tick the consent statement. For an uploaded list, you also confirm the records are yours, not bought, rented, or scraped.
Before you start sums up who will be called, the goal, who places the calls, the window, the number of tries, and the timing.
Nothing dials outside your settings. If today isn't a calling day, or you're outside the window, the campaign shows why instead of dialing. If the calling time zone isn't a real time zone, the campaign pauses itself and says so, with a Choose time zone button; see Manage and monitor your campaigns.
More settings later
Open the campaign's menu and choose Campaign settings to change the Calling time zone, Calling days, Call blocks, Call attempts per contact, Time between attempts, Time between calls, Max calls per day, Skip people who already called you (Never, or within the last 6, 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours; 24 by default), Smart Timing, Restricted states, and Contacts with no address on file.
Consent and restricted states
This is the part that keeps you compliant; read it carefully.
- Consent: you certify that every contact on the list has given the consent required to receive these calls. For automated or AI-voice marketing calls, that generally means prior express written consent.
- Restricted states: several states have stricter "mini-TCPA" telephone-solicitation laws. By default FrontDesk doesn't call anyone in them unless you enable the state for the campaign. They fall into two groups:
- Written consent states: Florida (FTSA), Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Maryland, and Connecticut (written consent for any sales call). Enable these only if every number has prior express written consent to receive these calls.
- In-call opt-out states: New York and Washington. These aren't written-consent rules; FrontDesk applies the required in-call steps automatically (an early opt-out offer for New York; caller identification and a callback number for Washington).
- Contacts with no address on file (Campaign settings): choose to skip anyone whose state FrontDesk can only guess from the area code. Skipping is the conservative choice.
Enabled a restricted state after importing? Contacts held for that state aren't lost. On the campaign page, click Re-queue to move newly eligible contacts back into the calling queue, no re-import needed. Held contacts always show the reason they were skipped.
What every AI call includes
AI-voice calls placed through FrontDesk open, in a fixed order, with:
- An automated-call disclosure so the recipient knows they're speaking with an AI.
- A recording notice.
- Any state-specific identification or opt-out language required for the recipient's state.
Only then does the AI move into the conversation and its goal. You must not attempt to remove or undermine these openers.
Start the campaign and track outcomes
- AI agent: click Start campaign (from the campaign's menu on the Campaigns list, or on the campaign page). Pause campaign stops dialing.
- Your team: open the campaign and click Call Next to call the next queued contact.
Every call is logged with an outcome such as Booked appointment, Transferred to staff, Callback requested, No answer, Left voicemail, Not interested, or Call failed, giving you a full history per contact.
Blocked / do-not-call numbers
Every practice has one shared blocked list. Add a number once, such as a wrong number or someone who asked not to be contacted, and it's skipped by every campaign and future call, and by your texts too. Open it from Campaigns → Blocked numbers, or from Settings → Phone & SMS → Blocked numbers. When someone tells the AI to stop calling during a call, their number is added automatically. See Block spam calls and texts.
Good to know
- Opt-outs are permanent. Once someone opts out, they're skipped across all campaigns for your practice.
- Recording notices follow consent law. See Understand call recording consent.
- You own the list. Don't use purchased, rented, or scraped lists; only call people who have given you the necessary consent.