This page describes the AI receptionist from the caller's side, and what your team finds afterwards. The switches that turn each ability on or off are on Receptionist → AI Voice, Voice tab; see Set what your AI can do on calls.
Confirm the callback number
Before booking, the AI asks: "Is the number you're calling from the best one to reach you?"
- Yes: the booking uses the number they're calling from. Nobody has to read digits aloud.
- A different number: the AI takes it and reads it back digit by digit before booking.
- Probably misheard: if the number the AI heard is one digit off the number they're calling from (or two digits off when it isn't a whole phone number), nothing is booked until the AI asks "Is [that number], the number you're calling from, the best number to reach you?"
- Not a real number: if what the AI heard isn't one whole phone number, FrontDesk uses the number they're calling from, or the AI asks again. That way confirmations and reminders reach the caller.
The AI never uses your office's own numbers as a caller's number. If your main line, your transfer number or the number the caller dialed ends up as the caller's phone, FrontDesk swaps in their caller ID. This covers bookings, messages, the waitlist and identity checks.
Extensions
A caller at an office, lab or hospital often needs an extension or a menu option. The AI takes it separately from the number, saves it on the message as "Callback extension: 204" (for example), and confirms it: "I've noted your message for the office with extension 204 for the callback." A client whose number on file includes an extension is still recognized when they call from that number.
Dates of birth and new clients
- The AI asks "Have you been seen here before?" when it isn't sure. Only the caller can say they're new; a booking that can't find a chart doesn't make them new.
- Booking a new caller without an EHR creates a client record with their name and phone, their email if they gave one that no other client uses, and their date of birth if they gave a real one.
- With an EHR connected, the AI asks for the date of birth so the right chart is found or created.
- When the month and day could be swapped (both 12 or lower), the AI confirms the month by name, for example "so that's April 9th?"
- New callers answer your prescreener questions first when you've turned those on; see Prescreener questions.
In person or video
When your services include virtual visits:
- If the caller's request matches a service you offer both in person and virtually, the AI asks: "Would you like to come into the office for that, or do it as a virtual visit?"
- It never assumes. A visit is virtual only when the caller asks for one or the service is virtual only. If the caller says they can't travel, are out of town or are unwell, it may offer a virtual visit.
- When Telehealth is on and your plan includes it, a virtual visit the AI books starts as a video visit, the same as one booked on your calendar.
- A reschedule keeps the visit type. If a caller wants to move a video visit to in person (or the other way), the AI explains that moving it would keep it the same, offers to book a new visit of the other kind, and cancels the old one only after the caller confirms.
Services whose names sound alike are flagged on Settings → Services; see Services heard on calls.
Book several family members in one call
With Book appointments on, a parent can book for several children, or a family for everyone, in one call.
- Without an EHR: the AI books up to 6 people at once. Each person gets their own appointment, and a confirmation text once texting is set up. The AI reads back a summary of every booking and says which, if any, it couldn't make. Past 6 it says "I can book up to 6 appointments at once. Please call back for additional bookings."
- With athenahealth connected: the AI books each person one at a time and confirms each booking before starting the next, so every visit lands in athenahealth.
Callers from other organizations
When the caller says they're calling from another doctor's office, a hospital, a home care or home health agency, an adult day center or other care facility, a pharmacy, a lab, an insurance company, or as a case manager, about a patient, they are not the patient. The AI:
- Doesn't verify them, look the patient up or check appointments, even if they give the patient's name and date of birth.
- Doesn't confirm or deny that the person is a patient here, or who their provider is.
- Transfers them right away if they ask to speak with someone and transfers are available (not during your staff lunch break or a holiday closure). If a transfer on this call already went unanswered, it takes the message instead.
- Otherwise takes a message with their name, organization and callback number (and extension), the patient's name and date of birth, and what they need, and tells them the office will call back.
A family member or caregiver calling about a relative isn't treated this way; the AI helps them as usual. Returning a provider's or staff member's call is message-taking too, so it never needs identity checks.
Who can hear a client's details
With Verify identity before sharing records off (the default without an EHR), nobody on the line proves who they are, so FrontDesk limits what a caller can hear:
- Details from a client's record (their visits, balance, phone, email or last visit) are only for a caller ringing from the number on that record. A parent whose number is saved on a child's record counts.
- Confirming, rescheduling or cancelling a visit, and texting a payment link, also only work for the number they're calling from.
- Asked about anyone else, by name or by another number, the AI shares nothing, not even whether that person is a client. It says it can't share another person's details over the phone and offers to take a message or have the office call back.
- A caller who says it's their own account but is on a different phone gets the same offer, or a call back on the number on file.
- Booking a new appointment, the waitlist, messages and general questions work for every caller.
This is enforced on the server, not just in the AI's instructions. With Verify identity before sharing records on (always on with athenahealth), the caller verifies with their name, date of birth and one detail on file instead; see Verify caller identity.
What your team sees afterwards
- Bookings appear on the calendar, with a confirmation text to the caller once texting is set up. A new caller's client record is created at the same time.
- Messages appear in Tasks with their category. The callback extension is in the message. A message from a caller the AI tried and failed to verify carries a Couldn't verify chip: confirm who they are before sharing anything when you call back.
- Every call is in Call Logs with its summary and transcript, so you can hear exactly what the caller said. See Review call recordings and transcripts.