Choosing an AI receptionist when someone else runs it.

The four shapes

Every option you will be shown is one of these.

1. The voice-first startup

Best at: Answering the phone, and integrating with practice management software so it can write into the diary. If unanswered calls are your biggest leak and you are on a supported system, this is a fair choice.

Watch for: What happens to the enquiries that never ring you. A large share of new enquiries now arrive as a message rather than a call, and a phone agent does not see any of them.

2. The human answering service

Best at: A professional human voice on your phone line, and judgement. Long-established, and you can hear what you are buying before you sign.

Watch for: Whether they finish the job or take a message, and how the billing works. Per-call and per-minute pricing means your busiest month is your most expensive month.

3. The DIY tool

Best at: Price, and speed of getting started. If you are technically confident and enjoy this kind of thing, you can get a long way for very little money.

Watch for: Who does the work. You write the knowledge base, you test the answers, you maintain it, and you own it when it tells a patient something wrong. That is a real job, and it does not go away.

4. The done-for-you managed service

Best at: Being finished. Someone learns your business, builds it, maintains it and is accountable when it misbehaves.

Watch for: The price, which is higher, and whether the person selling it is actually the person building it. This is the shape we are, so read the next section with that in mind.

Eleven things to ask any vendor, us included

Ask all eleven. The answers take five minutes and they will separate the field faster than any demo.

1. Where is the company registered, and where is the data held?

Several products sold as British are registered elsewhere behind a UK correspondence address. Ask for the company number and look it up. Ask which country the conversations are stored in. Neither question is rude and both take a minute.

2. Who is named as accountable when it goes wrong?

Not a support queue, a person. Ask who you call at 8am when it has told a patient the wrong price, and how quickly it gets fixed.

3. Is there a setup fee, and what does it buy?

A setup fee is fine if you can see the labour in it. Ask for the actual steps and the days. If nobody can tell you what happens in the setup, you are paying an entry toll.

4. What happens when the usage allowance runs out?

Some products simply stop answering until you upgrade. Ask directly: at the limit, does it keep replying to my customers or not, and does unused allowance carry into next month.

5. Which channels does it actually answer?

Phone, web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS, email. Ask which are included at your price rather than which exist somewhere in the product. Then look at where your last twenty enquiries actually came from.

6. Does it complete the booking, or hand out a link?

A link is where people leak. Ask to see it take a booking end to end, in the conversation, into a real diary, with the confirmation sent.

7. What does it do when it does not know the answer?

Ask them to show you, live, a question it cannot answer. If it invents something, walk away. If it says so plainly and hands over with the details captured, that is the behaviour you want.

8. Can it be made to give clinical advice?

Try it. Ask it something clinical and see what happens. Then ask how prescription-only treatments are handled, because the advertising rules apply to your practice, not to the vendor.

9. What is the notice period, and does it renew automatically?

A 90-day notice period on a small monthly retainer, or an automatic renewal into a fresh fixed term, is how people end up paying for a year they did not want.

10. Who owns the knowledge base if you leave?

You spent hours getting your services, prices and policies into it. Ask whether you can export it, and what happens to your customers’ conversations after you go.

11. What is the response-time commitment, and what happens if it is missed?

Almost nobody in this market will put a number on this. Ask for one, ask how it is measured, and ask whether you will be able to see it.

Our answers, since we wrote the questions

The same eleven, answered for Pikul Agency. Read them with the fourth shape in mind.

1. Where is the company registered, and where is the data held?
   R P PIKUL Ltd, company 10568899, England and Wales, ICO ZC192233, conversation data hosted primarily in the EU.
2. Who is named as accountable when it goes wrong?
   Rafal is accountable and you get his number.
3. Is there a setup fee, and what does it buy?
   The build is scoped on the call, as part of a partnership, and buys the discovery, the training, the testing and the sign-off set out in your written quote.
4. What happens when the usage allowance runs out?
   There is no message cap that stops it answering.
5. Which channels does it actually answer?
   It covers WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat, SMS, email (in beta) and Telegram, and live phone answering by Pikul Voice AI is available on request.
6. Does it complete the booking, or hand out a link?
   It completes the booking in the conversation.
7. What does it do when it does not know the answer?
   When it does not know, it says so and hands over, and we will show you that live on the call.
8. Can it be made to give clinical advice?
   It does not give clinical advice, and prescription-only treatments are never priced in a conversation.
9. What is the notice period, and does it renew automatically?
   The scope, term and notice period are agreed in writing before any work begins.
10. Who owns the knowledge base if you leave?
    On exit, your conversations and contacts are returned to you or deleted, at your choice.
11. What is the response-time commitment, and what happens if it is missed?
    Every enquiry on a connected channel is answered in seconds.

Want to put the questions to us live? Book a call and bring your list.