How to choose
an AI receptionist
Nine questions worth asking any vendor before you sign, and what a straight answer to each one sounds like. Most of them take a single phone call to settle.
Can you hear it handle a real call?
A polished demo video proves nothing. Phone audio is compressed, people interrupt themselves, background noise is constant, and callers change their mind halfway through a sentence. A system that sounds perfect in a browser can fall apart on a real line.
What a good answer sounds like. You should be able to dial a number yourself, right now, without booking anything. If the only demo on offer is a recording they chose, or a text-to-speech widget on a webpage, you are being shown the best case.
Ours. Call (813) 530-1664 and try to trip her up. Tell her a bracket came off at nine at night, ask what insurance she takes, change your mind about the day. No form, no calendar invite, no sales call first.
Does it write into your practice software, or just send you a message?
This is the difference between a receptionist and a notification. If the system books an appointment into Dentrix or Cloud 9, the slot is gone and your schedule is right. If it emails your front desk to go and do it, you have bought a to-do list.
What a good answer sounds like. Ask which systems it writes into by name, and whether that write is two-way. "Integrates with" can mean it reads your calendar. It can also mean it sends you a text.
Ours. She books, reschedules and cancels through NexHealth into Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Dentrix Ascend, Curve, Denticon, Cloud 9, Dolphin and OrthoTrac. Run something else and the office gets a structured message in the way it already works.
Flat rate, or per minute?
Per-minute pricing charges you most in the months you need it most. A busy new-patient season, an insurance change, a competitor closing down the road — every one of those pushes your bill up exactly when your phone is finally working.
What a good answer sounds like. A flat monthly number per location, so a good month costs the same as a quiet one and you never find yourself hoping a caller gets off the phone.
Ours. One fixed monthly number, written into the scope before you sign. No per-minute meter, no setup fee.
Will they sign a Business Associate Agreement?
Anything that handles a patient name, a date of birth or a reason for a visit is handling protected health information. That makes the vendor a business associate, and a BAA is not optional paperwork — it is the contract that makes the arrangement lawful.
What a good answer sounds like. A straight yes, in writing, plus a clear answer on which parts of their stack are covered and who their own subprocessors are. "We're HIPAA compliant" is a marketing sentence, not an answer. No authority certifies software as HIPAA compliant.
Ours. We sign a BAA with your practice, and regulated workloads run on HIPAA-eligible infrastructure under a signed BAA of our own.
Who changes it when your practice changes?
Practices change constantly. A new insurance you started taking. A doctor out for two weeks. A different way of handling Friday afternoons. If updating the system is your job, it becomes another piece of software your team has to learn, and it will drift out of date within a month.
What a good answer sounds like. Find out whether you are buying a tool you configure or a service someone runs. Then ask how long a change takes and who does it.
Ours. You say what changed and it changes that day, done by us. There is no dashboard to log into and nothing for your team to learn. That is the product, not a limitation of it.
Does it speak your patients' languages?
In most of Florida a meaningful share of the families calling a practice will start the conversation in Spanish. A system that answers in English and offers a callback has already lost that appointment to whoever picks up next.
What a good answer sounds like. Ask whether it switches language mid-call, or routes to a queue. Those are very different experiences for the person holding the phone.
Ours. English and Spanish, switched mid-sentence. No transfer, no apology, no queue.
What do you actually get after each call?
The value is not only in the call being answered. It is in knowing what was asked, what was promised and what needs doing — without anyone listening back through audio to find out.
What a good answer sounds like. A written record you can read in ten seconds, search later, and forward to whoever needs to act on it.
Ours. Every call comes back written down: who called, what they asked, what was done, how it ended. Plus a weekly summary that arrives without you asking for it.
How long until it is actually answering?
Vendors quote installation time and mean something different by it. Some mean the phone is live. Some mean a project kickoff. The number that matters is when a patient calling your practice reaches something useful.
What a good answer sounds like. A date for the phone being live, and a separate date for anything that depends on carrier registration, which is outside every vendor's control.
Ours. Calls are live in one week. Texting from your own practice number switches on once carrier registration clears, usually two to four weeks in. We file that registration for you and she is answering calls the whole time.
What happens if you want to leave?
Front-desk systems are sticky on purpose. The question is whether that stickiness comes from the product being good or from your data being hard to get back.
What a good answer sounds like. Confirm the phone number stays yours, that patient data lives in your own practice management system rather than theirs, and what unwinding actually involves.
Ours. Your number is yours. Your patient data is in your own practice management system, where it already was. Pointing the line back at your front desk takes about as long as making a phone call.
Start with question one.
It is the only one you can settle without talking to anybody. Dial the number, behave like a difficult patient, and decide for yourself.