How the bot books
This page describes what the patient sees. Read it before any other if part of your job is explaining to someone why the bot did what it did.
It only talks to registered patients
This is the rule that surprises people most, so it goes first.
When a number that is not on the Patients roster writes in, the bot does not converse. It replies with an invitation to register with the clinic, and that's the end of it.
That notice is also sent once per day per number. If the same person writes five times, they get one message, not five. This is so someone who may simply have the wrong number isn't harassed.
What to do: register the patient from the dashboard, or create their appointment by hand with their phone number, which also registers them. From then on the bot talks to them normally.
The order of the conversation
The bot always asks in this order, and never skips ahead:
1. The reason for the visit
It shows your clinic's procedure catalogue as a tappable list. It offers no times until a reason has been chosen.
This is intentional. Without a reason there's no way to know how long the appointment takes or which form applies, and the patient ends up booking something other than what they needed.
2. The doctor
With the reason set, the bot resolves the doctor, trying in this order:
- A doctor the patient already chose by tapping an option
- A doctor the patient named, if unambiguous
- The patient's preferred doctor from their record
- The only doctor, if the clinic has one
If none applies, it shows the list of doctors to choose from.
There is no "any doctor" option. This is deliberate: in a clinic, who sees the patient matters, and a randomly assigned appointment becomes a problem at the front desk. If you want a patient always seen by the same professional, set them as preferred doctor on their record.
3. The time
Only now does it show slots, drawn from the doctor's weekly schedule, minus what's already taken, skipping their time off.
If the patient has a preferred schedule on their record, slots falling inside it appear first. It's an ordering, not a filter: the other times remain available.
4. Confirmation
Before booking, the bot sends a card with date, time and doctor, and waits for confirmation. Only then does the appointment exist.
It never asks for a name
Because the patient is registered, the bot already knows it. A bot asking the name of someone who has attended the clinic for years is exactly the kind of detail that makes an assistant feel like a form.
Cancelling and rescheduling
The patient can ask in writing at any time, and can also use the Cancelar button on the 24-hour reminder. Cancelling frees the slot immediately and voids pending reminders.
When the bot can't help
If a patient asks for something the bot doesn't handle, or insists on a time that doesn't exist, it says so rather than inventing. It won't book outside a doctor's schedule or offer occupied slots.
The limits protecting your schedule
- Very long messages are rejected with a friendly notice.
- There's a daily message cap per number. Once exceeded, the bot replies once that it will continue tomorrow, then stops. This is what stops a single number consuming the clinic's attention.
- Attempts to manipulate the assistant with hidden instructions are discarded silently.
These limits apply per clinic: the same number writing to two different clinics has independent allowances.
Several appointments at once
By default a patient can hold more than one future appointment. If you'd rather they couldn't — one active appointment per patient — change it in Configuration. The dashboard assistant never had that limit: your team can book whatever it needs.