Connect WhatsApp
Until this step is done, the bot receives and sends nothing. It is the only part of setup that needs involvement from us.
What you need
A WhatsApp Business number owned by the clinic, meeting two conditions:
- It cannot be in use in the WhatsApp app — neither regular WhatsApp nor WhatsApp Business on a phone. A number can only live in one place at a time. If someone uses that number from a handset today, connecting it here will stop it working on that handset.
- It must be able to receive an SMS or a call to verify itself, once.
Your existing number, or a new one?
This is the most important decision on this page, and it is worth making before you touch anything.
Recommended: a new line, just for booking
Get a new SIM, connect it here, and advertise it as the appointments line: on your Google listing, on Instagram, on the sign at reception, in your phone's hold message.
Why this is the normal choice:
- Your existing WhatsApp is left alone. Reception keeps answering from the same handset, with the same history, exactly as before.
- There is no cutover day and no risk of losing WhatsApp mid-morning.
- It separates the automatic from the human: the booking line schedules on its own 24/7, and the existing line is free for what genuinely needs a person.
- If you later want to move the main number across, you can — but with the bot already working, and without pressure.
What to plan for: for a few weeks, booking requests will still arrive on the old number. Reception replies with one short line — "to book, message us on 09XX XXX XXX, you'll get an answer right away" — and patients adjust quickly.
The alternative: move your existing number
You can, and patients then change nothing. But moving a number onto Meta's platform means that number stops working in the WhatsApp app on the phone, and the conversation history is lost. Reception can no longer message a patient from there.
Pingclínica does not currently provide an inbox for your team to reply manually: the assistant books, cancels and looks up appointments, and refers everything else to the phone number you configure. If your reception uses WhatsApp for far more than booking — sending instructions, quoting, coordinating with the lab — moving the main number will leave you short.
In short: if things other than booking happen on your clinic's WhatsApp, use a new line.
Set your contact phone
Whichever option you choose, go to Settings → Contact phone and enter the number where a person actually answers.
The assistant uses it when a patient asks something outside its scope — prices, results, an emergency, an insurance question — and tells them who to contact. Leave it empty and the assistant simply offers no number, leaving the patient with nowhere to go. On a line dedicated to booking, this field is what stops someone talking into the void.
The two models
| Pingclínica manages it | The clinic manages it | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the Meta account | Pingclínica | The clinic |
| What you have to do | Verify the number, send us one identifier | Create the Meta app and generate a token |
| Effort | Low | High |
| Who it's for | Almost every clinic | Clinics already running their own Meta account |
If you're unsure, choose Pingclínica manages it. That's the normal path.
Usual model: Pingclínica manages it
- Write to us at hola@pingclinica.com with the clinic's name and the number you'll use.
- Verify the number following the instructions we send. You'll get a code by SMS or call.
- Send us the identifier for the number (the Phone Number ID) shown when verification completes. It's a long number; it is not your phone number and it is not a secret.
- We link it to your clinic and confirm when it's live.
Each clinic is tied to exactly one number, and each number to exactly one clinic. That's what guarantees one clinic's messages never reach another.
Alternative model: the clinic manages it
Only if the clinic already has its own WhatsApp Business API account and wants to keep control of the access token. It requires creating an application in Meta, generating a long-lived token, and sharing it with us so we can store it encrypted.
It's more work and more maintenance: the token is the clinic's responsibility and must be renewed when it expires. Write to us before starting and we'll coordinate.
Confirming it worked
Message the clinic's number from a phone already registered as a patient (see Patients) and say hello. The bot should reply within seconds.
If you message from a number that isn't on the patient list, the bot will not converse: it will ask you to register with the clinic. That is not a fault, it's the expected behaviour, explained in How the bot books.
If nothing comes back at all, go to The bot isn't replying.
Meta's 24-hour window
A WhatsApp rule worth knowing from the start: the clinic can only send free-form messages to a patient within 24 hours of that patient's last message. Outside that window, Meta only allows pre-approved templates.
That is why reminders use templates and why the bot never starts a conversation on its own. It's not a Pingclínica limitation.
Next
Initial setup: doctors, schedules and procedures.