The phone rings while you’re treating.
That patient books the next clinic.
Solo and small podiatry clinics lose patients in three places: the call that rings out mid-appointment, the lapsed patient nobody recalls, and “online booking” that isn’t really your diary. We build on Cliniko itself, not a plug-in bolted on top.
Leak 1: calls during clinic hours.
You can’t answer with a patient in the chair, and reception cover for a solo clinic rarely matches the call volume. So new patients ring out, and a new patient who rings out books the next clinic on Google. The appointment you were in paid once; the call you missed might have been years of six-weekly care.
Leak 2: patients who quietly lapse.
Routine care runs on rhythm: six-weekly nails, annual diabetic checks, biomechanics reviews. Life gets in the way, nobody recalls them, and a regular becomes a stranger. Your patient list is the clinic’s biggest asset, and mostly nobody is running it.
Leak 3: booking that isn’t your diary.
A “book now” button that opens a contact form, or a widget that doesn’t know your real availability, makes work instead of removing it. Booking only counts when it reads your actual Cliniko diary: real appointment types, real slots, confirmed instantly, no re-keying.
What one missed new patient costs. In your numbers.
Placeholder figures, deliberately. Swap in your own clinic’s; the sum is the point.
Not our numbers and not a promise: tally your own rang-out calls for a fortnight and re-run the sum. Then count patients not seen in nine months.
Three ways to fix it. Two of them aren’t us.
Reception hours, or ring back between patients
Hire part-time cover or return calls at lunch. Honest verdict: a good receptionist earns their keep once you’re multi-practitioner. Falls down for solo clinics because the cost rarely matches the call volume, and ringing back at 1pm loses the 10am caller who already booked elsewhere.
Cliniko’s own online booking, used properly
Cliniko’s booking page is genuinely good and included in what you already pay. Put the link on your Google profile today. Honest verdict: do this regardless of us. Falls down only because most first-time patients still phone, and a booking page can’t recall a lapsed patient or answer “do you treat verrucas?”.
A receptionist built on your Cliniko
An AI receptionist that answers every call, checks your real Cliniko availability, books the actual appointment type into the actual diary, and runs recalls for lapsed patients. Not a widget on top: we build against the Cliniko API itself, as we did for a live clinic. This one is ours.
Our recommendation: Do option two today either way: it’s free and it works. If the phone still rings out through treatment hours after that, option three is the only route that answers the call and books the real diary without hiring reception. Bring a fortnight’s missed-call tally and we’ll size it against your appointment book honestly.
Starter
Every call answered and booked into your real Cliniko diary.
- AI receptionist answers 24/7: new patients, rebookings, questions
- Live Cliniko availability: real appointment types, real slots
- Bookings created in Cliniko itself, confirmations sent to the patient
- Call recordings and a plain-English monthly report
Premium
Calls answered, plus your patient list worked properly.
- Everything in Starter
- Recall campaigns for lapsed and routine-care patients
- Missed-appointment follow-up that rebooks instead of just noting it
- Anything clinical escalated to you, always
- Priority support and a monthly performance review
No prices here on purpose. We diagnose your problem first and size it in your numbers. Then you get a one-time setup fee, a monthly fee for optimisation and support, and options to choose between, never a take-it-or-leave-it.
We start with your diary, not our tech: which appointment types fill, which gap, what a missed appointment costs you, how many calls ring out. Then we build on Cliniko itself: your appointment types, your availability rules, bookings created where your notes already live. Pricing follows the problem: a one-time setup fee plus a monthly fee for optimisation and support, with options to choose between, never a take-it-or-leave-it.
We built Thameside Podiatry’s site and its Cliniko booking flow: real appointment types, live availability, bookings created straight in the clinic diary. Live since July 2026, with the clinic’s first genuine patient enquiry arriving eight days after launch.
Worth doing whether you call us or not.
- Put your Cliniko online booking link on your Google Business Profile and Instagram bio today. Free, ten minutes, and it catches the patients who’d rather not phone.
- Export patients not seen in nine months and text the twenty most recent: “We’ve a few appointments this week if your feet are due a check.” Recalls like this fill quiet days on their own.
- Keep a fortnight’s tally of calls that ring out during treatment. Multiply by your fee and visit rhythm as above. That’s the number to bring to any conversation, with us or anyone else.
Asked before booking. Answered straight.
Patients won’t book with an AI.
The comparison isn’t AI versus you answering: it’s AI versus ringing out. The receptionist answers like a good front desk, books the real diary, and nothing clinical is ever answered by it; questions about treatment go straight to you. Patients get a booked slot instead of a dead line.
Will it mess up my Cliniko diary?
It can only book what Cliniko says is genuinely free, because it reads your availability the way Cliniko does: appointment types, durations, practitioner hours. That’s the point of building on the API instead of bolting a widget on top. Every booking appears in Cliniko the moment it’s made.
I’m a solo clinic. This feels like big-practice kit.
It’s priced from your problem, not a rate card, and sometimes the honest answer after the maths is “not yet, do the free things first”. That’s why the takeaways above cost nothing. If your missed-call tally says the leak is real, solo is exactly when cover you don’t have to employ matters most.