Getting started with the AI Receptionist

This article introduces Elva, your practice’s AI receptionist, and shows you how she handles patient conversations, how a call flows, and the first steps to set her up.

What the AI Receptionist is

Elva is your practice’s AI receptionist. She answers patient calls, texts, emails, and chats — around the clock — so your front desk isn’t tied to the phone.

She books appointments, answers routine questions (hours, location, what you offer, insurance basics), and makes outbound recall calls to bring patients back in. When a conversation needs a real person, she hands it to your team. The result: fewer missed calls, fewer voicemails to return, and a front desk that’s free to care for the patients in front of them.

The channels Elva covers

• Call — Elva answers incoming phone calls and speaks with patients in a natural voice.
• SMS — She replies to patient text messages and can send reminders by text.
• Email — She reads and responds to patient emails.
• Chat — She handles chat conversations from your website.

How an inbound call works

When a patient calls, Elva moves through six phases. You don’t have to do anything — this all happens on the call — but knowing the phases helps you follow along in Live feed.

1. Greet — Elva answers the call and welcomes the patient.
2. Identify — She finds out who’s calling and looks them up as a patient.
3. Intent — She learns why they’re calling (book a visit, ask a question, reschedule).
4. Verify — She gathers what she needs to help, like confirming details or preferences.
5. Resolve — She takes action, such as booking the appointment or answering the question.
6. Confirm — She repeats back what was done so the patient leaves the call clear and reassured.

Throughout the call, Elva also senses how the patient feels — picking up on urgency and reading sentiment (such as anxious or frustrated) — so she can respond with the right tone and flag anything that needs a person.

Inbound vs Outbound — patients

Elva works in both directions:

• Inbound — patients call in, and Elva answers. This is the everyday “someone’s calling the office” flow above.
• Outbound — patients — Elva calls patients herself for reminders, appointment confirmations, recalls (time for a cleaning), and follow-ups after a visit.

So Elva both picks up the phone and reaches out, which keeps your schedule full without your team dialing patient after patient.

When Elva hands off to a person

Some moments need a human — a delicate question, an upset patient, or anything outside what Elva should handle. When that happens, Elva uses a warm transfer: she stays on the line and brings your team in, passing along the full context of the conversation.

That means your team member isn’t starting cold. They already know who the patient is and what they need, so the handoff feels seamless to the patient.

A tour of the app

Here’s where to find things and what each page is for:

• Dashboard — your daily summary: what Elva handled, what needs your attention, and the impact on your practice. See The Dashboard.
• Live feed — watch active calls as they happen, listen in, or step in. See Live feed.
• Warm transfer — pick up the calls Elva hands to your team, with full context. See Warm transfer.
• Call logs — search, review, and audit every call Elva handled, with transcripts. See Call logs.
• Reports — spot patterns over time, like booking barriers and common patient questions. See Reports.
• Settings & training — set up Elva: her personality, knowledge, capabilities, practice rules, and per-channel settings. See Settings & training Elva.

Your first steps

Set Elva up in this order. Each step lives under Settings — full instructions are in Settings & training Elva.

1. Go to Settings ▸ Personality to set Elva’s name, voice, and greeting so she sounds like your practice.
2. Go to Settings ▸ Knowledge to add your practice details — hours, services, location, and FAQs — to the Brain.
3. Go to Settings ▸ Practice rules to write your office policies, so Elva books and answers the way you want.
4. Go to Settings ▸ Capabilities to choose what Elva is allowed to do on each channel.
5. Open the Dashboard and watch as Elva starts handling patient conversations.