Frequently asked questions

Quick answers to the questions front-desk staff and practice owners ask most about Elva, your AI receptionist. Each answer points you to a fuller article when you want the details.

Getting started

What does Elva actually do?

Elva answers your patients across four channels — Call, SMS, Email, and Chat — and handles the routine front-desk work: booking and rescheduling appointments, answering questions about hours, insurance, and pricing, and capturing new patients. She also makes outbound calls for things like recall and reminders. When a conversation needs a person, she hands it to your team with full context. See Getting started with the AI Receptionist.

Where do I start each day?

Open the Dashboard — it’s the first screen you see and it’s built for a quick morning check. Start with Needs staff attention at the top; if that’s clear, Elva has the rest covered. See The Dashboard.

How do I hear Elva before patients do?

On a brand-new account you’ll see a button to Place a test call so you can hear her greeting and walk through a booking yourself. It’s the best way to get comfortable before real calls come in. See Getting started with the AI Receptionist.

During a call

How do I see what Elva is doing on a call right now?

Open the Live feed — it shows every call Elva is handling this second, each as its own tile, sorted so the calls that may need you float to the top. Click any tile to open the detail panel, where the Action timeline lets you follow the call step by step as it unfolds. See Live feed.

Can I listen to a live call without the patient knowing?

Yes. Open the call’s tile in the Live feed and click Listen in — you’ll hear the conversation quietly, and neither the caller nor Elva is interrupted. Use it to check how a call is going before you decide whether to step in. See Live feed.

Can I take over a live call?

Yes. In the Live feed, open the call and click Take over — Elva steps aside and connects you to the patient, picking up from where she left off. This is the live version of a warm transfer, so the patient stays on the line and you start with full context. See Live feed.

A patient is upset or wants a human — what happens?

Elva starts a warm transfer: she keeps the patient on the line, tells them help is coming, and passes you everything she’s learned. To pick it up, go to Warm transfer, select the waiting patient (start with cards marked PRIORITY), read the AI call summary, and choose Pick up call. The patient never has to repeat themselves. See Warm transfer.

What do the call stages mean (greet, identify, intent…)?

Every call moves through the same natural stages — greet → identify → intent → verify → resolve → confirm — from saying hello, to finding out who the patient is and what they need, to confirming the result. The tile’s status and Action timeline show you which stage a call is in. See Live feed.

Bookings & outcomes

Can Elva book appointments over text, email, and chat — not just calls?

Yes, within the limits you set. In Settings ▸ Capabilities you decide which actions Elva can take on each channel — for example, you might let her book new patients on Call and Chat but keep new-patient booking off SMS and Email. Booking, rescheduling, cancelling, and confirming can each be allowed or held back per channel. See Settings & training Elva.

What does “Completed without staff” mean?

It’s the count of conversations Elva finished entirely on her own, with no one from your team needed — shown on the Dashboard as a number and as a percentage of all conversations. It’s your at-a-glance proof of how much front-desk work Elva is taking off your plate. See The Dashboard.

What’s the difference between “Needs callback” and “Transferred”?

Both appear as outcomes in your Call logs. Transferred means Elva handed the patient to a person live, with the caller still on the line (a warm transfer). Needs callback means the call ended without a live handoff and someone on your team should call the patient back — it lands on your Needs staff attention list. See Call logs.

What’s the difference between Inbound and Outbound — patients?

Inbound calls are patients calling your practice. Outbound — patients are calls Elva makes out to patients — appointment confirmations and reminders, hygiene recall, post-op follow-ups, treatment-plan and balance follow-ups, and reactivation. Your Call logs has a separate tab for each. See Call logs.

How does sentiment work?

Elva reads how each caller sounds and tags the conversation as positive, neutral, anxious, frustrated, or negative, shown as a small coloured dot beside the call. It helps you spot the patients who may need a gentler touch — frustrated callers float to the top of the Live feed so you can step in. See Live feed.

Training Elva

How do I change Elva’s voice or greeting?

Go to Settings ▸ Personality. There you can pick a voice from a set of presets (each with its own tone), set how warm and formal she sounds, and write the exact words she opens with — there’s a separate greeting for business hours and one for after hours. See Settings & training Elva.

How do I teach Elva something she got wrong or didn’t know?

Add it to the Brain — Elva’s knowledge of your practice. Go to Settings ▸ Knowledge and create or edit an entry (hours, fees, insurance, policies, providers, FAQs, and more). When the Dashboard spots a recurring question, it offers an Add to Brain shortcut so you can answer it once and Elva handles it from then on. See Settings & training Elva.

How do I make sure Elva follows my office’s rules?

Write them in plain English under Settings ▸ Practice rules — things like “verify insurance before booking new patients” or “don’t book Dr. Lin past 4 pm.” Elva reads each rule and shows you whether it’s understood and active, needs a little setup, or can’t be applied yet, so there are no surprises. See Settings & training Elva.

How do I stop Elva from texting patients late at night?

Turn on quiet hours in Settings ▸ SMS. Set a start and end time and Elva holds outbound texts during that window, so patients aren’t pinged late in the evening or early in the morning. See Settings & training Elva.

How does Elva know what counts as an emergency?

You define it in Settings ▸ Emergency — for example, severe pain rated 7 or higher, visible swelling, or trauma from an accident. When Elva recognizes one of these, she can skip standard scheduling, use lighter verification, and route the patient the way you’ve chosen so no one in real pain is left waiting. See Settings & training Elva.

Privacy & compliance

Does Elva record calls, and how is patient privacy handled?

You control this in Settings ▸ Compliance. There you can switch call recording on or off, require two-party consent, have Elva verify a patient’s identity before sharing any account details, keep patient names out of voicemails, and disclose that she’s an AI. These controls let you match Elva’s behavior to your office’s privacy practices — for specific legal requirements in your area, check with your own compliance advisor. See Settings & training Elva.

How does Elva confirm she’s talking to the right patient?

Before sharing anything from a patient’s record, Elva verifies their identity using the methods you choose per channel — for example last four digits of the phone number, date of birth, ZIP code, or full name. You can require stronger checks on calls and lighter ones on low-risk channels like chat. See Settings & training Elva.

Are there things Elva will never do?

Yes. Some safety boundaries are always on: Elva never gives medical advice or diagnoses, never recommends medications, never promises insurance coverage, always redirects life-threatening emergencies to 911, and refers crisis signals to a live person. These can’t be switched off. See Settings & training Elva.

Channels

Which channels does Elva cover?

Four: Call, SMS, Email, and Chat. Each has its own settings page where you control verification, when to hand off to your team, and channel-specific touches like an email response time or a chat welcome message. See Settings & training Elva.

Can I have Elva sign her texts and emails with my practice name?

Yes. In Settings ▸ SMS and Settings ▸ Email you can set a signature so messages close the way your practice would — for example “— Bayside Dental” on texts or a fuller sign-off with your phone number on email. See Settings & training Elva.

Can I decide when Elva hands a conversation to my team on each channel?

Yes. Every channel has its own handoff rules — you list the topics that should always reach a person (billing disputes, clinical questions, anyone who asks for a human) and Elva transfers when one comes up. See Warm transfer and Settings & training Elva.

Reviewing & reporting

How do I find a specific past call?

Go to Call logs, choose the Inbound or Outbound — patients tab, and use the search and filters to narrow down — by Intent, Outcome, Sentiment, or Escalation reason on inbound, and by Recall type, Outcome, or Attempts on outbound. Set the time range to Today, last 7 days, last 30 days, or a Custom window, then open any call to read its full transcript. See Call logs.

Can I read exactly what was said on a call?

Yes. Open any call in Call logs and you’ll see a turn-by-turn transcript of the conversation, along with a plain-English summary and the key facts Elva gathered. During a live call you can also click View transcript in the Live feed. See Call logs and Live feed.

How do I know if Elva is improving, or where she struggles?

Two places help. The Dashboard‘s Improve Elva section surfaces patterns across many conversations — like a dozen patients asking about Invisalign financing — each with a suggested next step. For the deeper view of booking barriers, knowledge gaps, and patient FAQs over time, open Reports. See Reports and The Dashboard.

Which calls should I actually listen to?

Check Calls worth reviewing on the Dashboard — a short, hand-picked list that mixes a smooth Best completed call with a Safe escalation and the occasional moment worth a closer look. It’s the fastest way to see what good looks like and catch anything you’d handle differently. See The Dashboard.