Glossary of terms

A plain-English guide to the words and labels you’ll see across the AI Receptionist — on the Dashboard, in the Live feed, in Call logs, and in Settings. Use it whenever a label on screen isn’t obvious. Elva is your AI receptionist; “the app” is the product where you watch and manage her work.

Channels

The four ways patients can reach Elva. Each one has its own settings page.

• Call — Phone calls. Patients call your practice number and Elva answers.
• SMS — Two-way text messaging. Patients text your practice number and Elva replies in the same thread.
• Email — Patients email your practice and Elva reads and responds.
• Chat — The web chat widget on your website. Patients type and Elva answers live.

Call direction

Whether a call is coming in or going out.

• Inbound — A patient is calling your practice and Elva answers.
• Out · Patient — Elva is calling a patient — for example to confirm an appointment or follow up after treatment (a recall).
• Out · Insurance — Elva is calling an insurance company on a patient’s behalf, such as to check coverage.

Call phases (Live feed)

Where Elva is in the conversation, shown as a progress track while a call is live. A call moves through these in order:

• greet — Elva has answered and is welcoming the caller.
• identify — Elva is finding out who the patient is and pulling up their record.
• intent — Elva is working out why they called.
• verify — Elva is confirming the patient’s identity before sharing any private details.
• resolve — Elva is handling the request — booking, rescheduling, answering, and so on.
• confirm — Elva is recapping what was done so the patient knows the next step.

Intents (why a patient called)

The reason behind an inbound call, shown as a label on each call in Call logs and the Live feed.

• New patient exam — Someone who isn’t a patient yet wants to book a first visit.
• Scheduling — Booking a new appointment.
• Reschedule — Moving an existing appointment to a different time.
• Cancellation — Calling off an appointment.
• Emergency / pain — An urgent issue such as severe pain, swelling, or trauma.
• Post-op concern — A worry after a procedure, such as bleeding or discomfort.
• Billing — A question about a bill, payment, or balance.
• Insurance — A question about coverage or which plans you accept.
• Pricing inquiry — Asking what a treatment costs.
• Cosmetic consult — Interest in cosmetic work such as whitening, veneers, or Invisalign.
• Hours & location — Asking when you’re open or where you are.
• Other — Anything that doesn’t fit the categories above.

Outcomes (inbound)

How an inbound call ended, shown on each call in Call logs.

• Scheduled — A new appointment was booked.
• Rescheduled — An existing appointment was moved.
• Registered — A new patient record was created.
• Answered — The patient’s question was answered; no booking needed.
• Needs callback — Someone on your team needs to call the patient back.
• Transferred — The call was handed to a person on your team (a warm transfer).
• Cancelled — An appointment was cancelled.
• Voicemail — The caller left a voicemail.
• Dropped — The call ended before it was resolved.

Recall types (outbound)

The kind of outbound recall call Elva is making to a patient, shown on each call in the Outbound — patients tab of Call logs.

• Appt confirmation — Confirming an upcoming appointment.
• Appt reminder — Reminding a patient about a booked appointment.
• Post-op follow-up — Checking in after a procedure.
• Hygiene recall — Inviting a patient to book their next cleaning.
• Treatment plan — Following up on treatment a patient hasn’t booked yet.
• Balance follow-up — Following up on an outstanding balance.
• Reactivation — Reaching out to a patient who hasn’t visited in a while.

Outbound outcomes

How an outbound recall call ended.

• Post-op check completed — The follow-up was done and all was well.
• Post-op concern — escalated — A post-op worry came up and was handed to your team.
• Appointment confirmed — The patient confirmed their existing appointment.
• Appointment booked — A new appointment was booked on the call.
• Appointment rescheduled — An appointment was moved to a new time.
• Cancelled — reschedule pending — The patient cancelled and still needs a new time.
• Payment commitment — The patient agreed to pay their balance.
• Payment completed — The balance was paid.
• Balance deferred — The balance conversation was put off for later.
• Treatment plan accepted — The patient agreed to proceed with planned treatment.
• Treatment plan declined — The patient chose not to proceed.
• Reactivated — booked — A lapsed patient came back and booked.
• Not interested — The patient declined the reason for the call.
• Voicemail left — Elva left a message.
• No contact — Elva couldn’t reach the patient.

Outbound status

Whether an outbound call attempt connected, shown alongside the outcome.

• Completed — The call connected and finished.
• Voicemail — Went to voicemail.
• No answer — Nobody picked up.
• Failed — The call couldn’t be placed.
• Cancelled — The attempt was called off.

Sentiment

How the patient sounded during the conversation, shown as a coloured dot.

• Positive — Happy or satisfied.
• Neutral — Calm and matter-of-fact.
• Anxious — Worried or nervous, often about pain or a procedure.
• Frustrated — Annoyed or impatient.
• Negative — Clearly unhappy.

Priority / urgency

How quickly an item on the Dashboard’s Needs attention list should be handled.

• Urgent — Handle now (often a clinical concern).
• High — Handle today.
• Medium — Handle soon, when you have a moment.

Warm transfer and escalation

• Warm transfer — When Elva hands a live patient to a person on your team. She stays on the line, passes along everything she’s learned, and your team picks up with full context — the patient never has to repeat themselves.
• Escalation reason — The reason Elva handed the patient over, such as a billing dispute, a post-op concern, or the patient simply asking for a person. You set the topics that trigger a transfer per channel under Warm transfer in each channel’s settings.

When a warm transfer is waiting, the app also flags how to approach it:

• Urgent — The patient sounds frustrated; pick up first.
• Sensitive — The patient sounds anxious; handle with care.
• Standard — A routine handoff.
• Positive — A friendly, low-stress handoff.

Training and rules

• The Brain — Elva’s knowledge base: everything she knows about your practice — hours, fees, insurance, policies, providers, and FAQs. When you spot a gap, you’ll see an Add to Brain button to fill it. (Managed under Settings ▸ Knowledge base.)
• Practice rules — The office policies you give Elva in plain language, so she behaves the way your practice does (for example, “Refuse to schedule on Sundays”). Elva reviews what you write and reports back under What Elva found in your rules.
• Rule statuses — How each practice rule turned out:
• Enabled — The rule is active and Elva is following it.
• Needs config — The rule works but something needs confirming or setting up first.
• Rejected — The rule can’t be applied as written; you’ll see what to fix.
• Capabilities — The specific things you allow Elva to do, set per channel — for example “Book a new appointment,” “Reschedule an appointment,” or “Provide pricing.” If a capability is off for a channel, Elva won’t do it there.
• Quote style — How Elva states prices: Starting at… (a from-price) or Exact price.
• Late enforcement tone — How firmly Elva reminds a patient of your cancellation policy: Soft guilt (remind, don’t fine) or Strict policy (quote the fee).
• Penalty window — The notice period before an appointment within which a late cancellation may apply, in hours.

Verification and compliance

• Verification — How Elva confirms a patient is who they say they are before sharing private details. You choose which checks to require per channel: Phone number (last 4 digits), Date of birth, ZIP code, or Full name.
• Compliance — Privacy and recording safeguards you switch on or off, including:
• Verify identity before sharing chart info — Elva confirms identity before revealing appointment details, balances, or chart info.
• Include patient names in outbound voicemails — Whether a voicemail says the patient’s name (off keeps messages generic).
• Discuss outstanding balances over the phone — Whether Elva can state a balance amount aloud.
• Quote specific fees without insurance verification — Whether Elva can give exact prices before coverage is checked.
• Record all calls for quality and training — Whether calls are recorded.
• Require two-party consent for recording — Whether Elva asks permission to record (required in some states).
• Disclose AI nature on first interaction — Whether Elva tells patients she’s an AI receptionist.

Voice and personality

• Voice preset — The voice patients hear when Elva speaks. Choose from Ara (warm, friendly), Eve (energetic, upbeat), Rex (confident, clear), Sal (smooth, balanced), or Leo (authoritative, strong).
• Warmth and Formality — Sliders that fine-tune how friendly and how formal Elva sounds.

Emergency

• Emergency detection — The criteria Elva uses to spot an urgent call and act fast — for example bypassing standard scheduling or paging the on-call dentist.
• After-hours emergency routing — Where an urgent after-hours call goes: Page the on-call dentist or Voicemail with urgency flag.

Timing terms

• Quiet hours — A window (for SMS) when Elva won’t send outbound texts, so patients aren’t messaged late at night or early in the morning. You set a start and end time.
• Target response time (Response SLA) — How quickly Elva aims to reply to emails during business hours. After-hours emails get a reply when you open.

Key metrics (KPIs)

The headline numbers on your Dashboard.

• Conversations handled — How many patient conversations Elva took, across all channels.
• Completed without staff — Conversations Elva fully resolved on her own, with no staff time needed.
• Needs attention — Items waiting for a person on your team.
• Staff time protected — Roughly how much front-desk time Elva saved by handling routine work.
• Appointments created — New appointments Elva booked.
• Appointment intent → booking — Of the patients who called wanting to book, the share Elva actually got booked.
• Cancellations saved — Appointments that were heading for cancellation but were kept or rescheduled instead.
• Hygiene recall conversions — Recall outreach that turned into a booked cleaning.
• Same-day bookings — Appointments booked for the same day.
• Reschedules — Appointments moved to a new time.
• New patients — First-time patients Elva registered and booked.
• Production supported — An estimate of the revenue Elva’s bookings helped bring in over the period.
• Escalated / Safe escalations — Calls Elva correctly handed to your team when a person was needed.