New patients arrive with questions
People who find a functional or integrative medicine practice are often looking for something different from the visit they have had before. They have read about your approach. They want to understand what the first appointment is like, how long it takes, what a program involves, and how you charge.
Those are reasonable questions, and they deserve clear answers. But a small practice has a small front desk. The person who answers the phone is also checking in patients, scheduling follow-ups and handling paperwork. Calls go to voicemail, and an inquiry that took someone several evenings of reading to arrive at can end with a message nobody returns.
An AI chatbot on your website and an AI receptionist on your phone line do not replace your team or your practitioners. They answer the first round of questions from what you have already published, and they catch the calls you cannot take.
What the chatbot does on your website
Anchor Co AI trains a chatbot on your own website. It answers from your pages, so it repeats what your practice has said and nothing else. When it does not know, it says so and takes a message.
For a functional medicine practice, that usually covers:
- The first-visit process. Intake forms, how long the first appointment lasts, what records to send ahead, and what to expect, as your site describes it.
- Cash-pay and insurance, as published. Many practices work outside insurance or only partly with it. If your website states how you charge and what, if anything, insurance may cover, the chat repeats that. It does not guess about a specific plan.
- Programs and labs, as listed. If your site lists programs, packages or lab services, the chat describes them in your wording.
- Practitioner background. Biographies and areas of focus that already appear on your site.
- Logistics. Location, hours, telehealth availability if you publish it, and how to request an appointment callback.
What the AI receptionist does on the phone
The Front Office plan adds an AI phone receptionist. When your team is with patients or the office is closed, it answers missed and overflow calls, says it is an AI, and collects the caller's name, number and reason for calling. A summary is emailed to you.
Your office manager can read the emails at a convenient time and return the calls in order, with the reason for each one already in front of them.
What it will not do
For a health practice, the limits are as important as the features.
- It does not collect or handle patient health information. Symptoms, histories, medications and lab results do not belong in a website chat.
- It gives no medical advice. It does not interpret symptoms or results, suggest supplements or protocols, or say what your practitioners would recommend.
- It makes no treatment or cure claims. It describes your services only in the words on your site, and does not claim that a program treats, reverses or cures anything.
- It is not HIPAA-compliant, and we do not sign BAAs. Use it for general questions and callback requests, not for protected health information.
- It is not for emergencies. Anyone describing an urgent medical problem is told to call 911.
Objections we hear
"Our patients are looking for a personal relationship." They are, and they will get one with your practitioners. The chat handles the logistics so your team has more time for the relationship once the patient arrives.
"Our approach is hard to summarize." Then summarize it once, well, on your website. The chat repeats whatever you publish. It adds nothing, which also means it cannot overstate what you do.
"We are careful about what we claim." Good. That is why the chat is built to answer from your own pages and decline when it cannot. Review your site's wording with the same care you would give any marketing copy, because the chat will echo it.
What it costs
Anchor Co AI is free to start: 1 bot and 20 messages a month. Starter is $29 a month for 2 bots and 1,000 messages a month. Growth is $49 a month for 5 bots and 5,000 messages a month.
Front Office combines a website, the AI chat and the AI phone receptionist. It is $297 one-time setup and then $249 a month, with 300 answered phone minutes included and no overage fees. It is month to month with no contract, and there are no partial-month refunds.
We do not promise leads, appointments or revenue. The tools answer questions and capture details, and what happens next is up to your team.
Setting it up
You give us your website, the chatbot reads it, and it answers from it. That also means the quality of its answers depends on the quality of your pages.
Before you switch it on, read your own site the way a new patient would. Does it say what the first visit involves? Does it say how you charge? Are the programs and labs described clearly, without language that suggests a cure or a guaranteed result? Fill any gaps, because the chat cannot answer from information that is not there.
Then test it. Ask the five questions your front desk hears most. Ask something your site does not cover and confirm that the chat says so and takes a message. Ask a clinical question and confirm that it declines and points to your practitioners.