Dispatch is busiest when callers need you
A non-emergency medical transportation company runs on a few people doing many things at once. The dispatcher is on the radio with a driver, adjusting a pickup, and answering a facility that wants to confirm tomorrow's rides. Meanwhile the main line rings with someone who wants to ask about a wheelchair van.
The caller is often a family member or caregiver arranging a ride for someone else, usually around an appointment date. If nobody picks up, they try the next provider. Even a good company can lose a new rider that way, simply because the phone was busy.
An AI chatbot on your website and an AI receptionist on your phone line do not replace dispatch. They handle the first round of questions from what you have published, and they make sure a missed call becomes a written message.
What the chatbot does on your website
Anchor Co AI trains a chatbot on your own website and has it answer from those pages. When it is not sure, it says so and takes a message.
For an NEMT provider, that usually means a chat that can cover:
- Your service area. Which towns and counties you pick up in and which destinations you serve, if your site lists them.
- Types of rides. The difference between ambulatory, wheelchair and stretcher service as your site describes it, so callers can work out which they need.
- Advance notice. How far ahead you ask riders to call, and what your site says about same-day requests.
- Trip authorization, as published. If your site explains how Medicaid or insurance-covered trips are authorized, the chat repeats that. It does not guess about an individual's coverage.
- Hours and how to reach dispatch. When your lines are staffed and how to request a callback.
What the AI receptionist does on the phone
The Front Office plan adds an AI phone receptionist. When dispatch is on another line or the office is closed, the receptionist answers missed and overflow calls, tells the caller it is an AI, and collects the caller's name, number and reason for calling. A summary is emailed to you.
Your dispatcher reads the summary, returns the call and arranges the ride the way they always do. The receptionist does not book trips and does not enter anything into a dispatch system. Its job is to make sure the request was heard and written down.
What it will not do
A service that moves patients has to be clear about limits.
- It does not collect or handle patient health information. It is not the place for diagnoses, medications or medical histories.
- It gives no medical advice and cannot assess whether a rider needs a particular level of care.
- It is not HIPAA-compliant, and we do not sign BAAs. Use it for general ride questions and callback requests.
- It does not book rides or confirm a pickup time. Your team does that.
- It is not for emergencies. Non-emergency transportation is not an ambulance service. Anyone describing an emergency is told to hang up and call 911.
Objections we hear
"Riders and caregivers want to talk to dispatch." They will. The receptionist answers when dispatch cannot, so the caller is acknowledged and the details are recorded. Your dispatcher then calls back with the context already in hand.
"Our rules around authorization are complicated." Then the chat should not try to explain them in a conversation. It repeats what your website says and takes a message for anything else. Publishing a clear page on how trips are authorized is the best way to help it.
"We already have an answering service." Some providers do. The difference is cost and format. Front Office is month to month with no overage fees on its 300 answered phone minutes, and the summary arrives as an email you can sort through in order.
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 costs $297 one-time for 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 more rides or revenue. The chat and receptionist answer and capture details. Turning those into trips is your dispatch team's job.
Setting it up
You give us your website, the chatbot reads it, and it answers from it. That means the quality of its answers depends on the quality of your pages.
Before you switch it on, make sure your site states the things callers ask first: the areas you serve, the types of rides you offer, how much notice you need, and how Medicaid or insurance trips are handled. Put hours and a plain statement that the service is for non-emergency use on the same page.
Then test it as a caregiver would. Ask whether you serve a town on the edge of your area. Ask about a same-day ride. Ask something your site does not cover and confirm that the chat says so and takes a message. Ask what to do in an emergency and confirm that it says to call 911.