Setting up a basic AI phone agent can take minutes. Rolling it out well, so it books correctly, handles urgent calls safely, sounds like your practice and has the team's trust, takes a little longer. A 30-day plan gives you time to do it properly without letting the project drift.
This checklist breaks the rollout into four weeks, from preparation to full go-live, for a single dental practice. Groups can repeat it clinic by clinic.
Key takeaways
- Measure your starting point before you change anything.
- Write your practice information, booking rules and escalation rules before configuring the agent.
- Test with realistic and difficult calls, including emergencies, before patients hear it.
- Start with overflow and after-hours calls, then expand.
- Review calls weekly in the first month and fine-tune.
Week 1: Prepare
Set goals and a baseline
- Decide what success looks like: fewer missed calls, more bookings after hours, less time on routine calls.
- Pull baseline numbers for at least four weeks: total calls, missed calls, after-hours calls and new-patient bookings. See front desk KPIs.
Assign owners
- A project owner, usually the practice manager
- An experienced receptionist to write and test scenarios
- A dentist to approve emergency handling
Gather practice information
Write down everything the agent needs to answer questions:
- Hours, public holiday arrangements and after-hours instructions
- Address, parking, public transport and accessibility
- Services offered and which clinicians provide them
- Health funds, HICAPS, payment options and typical fees
- New-patient process and forms
- Cancellation policy
Write booking rules
- Appointment types and lengths
- Which clinicians see new patients, children or specific treatments
- Buffers, breaks and blocked time
- How far ahead patients can book and minimum notice
Week 2: Configure
Set up the agent
- Choose the voice and greeting. Make sure it says it's an AI assistant and that calls are recorded, if they are. See call recording laws.
- Load your practice information into the knowledge base.
- Connect your calendar or practice software. See connecting to your practice software.
- Configure booking rules.
Set escalation rules
- What goes to staff: clinical questions, complaints, billing disputes, requests for a person
- How: transfer, staff alert or callback
- Emergency protocol, approved by a dentist. See handling dental emergency calls.
Update privacy documents
- Update your privacy policy and collection notice to cover AI call handling, recording, transcription and any overseas processing. See patient data and AI vendors.
Week 3: Test
Run scenario tests
Have the team call the agent with at least 20 realistic scenarios, for example:
- New patient booking a check-up and clean
- Existing patient rescheduling
- Parent booking for two children
- Health fund and cost questions
- Caller who wants a specific dentist who's away
- Caller who asks for a person
- Toothache wanting the earliest appointment
- Knocked-out tooth, heavy bleeding and facial swelling scenarios
- Caller with a strong accent or a noisy background
- Caller who changes their mind halfway through
Check the results
- Were bookings made correctly, with the right type, length and clinician?
- Were urgent calls handled exactly as your protocol says?
- Did escalations reach the right person?
- Did any answers sound wrong, vague or off-brand?
Fix issues in the knowledge base or rules, then test again.
Brief the team
- Explain what the agent handles and what comes to them
- Show them how to see call summaries and transcripts
- Agree who handles escalations and callbacks
Week 4: Go live
Start with overflow and after-hours
- Route after-hours calls and calls the desk doesn't answer within a few rings to the agent.
- Keep your main line answered by the team during the day.
Review daily, then weekly
- For the first few days, review every call summary.
- Then review a sample each week, focusing on escalations and failed bookings.
- Keep a simple log of issues and fixes.
Compare against your baseline
At the end of the month, compare missed calls, after-hours bookings and staff time with your baseline. Decide whether to expand, for example to handle all calls at peak times or to add reminder calls.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the baseline, so you can't prove the result
- Loading thin or outdated practice information
- No dentist sign-off on emergency handling
- Going live on all calls at once
- Not telling the team how escalations work
- Not reviewing calls after go-live
Frequently asked questions
How long does setup actually take?
A basic IntelliDent agent can be configured in the wizard in minutes. Forwarding your phone line and connecting your calendar take longer, and testing properly takes days, not minutes.
Should we tell patients we're using AI?
Yes. The greeting should say so. Some practices also mention it on their website and in their privacy policy.
What if the team is sceptical?
Involve them in writing scenarios and testing. When they see routine calls disappear from their day, most become supporters.
Next steps
Copy this checklist into your project plan and pick a go-live date 30 days out. To get started with IntelliDent, book a demo. After a demo we can provision a 14-day trial.