You are with a patient every hour you are open
Which is exactly when new patients ring. Vandial answers instead, books them into the longer first appointment rather than a fifteen-minute adjustment, keeps existing care plans on schedule, and fills the gaps when someone cancels.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callDaniel Osei“I did my back in moving furniture and I can barely stand.”
Booked — new patient Tue 4pm, 45 min
- In pain today
- is who is ringing, and they book with whoever answers — not whoever calls back
- 45 vs 15
- minutes — it books the right one without being told
- No advice
- not heat, not ice, not whether an adjustment will help
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a clinic gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One chiropractic call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“I did my back in moving furniture and I can barely stand.”
Classified0:15
- new patient
- acute
- first consultation
Captured0:47
- acute lower back
- lifting
- no prior treatment
Booked0:57
- Tue 4pm
- 45 min
- new patient intake sent
Booked — new patient Tue 4pm, 45 min
Read the whole chiropractic call, line by line
- 0:02Daniel Osei: I did my back in moving furniture and I can barely stand.
- 0:05Vandial: Let's get you seen. Have you been to us before, or would this be your first visit?
- 0:13Daniel Osei: First time. I've never been to a chiropractor at all.
- 0:15Classified — new patient · acute · first consultation
- 0:22Vandial: A first appointment runs about forty-five minutes — there's an assessment before any treatment.
- 0:33Vandial: I can do Tuesday at four, or there's a cancellation tomorrow at 11:20 if you can get here.
- 0:44Daniel Osei: Tomorrow's too tight. Tuesday, please.
- 0:47Captured — acute lower back · lifting · no prior treatment
- 0:57Booked — Tue 4pm · 45 min · new patient intake sent
Answered, understood, booked
One number, picked up on the second ring — at 2am, on a Sunday, while you're already working. By the time the caller hangs up, it is in your calendar.
It answers
Answered while you have your hands on a patient, which is most of the day and all of the hours new patients ring in.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
It works out whether this is a first consultation, an adjustment or part of an existing plan, and books the right length.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
Booked with the intake form texted ahead, the plan's remaining appointments offered, and the cancellation list worked when a slot frees.
Text to Dave · 13:01
You’re booked for today, 1–2pm. Reply R to move it.
It asks what you would ask
These are the questions the agent runs for chiropractic clinics, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
First visit, or have you been before?
A first consultation is three times the length of an adjustment. Booking it wrong is the most common scheduling error in this trade.
What's going on, in a sentence?
Enough to choose an appointment type — not a history. Acute and maintenance are different bookings.
How did it happen, and when?
Separates an acute injury needing a prompt slot from a long-standing complaint that can wait for the right practitioner.
Have you had treatment for it elsewhere?
Changes the intake paperwork and sometimes who they should see.
Are you claiming through insurance or an employer?
Decides the paperwork before arrival rather than at the desk, and whether authorisation is needed first.
Shall I book the rest of the plan now?
A care plan booked one appointment at a time is a care plan that quietly stops. Booking the block is what keeps it.
More than a chiropractic answering service
An answering service takes a message and charges you for it. Vandial knows your prices, your patch and your diary — so it books the job, or puts a real emergency straight through to you.
It picks up out of hours, and while your line is busy
A single-practitioner clinic is unreachable by definition — you are with a patient every hour you are open, and the new-patient call that rings out at 2pm does not ring back. Vandial answers all of them.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
New patients get the longer first appointment automatically. Booking a forty-five-minute consultation into a fifteen-minute adjustment slot is the most common and most expensive scheduling mistake in this trade.
What it knows
First consultation
$95, 45 minutes
Adjustment
$65, 15 min
Care plans
6 or 12 visits
Insurers
Bupa, AXA, Vitality
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
Care plans are booked as a block rather than one appointment at a time. A plan rebooked visit by visit is one that quietly stops in week three, and it stops because nobody was free to answer the phone.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
Cancellations are filled by working the list by text instead of leaving an hour empty, which in a calendar this tightly packed is the difference between a good week and an average one.
Dave Whitfield · Sunday, 4m 12s
Water heater, leaking
Leaking from the base. Booked for Tuesday 1–2pm. Side gate open, dog in the yard. Asked whether the service call fee applies — told $99, waived on repair.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you are not there. These are the lines it does not cross in chiropractic, and the words it uses instead.
No clinical advice and no assessment
It will not say what is wrong, whether an adjustment will help, whether to use heat or ice, or whether someone should see a doctor instead. It gathers what is needed to pick an appointment type and stops there.
What it actually says
“I'm not able to advise on that, and I'd rather not guess. Let's get you booked in and Dr Osei will assess it properly.”
Red flags go to a person or to urgent care
Numbness, loss of bladder or bowel control, severe pain after a fall, or any description suggesting something beyond musculoskeletal — the agent stops booking, tells the caller to seek urgent medical attention, and alerts the clinic.
What it actually says
“With numbness like that I'd want you seen medically today rather than waiting for us — please ring your doctor or go to urgent care.”
It won't promise a result or a number of visits
How many sessions someone needs is a clinical judgement made after an assessment. The agent explains what the first appointment involves and what it costs, and it does not tell anybody they will be fixed in six visits.
What it actually says
“How many sessions it takes is really something Dr Osei works out after the assessment — I'd only be guessing, and I'd rather not.”
The job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
What chiropractic clinics say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“I'm with a patient every hour I'm open.”
Which makes a single-practitioner clinic unreachable by definition, during exactly the hours new patients ring. The 2pm call that rings out does not ring back — it rings the clinic down the road.
“A first visit is three times as long. It'll book it wrong.”
It asks whether they have been before, every time, and books the longer consultation when they have not. Putting a forty-five minute assessment into a fifteen-minute adjustment slot is the most common and most expensive scheduling error in this trade.
“Plans stop because rebooking is a hassle.”
They stop around week three, and they stop because nobody could get through on the phone to arrange the next one. It offers the remaining appointments as a block at the time of booking rather than one visit at a time.
Chiropractic questions, answered
What chiropractic clinics ask before handing over their phone number — and what a chiropractic answering service can and cannot do for you.
Will it give advice about someone's back?
No. Not heat or ice, not whether an adjustment will help, not whether they should see a doctor instead. It gathers enough to choose the right appointment type and books it. Anything clinical is for the practitioner.
What about red flags?
Numbness, loss of bladder or bowel control, or severe pain following a fall and it stops booking, tells the caller to seek urgent medical attention today, and alerts the clinic. Those are not appointments to be scheduled for Tuesday.
Does it know a first visit takes longer?
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to have it. A new-patient consultation is roughly three times an adjustment, and booking one into the wrong slot costs you the rest of the afternoon.
Can it book a whole care plan?
It offers the remaining appointments as a block at the time of booking. A plan rebooked one visit at a time is a plan that stops around week three, usually because nobody could get through on the phone to arrange the next one.
Does it handle insurance and employer-funded treatment?
It asks how the treatment is being paid for and captures the details, so authorisation paperwork is dealt with before the appointment rather than at the desk with a patient waiting.
What information does it record?
What a booking needs: who they are, whether they are new, a one-line reason and their contact details. It does not take a clinical history over the phone. We make no compliance certification claims — we can tell you precisely what it asks and what it declines to record.
What does it cost?
Three paid rungs — Starter, Professional and Business — differing only in how many unique patients you answer for in a month. A patient on a twelve-visit plan counts once. Robocalls are identified and never billed.
Already decided you want AI to answer it?
Then the question is which one, and that is a different page: what a generic AI receptionist gets wrong on a chiropractic call, and what is configurable about this one.
Not your trade?
The agent's questions, urgency rules, escalations and vocabulary are all configuration. Nothing about a trade is hard-coded, which is why there are 31 of these and not one.