OC Systems Agency
AI Phone Receptionist · Dental Offices · Orange County

An AI Receptionist That Answers, Books, Reminds and Reschedules

For dental offices that cannot get to every call, set up from Costa Mesa. $449 a month plus $900 setup; doctors' offices and restaurants run on the same line.

When a patient calls at twenty to six and the office closed at five, the call has one of three endings: a voicemail, a ring-out, or a booked appointment. The AI receptionist is built for the third. It answers, says it is an assistant, asks what the caller needs, checks your real availability, books, and texts the confirmation. The day before the visit it calls to confirm, and a patient who cannot make it is moved to a new time on that same call, or by replying to the text, with the old slot freed. During hours it takes the calls your desk cannot pick up; after hours it takes all of them. We set it up for dental offices in Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine and Huntington Beach and across Orange County, the same line works for doctors' offices and restaurants, and you can talk to a demo of it on this page, as a patient booking or as the patient being reminded, before you decide anything.

Answers when the desk cannotBooks from real availabilityReminder calls the day beforeTwo-way textsReschedules in one stepSays it is an assistantEnglish and SpanishTransfers to a person
Talk to the DemoContact Us

Where do the calls go when nobody picks up?

A dental front desk is on the phone, checking someone in and taking a payment at the same time, and somewhere in the afternoon it is meant to call every patient booked for tomorrow. A doctor's office closes at five and the people who need an appointment work until six. A restaurant's host stand at seven is seating. None of that is a staffing failure; it is arithmetic, and the phone loses.

  • ✗The call goes to voicemail, and a caller who wanted an appointment now has to wait for a call back, or calls the next listing on the map
  • ✗Google shows you closed on Saturday and Sunday, which is when many people have the time to make the call
  • ✗The desk returns voicemails in batches, so a Friday-evening message gets Monday-morning attention
  • ✗Reschedules and cancellations arrive as messages nobody has confirmed, so the slot stays blocked until someone calls back
  • ✗Reminder calls get made when the desk has a quiet hour, which is not every day, so some of tomorrow's patients are never reached
  • ✗An answering service takes a message; it does not see your schedule, so it cannot book
  • ✗Nobody counts the calls that rang out, so the cost of them is invisible

Count it yourself before you talk to us: pull last week's call log from your phone system, count the calls that went unanswered or to voicemail while the desk was busy or closed, and put your average appointment value next to that number. That is what the phone is deciding on your behalf. We will not guess it for you, and we will not promise how much of it an assistant recovers; we will show you the demo and let you judge whether it books the way you would.

What Does the AI Receptionist Do?

Answers every call the desk cannot: busy, at lunch, closed, or a Saturday
Opens by saying it is an assistant for your office, and offers a person whenever the caller asks for one
Checks your real availability and books, reschedules or cancels the appointment on the call
Texts the confirmation with the date, time, address and provider, in the patient's language
Calls the day before to confirm; a patient who cannot make it is moved to a new time on that same call, and the old slot is freed
Two-way texting: a patient who replies to any text to confirm, move or ask something gets an answer, within the rules you set
Takes a message with a callback number for anything it should not handle, and sends it to the desk as a text and an email
Answers the questions a desk answers all day, such as hours, parking, insurance accepted and walk-ins, from a list you approve
English and Spanish on the same line, in whichever language the caller starts in
Never takes a card number, never gives clinical advice, and tells a caller describing an emergency to hang up and call 911

What Happens on a Call?

From a ringing phone to a confirmed appointment, without the desk.

What Happens on a Call?1Caller dials your existing number; it forwards to theassistant when the desk does not pick up, or always after2The assistant answers, says it is an assistant for youroffice, and asks how it can help3It takes the name, the reason for the visit and the preferredday, and checks your real availability4It offers the open times, books the one the caller chooses,and reads it back5A confirmation text goes to the caller; the appointmentappears in your schedule6The day before, it calls to confirm, and texts if nobody picksup; a yes is recorded, a “can we move it” is rescheduled on7A request for a person, a question off the approved list, oran emergency is transferred, messaged or sent to 911
Live demo · nothing is booked anywhere

Talk to the Demo

This is the assistant, pointed at a made-up dental office with a made-up calendar. Speak to it or type. Ask for an appointment, ask for a person, try to trip it up. The live version knows your hours, your providers and your rules; this one only knows the practice invented for the demo.

Calling

Pelican Point Family Dentistry

A made-up practice, for this demo only

Ready

Pick a call:

Press Start the call and Ava answers. Then talk the way a patient would: “I’d like a cleaning next week”, “do you have anything Thursday afternoon”, “can I speak to someone”.

Voice works in Chrome, Edge and Safari. Typing works everywhere.

Demo only: a made-up practice and calendar, nothing is booked or sent anywhere, and no transcript is kept. Speech recognition runs in your browser. Please do not say real names, health details or card numbers; the assistant will not take a card number even if offered.

The practice’s calendar

What Ava sees. Grey is taken; gold is what it booked or moved on this call.

On a real line the assistant reads and writes your own scheduler, the texts go out for real, and a patient can reply to any of them to confirm or move the visit. Ask Jordan what it would take on yours.

Prefer a bigger screen? Open the full-page demo

Reminder Calls, Two-Way Texts and Rescheduling in One Step

Answering the phone is half of what a dental front desk does with it. The other half is calling tomorrow’s patients, chasing the ones who did not pick up, and moving the ones who cannot make it. The assistant does that half too, from the same schedule.

  1. 1. Right after the call

    The confirmation text

    Date, time, address and the provider's name, in the language the patient spoke. It ends with two words the patient can reply with: one to confirm, one to move the visit.

  2. 2. The day before

    The reminder call, then the text

    The assistant calls, says it is the office's assistant, and asks whether the time still works. A yes is recorded in your schedule. No answer, and the same reminder goes out as a text.

  3. 3. “Can we do Thursday instead?”

    Rescheduled on the same call

    It reads your real availability, offers two or three openings, books the one the patient picks, frees the old slot and sends the updated text. No message for the desk to return; nothing stays blocked.

  4. 4. A text reply, any time

    Two-way texting

    A patient who replies to any text with a question, a change or a cancellation gets an answer from the assistant, within the rules you set. Anything it should not decide becomes a message for the desk.

You can take the reminder call yourself in the demo above: choose Ava calls to remind a patient, then say yes, or ask to move it. The text the patient would receive appears next to the calendar; in the demo nothing is sent.

Voicemail, Answering Service or AI Receptionist: What Is the Difference?

All three pick up when the desk cannot. They differ in what happens next: whether the caller leaves with an appointment, a promise of a call back, or nothing.

Voicemail compared with a human answering service and an AI receptionist on answering, booking, confirmations, language, cost model and limits
VoicemailAnswering serviceAI receptionist
Friday at 7pmRecords a messageA person answersThe assistant answers
Sees your schedule and booksNoUsually not: takes a message for the desk to book on MondayYes, from real availability, on the call
Confirmation to the callerNoneDepends on the serviceA text with date, time and address, straight after the call
Reminder before the visitNoneRarely; reminders stay the desk's jobA call or a text the day before; the patient confirms, or moves the visit on that same call
“Can we move it to Thursday?”A message the desk hears later; the old slot stays blockedA message for the desk to act on MondayDone on the call or by text reply: the old slot reopens, the new one is booked, the text is updated
Who the caller is talking toA recordingA person reading your script, often covering many businesses at onceAn assistant that says so at the start of the call and offers a person on request
SpanishOnly if you record a second greetingDepends on the service and the shiftSame line, same call, whichever language the caller starts in
What you payNothing; the cost is the callers who hang upTypically per minute or per call, so a busier month costs more$449 a month plus $900 setup; 1,000 call minutes and 1,500 texts a month included, more at carrier cost
What it will not doAnythingBook without access to your system; answer outside its scriptGive clinical advice, take a card number, or keep a caller who asked for a person
Many medical offices keep their answering service for after-hours clinical calls and let the assistant take the scheduling calls. Both can run on the same line: the forwarding rules send a caller describing an emergency to 911 or to the service, never into a booking flow.

Where do you do the AI receptionist?

We are in Costa Mesa, and the setup is done with your front desk in the room: which calls it should take, what it may say, when the line forwards. The first weeks are watched together, reading the transcripts and tightening the script, which is easier across a desk than across a time zone.

Orange County offices and restaurants compete on the map. A patient who cannot reach a dental office in Irvine at six calls the next one in the list, and a diner who cannot reach the host stand in Newport Beach books somewhere else. The assistant's job is to be the one that answers.

Spanish on the same line is standard here, not an add-on, because that is who is calling.

Based in Costa Mesa. The AI receptionist for businesses in:

  • Costa Mesa
  • Newport Beach
  • Irvine
  • Huntington Beach
  • Santa Ana
  • Fountain Valley
  • Tustin
  • Anaheim
  • Orange
  • Garden Grove
  • Fullerton
  • Laguna Beach
  • Mission Viejo
  • Lake Forest

Anywhere else in Orange County too, and remotely across Southern California — see our Orange County page.

What Does the AI Receptionist Cost?

$449 a month + $900 setup

1,000 call minutes and 1,500 texts a month included · month to month · no per-call charge

The monthly fee covers the assistant, the reminder calls and texts, two-way texting, the call transcripts to your inbox and the changes you ask for over time. 1,000 call minutes and 1,500 texts a month are included, a little under seventeen hours of talk time; beyond that, minutes and texts are billed at carrier cost with no markup and itemised, the same way we pass ad spend through. The setup fee covers connecting the assistant to your scheduler, loading the answers you approve and testing on a private number before anything forwards.

One line, one location. A second location is a second setup at the same figures. If you also need somewhere for a restaurant assistant to book into, the reservation system is on the restaurant websites page.

Start the Setup CallTalk to the Demo First

How Do We Set It Up?

1

Calls, schedule, rules

One call with the office manager or owner: what your desk answers all day, which scheduler you use, when the line should forward, what the assistant may book and what it must hand off. For a medical or dental office this is also where we go through what the assistant may say and store, with whoever handles your privacy obligations. You get a written quote after it.

2

Build and test on a private number

We connect the assistant to your schedule, load the answers you approved, and give you a test number. Your front desk calls it, tries to break it, books and cancels, and we adjust the script and the rules until it sounds like your office. Nothing forwards until you say so.

3

Forward, watch, adjust

Forwarding goes on for after hours first, then for overflow during the day if you want it. Every call is transcribed and summarised to your inbox, so for the first weeks you read what it said and we tighten anything you do not like. You can switch forwarding off from your own phone at any time.

Further reading

All Business Systems articles →

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the AI receptionist cost?
$449 a month, flat, plus a one-time $900 setup. 1,000 call minutes and 1,500 texts a month are included in the monthly fee; beyond that, minutes and texts are billed at carrier cost with no markup and itemised on the invoice, the same way we pass ad spend through. There is no per-call charge and no contract term beyond the month. The monthly fee covers the assistant on your line, the reminder calls and texts, two-way texting, the call transcripts to your inbox and the changes you ask for over time. The setup fee covers connecting the assistant to your scheduler, loading the answers you approve and testing it with your desk on a private number before anything forwards. Where your scheduler has no booking interface, the assistant books into a calendar your desk mirrors; we tell you which of the two you are in on the first call, and the price is the same either way. One line, one location; a second location is a second setup at the same figures. We set the price by reading the published rates of the dental AI receptionist products we could find and taking ten percent off the middle of them for the same included volume, so you can check it against any quote you already have.
Does it make reminder calls?
Yes, and that is half of what it does. The day before each appointment the assistant calls the patient, says it is the office's assistant, and asks whether the time still works. A yes is written to your schedule as confirmed. If the patient does not pick up, the same reminder goes out as a text, and a reply confirms it. If the patient says they cannot make it, the assistant does not take a message for the desk to return; it reads your real availability, offers two or three openings, books the one the patient picks, frees the old slot and sends the updated text. You choose when the calls go out, which appointment types get a call and which get only a text, and how many attempts it makes. What it will not do is guilt a patient into keeping a time or discuss anything clinical; a patient who mentions a symptom is offered the earliest opening or a person.
Can a patient reschedule by text?
Yes. Every text the assistant sends can be replied to, and the reply is read by the assistant, not by a mailbox. A patient who answers the reminder with a question about parking gets the answer from your approved list; one who writes that Thursday is no good is offered open times and moved to the one they choose, and the old slot reopens in your schedule at that moment. A cancellation is recorded the same way, with the slot freed for the next caller. Everything the assistant does by text follows the same rules as the calls: it identifies itself, it books only into real availability, it never asks for a card number, and anything outside the rules you set becomes a message for the desk. Your desk sees the whole thread, so nobody has to reconstruct what was agreed.
Does it replace my front desk?
No, and we would not set it up that way. The desk answers when it can; the assistant answers when it cannot. The usual setup is forwarding after a few rings during hours and always outside them, so the person at the desk keeps first pick of every call and the assistant catches the rest. It does the parts a desk does by rote, such as hours, directions, and whether there is anything on Tuesday, and hands everything else to a person. Where offices notice the change is not in staffing but in the Monday morning without a queue of voicemails to return, and in the Saturday calls that used to reach a competitor's listing instead.
How does it know my availability?
It connects to the schedule you already run. Where your scheduler or practice-management system has an interface for reading openings and writing appointments, the assistant books straight into it and your desk sees the appointment where it sees every other one. Where it does not, the assistant books into a calendar it shares with your desk, the desk moves the appointment across, and the caller still gets a confirmation on the call. We tell you which of the two you are in on the first call, before you have paid anything, because the second setup means an extra step for your desk and you should know that going in. Either way the rules are yours: which appointment types it may book, how long each takes, which providers or which tables, how far out, and what it must never book without a person.
What about patient privacy and call recording?
Three things we do, and one thing we do not claim. The assistant introduces itself as an assistant at the start of every call, and if calls are recorded the caller is told in the same breath; California is a state where everyone on a recorded call has to know, and the greeting is built that way. It never asks for or accepts a card number by phone; a deposit, if you take one, goes by a text link to a page you control. And it gives no clinical advice: a caller describing symptoms is booked or handed to a person, and a caller describing an emergency is told to hang up and call 911. What we do not do is call the setup compliant with anything. For a medical or dental office we set the assistant up on telephony and AI providers that offer a business associate agreement to healthcare customers, we go through what it may say and store with whoever handles your privacy obligations, and that person decides what it is allowed to do. The decision is yours to make and ours to implement.
What happens when a caller wants a person?
During hours the call is transferred to the desk or to the number you name, with a one-line summary so whoever picks up knows what it is about. After hours the assistant says when the office opens, takes a message with a callback number, and sends it to the desk as a text and an email so it is waiting when someone is in. Callers who ask for a person get one; the assistant does not argue or keep them on the line. It also gives up on its own: anything it cannot answer from the list you approved becomes a message rather than a guess, and a caller who sounds distressed, angry or unwell is moved to a person or, for an emergency, to 911 without any attempt to finish the booking.
Does it speak Spanish?
Yes. The assistant listens for the language the caller starts in and stays in it, and the confirmation text goes out in the same language. A caller can switch mid-call. English and Spanish are standard; other languages are on request once we have tested the voice in them, because we would rather say no than put a voice on your line that sounds wrong to a native speaker.
Can I hear it before I decide?
Yes, on this page. The demo above books an appointment at a made-up dental office with a made-up calendar, by voice in your browser or by typing. It is the same assistant, without your schedule and your answers; the live version knows your hours, your providers and your rules. Talk to it the way a patient would, try to confuse it, ask for a person, and see what it does. The demo stores no transcript and books nothing anywhere, and you should not tell it anything real: no real names, no real health details, no card numbers.
Does it work for a restaurant?
Yes, and the setup is simpler than for a medical office. The assistant takes party size, date, time and seating notes, checks the reservation system for the slot, books it, and texts the confirmation with the address and your cancellation window. Large parties follow the rules your host stand follows: above the size you set it takes a message for the manager instead of booking. It answers the questions the host stand answers on repeat during service, such as hours, parking, corkage, walk-ins and whether the patio takes dogs, from a list you approve. If you have no online reservations at all, we build the reservation system first, because the assistant needs somewhere to book into; that is the system on our restaurant websites page.

Last reviewed by the OC Systems Agency team.

Want to Hear It on Your Own Line?

Tell Jordan what kind of office you run, which scheduler you use, and when the phone goes unanswered today. The price is $449 a month plus $900 setup; the call is about which scheduler setup you are in and when the line should forward.

Talk to the Demo

👋 Hi! I'm Jordan

Tell me about your business — I'll find the right way to grow it.