Case study / Healthcare / Workflow Automation

No-shows cut by two thirds and 140 cancelled slots refilled every month.

Empty appointment slots were costing a clinic network thousands a week. Automated booking, smart reminders, and a self-serve waitlist now keep diaries full without adding reception staff.

Industry: Healthcare
Client: Private physiotherapy network
Scale: 5 clinics · 23 practitioners · ~4,800 appointments per month
Timeline: 4 weeks from discovery to all clinics
Solution: Workflow Automation

no-show rate

down from 18%

140

cancelled slots refilled per month

−35%

inbound reception calls

9 days → 3

average wait for a first appointment

01 / The challenge

Where the time was going.

Patients booked by phone, cancellations came in late or not at all, and reception had no fast way to offer a freed slot to someone waiting. Practitioners sat idle while new patients were told the next opening was over a week away.

0118% of booked appointments ended as no-shows or late cancellations
02Reminders sent manually, and only for the next day
03A paper waitlist that was rarely consulted when a slot opened up
04Reception spending most of the morning on booking and rebooking calls
05New patients waiting nine days on average despite daily gaps in diaries

02 / The solution

How the workflow runs.

We connected booking, reminders, and the waitlist into one flow, so every cancellation becomes an opportunity rather than a loss.

I
Self-serve booking
Patients book online, by WhatsApp, or by phone through the AI receptionist. All routes read the same live availability by clinic, practitioner, and appointment type.
II
Reminders that get a reply
Reminders go out at 7 days, 48 hours, and 3 hours, each with one-tap confirm, reschedule, or cancel. Unconfirmed appointments get a follow-up call from the assistant.
III
Instant waitlist backfill
When a slot is cancelled, matching waitlisted patients are offered it by SMS in priority order. The first to accept is booked and everyone else is told the slot has gone.
IV
Intake before arrival
New patients receive intake forms and consent digitally, so first appointments start on time and practitioners see history in advance.
V
Daily diary health check
Each morning clinic managers receive a summary of gaps, unconfirmed appointments, and waitlist depth so they can act before the day starts.

Human-led by design

Guardrails that kept people in control

Clinical urgency flags set by practitioners override waitlist order.
Patients control their contact preferences, and quiet hours are respected for all messages.
Reminder wording and frequency are approved by the clinical lead and reviewed quarterly.
All messages and bookings sync to the practice system, which remains the single source of truth.

Stack

Cliniko API
Twilio SMS & Voice
WhatsApp Business API
Anthropic Claude
Stripe for deposits
Google Sheets reporting

Timeline

Week 1
Discovery
Analysed 12 months of bookings to find no-show patterns by clinic, time, and appointment type.
Weeks 2–3
Build
Reminder cadences, waitlist rules, and booking channels built and tested with one clinic's reception team.
Week 3
Pilot
Live at the largest clinic; reminder timing tuned after the first week of response data.
Week 4
Rollout
All five clinics live with a shared dashboard.

03 / The results

Before and after.

Measured over the 90 days after go-live against the 90 days before. Figures are rounded and client details anonymised.

Measure	Before	After
No-show and late cancellation rate	18%	6%
Cancelled slots refilled	~15 per month	~140 per month
Inbound reception calls	~2,300 per month	~1,500 per month
Wait for first appointment	9 days	3 days
Appointments confirmed before the day	51%	91%

What the team noticed

Practitioners see fuller diaries and fewer surprise gaps, which also improved their earnings on a per-session model.
Reception handles fewer calls and spends more time with patients at the desk.
Clinic managers plan staffing from real confirmation data rather than bookings alone.

What comes next