Cliniko is used by tens of thousands of allied health practices to run their bookings, patient records, notes and invoicing. We work directly inside it, so when a patient calls, the appointment is booked in your Cliniko diary before they hang up.
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How Cliniko is used in Australian clinics
Cliniko is a practice management system built for allied health. Physios, psychologists, podiatrists, chiros, osteos, speechies, OTs, dietitians, anyone running appointments, notes, and invoicing under one roof tends to end up on it. It handles the patient file, the diary, the online bookings, the SMS reminders, the invoicing, the intake forms.
What it doesn’t do is answer the phone. Online bookings pick up a chunk of the load, but a good portion of your patients still ring, especially first-time enquiries, older patients, and anyone with a question they’d rather ask than type. That’s where an answering service that works inside Cliniko earns its keep.
How it works
When a patient rings and you can’t pick up, the call comes to us. One of our Aussie receptionists answers in your business name, opens your Cliniko diary, and sorts the booking on the call. By the time they hang up, the booking’s sitting in Cliniko and they’ve got the usual confirmation and reminders, same as if you’d booked them yourself.
Here’s what that looks like across the three calls we get most:
Booked
Rescheduled
Cancelled
Every clinic runs a bit differently, and Cliniko’s flexible enough to fit around that. So are we.
Whatever rules you’ve built into Cliniko, we’ll follow them on the call. If you want to see the full feature set, our appointment scheduling service page walks through it.
Fees, rebates, location and general info
Most patients don’t just want to book, they want to check something first. A live receptionist can answer those questions on the call, so they don’t hang up to “have a think” and never ring back.
The questions we get asked most in clinics:
- Fees and gap payments
What’s the initial consult, what’s the follow-up, what’s the gap after Medicare or private health - Rebates and claiming
HICAPS on the day, Medicare EPC/CDM plans, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover, CTP - Which practitioner suits them
Especially in multi-practitioner clinics where patients aren’t sure who to see for what - Location, parking and access
Where you are, whether there’s parking, whether the clinic’s accessible, whether you’ve got a lift - What to bring to the first appointment
Referral, imaging, previous notes, comfy clothes for movement assessments - Session length and what to expect
Particularly for anxious first-time patients (new mums, kids, anyone nervous about a first session) - Cancellation policies and deposits
Before they commit, not after
We build all of this into your script during setup, straight from your Cliniko settings, your website, and a quick chat with you. So when a patient rings, we sound like we work there. Because, on the call, we do.
New patients
A first-time caller is the most fragile call you’ll get all day. They’ve found you on Google, they’ve made it as far as picking up the phone, and they’re deciding right now whether you’re the clinic for them. If they hit voicemail, most won’t leave a message. They’ll just keep scrolling (be honest, you’d do the same).
A real person picking up changes that:
- Whether they ring at 9am Tuesday or 8pm Sunday, someone picks up
- They get their fees, rebate and appointment questions sorted before they need to commit
- They walk away with a booking in Cliniko, not a “we’ll get back to you”
For clinics that get a lot of after-hours enquiries (parents ringing after bedtime, tradies ringing on the drive home), our after-hours answering picks up those calls too, so you’re not choosing between missing them and staying late.
I have dealt with 3 other offsite reception teams and OfficeHQ are the best by far. They adapt to change, learn quickly and cope with demanding patients (and me). I thoroughly recommend.
Stewart Hayes
Orthotic Solutions Podiatry Clinics (Podiatrist since 1994)
Existing patients
The patient who’s been seeing you for six months also doesn’t love voicemail. They want to shift Thursday to Friday, and they want it done in two minutes (preferably while they’re walking to the car).
With us on the line, they can:
- Ring any time, including after hours and weekends if that suits you
- Reschedule or cancel without playing phone tag
- Have a chat with someone who sounds like part of your practice, because we kind of are
If your front desk is only overrun some of the time, our overflow answering picks up when your team can’t, so nothing rolls to voicemail.
Outbound calling
Inbound is only half the picture. There’s a whole set of calls a clinic should be making that usually don’t happen, because there’s no one with the time.
Our outbound calling service picks those up. For a Cliniko clinic, that usually looks like:
- Waitlist calls
Filling last-minute cancellations by ringing your Cliniko waitlist - Appointment reminders and confirmations
Cutting no-shows on top of Cliniko’s SMS reminders - Rescheduling
Chasing patients who’ve missed an appointment to get them rebooked - Recall calls
Reaching out to patients due for their next block of sessions - Post-visit check-ins
Making sure new patients had a good first experience
Every no-show is a slot you can’t get back and a rebate you can’t bill. Every waitlist patient you don’t ring is a session someone else needed. Outbound is where a lot of the quiet revenue is sitting in most clinics.
I have recently opened a new physio clinic and the team at OfficeHQ have been nothing but excellent to deal with. Prompt, polite and professional service both as a subscriber, and my clients have also complimented their experiences.
Matthew Rodgers
Physio Clinic Owner
How to get started
Setting it up is simple. You’ll need:
- An OfficeHQ MyDiary plan (that’s the appointment booking service)
- A Cliniko account with the right user access set up for our team
- Optional: outbound calling if you’d like us to handle waitlist, reminders and recalls too
From there, we’ll work through your script, your appointment types, who books with whom, and any intake questions you want asked. Most setups go live within a few business days (we’re not mucking around).
If you’d rather have a chat first, request a callback or ring us on 1300 267 937. Or if you want to see how it feels in practice, our 7-day free trial is the easiest way in.
