Hey there! Chris here from Aeva AI receptionist for Healthcare.
One question I always ask when I first meet a practice owner is:
“How’s the business going?”
It’s one of my favourite questions because it tells you so much about where the holes are in the practice and where things are going well. You quickly learn that being a great practitioner does not equal being a great practice owner. In fact, from what I’ve seen, 20% of practices are serving 80% of patients.
Why am I speaking about ‘lessons’ if I’m not a practice owner myself?
Over the last 10 months, I’ve spent around 157 hours speaking to 472 practice owners about their businesses. What’s working. What’s not. Where the frustrations lie. I’ve just been listening, mostly. Taking notes. Asking questions. Trying to understand the reality behind the curtain.
Now, I’m not a practice owner. I’ve never run a clinic. So you don’t have to take any of this on board. But what I can offer is a unique vantage point: one built from hundreds of open, honest conversations with clinic owners across all kinds of specialisations, across Australia, the UK, New Zealand and the rest of the world.
So here’s what I’ve uncovered:
Lesson 1: Find a pain point you (and others) have, then fix it
Its been a really common trend, hearing how practitioners actually got started. A lot of them were trying to find a treatment for their own issues, found the solution they are currently offering and realised so many other people could benefit from the same treatment.
I took a similar path starting Aeva AI receptionist in 2023, while I was working in real estate. I was cold-calling hundreds of homeowners each week, trying to generate leads. It was draining. I started asking myself: is there any way I can automate these calls?
That’s when I discovered AI calling agents.
No one had heard of them at the time and I instantly knew I had stumbled across something that was going to be big. It was solving a problem I had, but also one hundreds of other business owners faced too: answering repetitive inbound calls, or missing them.
It seems simple, but this is exactly how a good business is started, finding a problem that lots of other people have and making it go away. However, what if lots of people are offering it?
You’ve got to make it stand out.
Lesson 2: How to stand out from the crowd
It’s such a striking contrast when I meet with five different practice owners in a single day. Four of them are getting the standard trickle of enquiries (maybe 3 to 5 calls a day per practitioner). Then one of them tells me they’re getting 40 to 60 calls a day, just them and one receptionist.
How is there such a huge gap?
Here’s what I keep seeing in the practitioners who genuinely stand out from the crowd:
They own a niche
Instead of listing ten different treatments, they go all-in on one thing and become known for it. That makes them referable. If someone asks, “who’s the best person for X?” their name comes up, every time.They create signature experiences
Giving recovery gift packs to first-time patients. e.g with a heat pack, a handwritten thank-you note, a supplement sample, and herbal tea
Offering a hot face towel on arrival
Serving warm tea post-treatment
A text message 2 days after the appointment, just to check in
They group appointments together
Not only does this make the day more efficient, it creates the impression of scarcity. Patients feel like you are the practitioner that everyone sees. The best. It drives urgency and repeat bookings without any pressure.They invest in systems and people to save time
Average clinics try to save money. The best clinicians try to buy back their time. They ask themselves, “what’s the highest-value thing only I can do?” and then delegate the rest whether to staff, systems, or AI.
Lesson 3: How 20% of practitioners get 80% of patients
From what I have understood so far about how practices gain new customers, there are three main ways in 2025 to generate ‘new’ patient bookings and leads which every practice should be doing.
‘Engineered’ Word of mouth
Every practitioner knows what word of mouth is, but not many know that it can be amplified and engineered. Here is the top method I’ve seen practices using that is so simple to implement:
“Refer a friend and both receive 50% off your next appointment” (or similar) referral offer.
If you can advertise this to your existing clientele via email or in clinic flyers, this can work really well.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
This is a must in my eyes, every physical practice has a clientele that is all based within a certain location. The priority for when someone wants a physio and they search ‘physio near me’ should be for your business to pop up.
Here are google’s own recommendations to explain how you can rank higher when people search for your business in google maps. But the easiest way would be investing into an SEO expert to review your website and digital profile to work out how you can get onto that first page of results when someone wants your service.
Online ads (google, social media etc)
This is usually the most expensive option, but also the most measurable, scalable, and direct way to generate new patient leads. You can test offers, control your budget, and track exactly what’s working in real time.
If you’ve never run ads before, here are two quick tutorials to get you started fast:
Google ads tutorial
Facebook ads tutorial
Start small. Keep it simple. Promote one clear offer. And make sure someone/Aeva is there to pick up the phone when a new patient wants to book in.
Turning Patterns into Progress
This isn’t just theory. It’s what I’m seeing over and over again from real conversations with real clinic owners.
Across different locations, specialties and stages of business, the same patterns keep showing up. Some clinics are just getting by. Others are breaking through. And it’s not random. The ones who grow have systems, clarity, and momentum. The ones who struggle are often buried in admin, distractions and missed opportunities.
All of this is shaping how we build Aeva.
Every call, every insight, every quiet moment where someone says, “I wish I didn’t have to deal with this,” goes straight into how the product evolves. We’re building our system for practice owners who want to be in the top 20%, not just get by.
Hopefully some of these points hit home. If there is anything I’ve missed or have understood incorrectly, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to hit reply below.
Keep innovating,
Chris Baxter
Founder, Aeva AI Receptionist for healthcare
www.aevaai.com
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Book a call with me about product support or anything here.