Hey there! Chris here from Aeva AI Receptionist for Healthcare.
I want to tell you about something that happened last week that genuinely caught me and my co-founder Louis off guard.
We'd been hearing from clinics for a while now that our system was the most reliable out there. People would tell us in onboarding calls, in emails, in passing. And honestly, you always take that with a grain of salt. Everyone says nice things when they're signing up.
But this week, a new customer came along who did something we hadn't seen before.
They subscribed to every major AI receptionist on the market. At the same time.
Side by side. Same clinic, same calls, same PMS setup. A proper head-to-head comparison with all the top systems running simultaneously planned for 1 month to see which one they wanted to rely on long term.
When we found out, Louis and I were on the edge of our chairs. We talk a lot internally about where we sit in this market, but talk is cheap. This was a real, unfiltered test, and we had no control over the outcome.
After one day into the test, we got this email:
"Hi guys, I’d like to refer my friends to Aeva how can I do this? I've used the other systems and I'm cancelling them. There is no comparison, yours is far superior."
One day.
So we had to ask, WHY?
"In comparison, they are incredibly basic and not as autonomous as your system. I love Cliniko and I have been a big fan ever since I subscribed. As a single chair clinic your integration works perfectly. The dashboard is more functional and your settings allow me to really home in on the intricacies of booking appointments."
I'm not sharing this to brag. I'm sharing it because of what it tells me about where this market is actually at.
Personalisation matters
There are a lot of AI receptionist tools popping up right now. New ones every month. Most of them demo well & have a slick sales team.
But patients loving the system isn't a feature you can fake. It shows up in the boring stuff. How can it explain your custom appointment type structure or a multidisciplinary clinic? Does it understand your availability rules? Does it handle the weird edge cases that are specific to your clinic, not just a generic script?
That's what this customer picked up on in a single day. Not our marketing. Not our pitch. The fact that when real calls came through, our system handled them like she’d expect a receptionist to. The others didn't.
That's what we optimise for, every single day. Reliability, realism and usability, everything else second.
A few common patterns I see the top clinics focusing on:
Voicemail is more expensive than you think. Patients tend to call when the pain comes back, not during business hours. If that call hits voicemail at 5:30pm, most of them won't try again. They'll just Google the next clinic.
The best practitioners are fully present. There's something about a practitioner who never glances at a ringing phone mid-session. Their patients notice. It's a small thing, but it adds up in retention and word of mouth.
People remember how the call went. A patient who can't get through starts to feel like they're not a priority. Fair or not, an unanswered call sends a message.
Speaking of referrals
The very first thing this customer asked was "how do I refer my friends?" Before they even finished the trial.
That question means a lot to us. And it made us realise we needed to make it easier for people who believe in what we're building to share it.
So we've launched a new referral rewards programme. If you refer a fellow clinic owner to Aeva and they sign up, we'll send you a $250 AUD gift card of your choosing. It works in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, or wherever you are located with hundreds of options from brands you actually use.
If you’re currently an Aeva member and want to refer someone (and allow them to access 50% off their first month of Aeva). Log in to your Aeva account > go to dashboard > referral program > this is where you will find your unique referral code.
We're building something that people want to tell their colleagues about. The least we can do is say thank you for spreading the word.
Hopefully some of this is useful. If you've been quietly recommending us to people already (we know some of you have), now there's something in it for you too.
Every call counts,
Chris Baxter
founder, Aeva AI Receptionist for healthcare
P.S. If you've ever run your own comparison test, I'd love to hear what you found. Hit reply below, I read everything.
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