Booking modes

SpiderLabs captures appointments in one of two modes: callback-first, where your staff confirm each requested time, or direct write mode, where the receptionist books straight into your schedule. Every business starts on callback-first; write mode — proven today with Open Dental — is switched on only after a booking test passes.

At a glance

Callback-first works for any business today: the AI captures the request, your staff confirm the time.
Direct write mode books straight into your schedule — proven now with Open Dental for dental practices.
Write mode is gated by a create/cancel test — it is never switched on blindly.
A “requested” booking is never a lost one; it waits safely in your queue.

Two ways to book

Comparison of callback-first and direct write booking modes
Aspect	Callback-first (Mirror Mode)	Direct write mode
What the customer hears	The receptionist captures the request and explains your team will confirm the time.	The receptionist books the time and confirms the appointment on the call.
Where it lands	A "Needs confirmation" item in your dashboard queue.	Directly on your connected schedule (Open Dental today).
What staff do	Confirm each requested time in your schedule from the queue.	Review — no manual entry needed.
Requires a connected schedule	No — works for any business.	Yes — connected and gated by a booking test (Open Dental today).
Default at launch	Yes — every business starts here.	Enabled after the booking test passes.

Callback-first (Mirror Mode)

In callback-first mode, the receptionist never claims an appointment is booked. When a customer asks to schedule, it captures the request — who they are, preferred time, and reason — and tells them your team will confirm it. The request lands in your dashboard as Needs confirmation, and a staff member places it in your schedule and closes the item.

This is the default, and it works for any appointment-driven business — no practice management system required. For many, it is all they need: the AI handles the conversation and the intake, and your front desk keeps final control of the calendar. It is the workflow behind the callback queue.

Direct write mode

In write mode, the receptionist books the appointment directly into your schedule during the call and confirms it with the customer. The booking shows up in your dashboard attributed to your AI receptionist. Write mode is proven today with Open Dental for dental practices, and requires a healthy connection — see Connecting Open Dental.

The booking test gate

Write mode is never switched on blindly. Before it goes live for your practice, we run a create/cancel test: the system creates a test appointment in your schedule and then cancels it, proving end-to-end that bookings land in the right place and can be removed cleanly. Only after that test passes do we enable live write mode.

The test uses a synthetic patient

The create/cancel test always uses a synthetic test patient, never a real one, and the test appointment is cancelled as part of the check so nothing is left in your schedule.

What a “requested” appointment means

A requested booking is one the receptionist captured but that still needs a human or your schedule to finalize. In callback-first mode, every booking is requested by design. It also matters for write mode:

If your schedule is briefly unreachable, nothing is lost

If your practice management system is momentarily unreachable — a software update, a network blip, or an eConnector restart — the receptionist does not fail the call or turn customers away. It keeps taking the booking as a request, and your staff confirm it from the queue. The moment your schedule is reachable again, the appointment can be placed. Customers still get answered; you still get the booking.

Because of this, your front desk should treat the callback and Needs-confirmation queues as a daily habit. In callback-first mode that queue is the workflow; in write mode it is your safety net for the rare moments the schedule is not reachable.

Keep exploring

Connecting Open DentalFor dental practices: connect Open Dental to SpiderLabs — the CustomerKey, the API setup paste flow, what we read and write, and the write-mode gate.Callback queueThe callback queue as a workflow: how requests are captured, prioritized, worked, and completed, and how staff are alerted so nothing sits unseen.Your dashboardA tour of your dashboard: one inbox for calls and chats, transcripts and recordings, the callback queue, appointments, tasks, analytics, team, and notifications.