Client onboarding

Onboarding is where a signed client becomes a running one. Done well it takes days, not weeks, because the steps are short — the care is in doing them in order and proving each one before you rely on it. This guide is the client-facing launch you run; the same sequence, written for the practice, is in Getting started.

Your first client is concierge

For your first launch, your SpiderLabs contact does it with you: provisioning, the forwarding cutover, and the go-live checks. That is on purpose. You learn the launch gate once, on a real client, with someone who has done it many times. After that first launch you run onboarding yourself, and this guide is your checklist.

Capture the intake (ground truth)

The single biggest difference between a receptionist that sounds like the practice and one that sounds like a bot is the facts you feed it. Collect these from the client directly — do not guess:

1. 1

   Hours and coverage

   Regular weekly hours, holidays and date-specific closures, and exactly which calls they want covered — after hours only, overflow during the day, or full coverage.
2. 2

   Services offered and not offered

   What the practice does and, just as important, what it does not. Knowing what to decline politely keeps the receptionist from promising something the office cannot do.
3. 3

   Staff and handoff

   Who should be called back and how urgent things are escalated. Set the callback owner and the expectation for how fast the team responds.
4. 4

   Tone and answers

   How they greet patients, the questions they get most, and the answers they want given. This is what makes it sound like their front desk.

Number and call forwarding

The client keeps their existing number. You provision a dedicated number for the AI receptionist, then set the practice’s phone system to forward the calls they chose — unanswered, after-hours, or overflow — to it. There is no number change and no downtime, and the cutover reverses in minutes. The coverage modes and what staff experience are in Phone setup and forwarding.

The dashboard walkthrough you give the client

Owners adopt what they understand. Give a short, guided tour so the front desk knows exactly where to look on day one. Walk them through:

• The inbox: every call and chat in one place, with a summary of who called and why. Deeper tour in Your dashboard.
• Transcripts and recordings: how to open a call and read or listen to what happened, and that access is audited.
• The callback queue: the day-to-day workflow — how requests come in, how to work and complete them, and how staff are alerted. See Callback queue.
• Appointments: how booking requests appear and how they are confirmed, which depends on the booking mode in Booking modes.
• Notifications: where alerts go so new callbacks never sit unseen.

Go-live checks

Before a single patient call routes through the receptionist, every check below must pass. This is the launch gate, and it does not bend, because these are healthcare workflows.

1. 1

   Compliance on file

   The agreement is signed, the first payment is in, and the required compliance paperwork is executed before any patient data flows.
2. 2

   Test call

   A real call from outside the practice network reaches the receptionist and appears in the dashboard with a transcript. This proves the phone path end to end.
3. 3

   Test booking

   The appointment path works for the client’s booking mode: a callback request lands correctly, or, where booking-to-schedule is enabled, a test appointment writes and is removed cleanly. See Booking modes.
4. 4

   Working staff notifications

   A real notification reaches the client team and is confirmed, so callbacks are seen once the practice is live.
5. 5

   Dashboard verified

   The dashboard is checked as the staff will actually use it, and only then does patient traffic move over.

Booking integration (later, and assisted)

Many practices start in callback-first mode, where booking requests land in the queue and the front desk confirms each one. Connecting the practice’s management system so the receptionist can write appointments directly is an optional next step, set up with SpiderLabs assistance after the practice is comfortably live and its compliance steps are complete. Keep this out of your first-week promises; it is an upgrade, not a launch requirement. How the two modes differ is explained in Booking modes.

After go-live

The first week is where trust is won. Check in with the client, review the calls and callbacks together, and tune the answers based on what real patients ask. You own the relationship and the support experience; we keep the platform running underneath you. When it is going well, that client is your best reference for the next one — earned honestly, on a real result.