Short answer: call each customer the day before their appointment with a short keypad call: who you are, when the appointment is, then press 1 to confirm, 2 to reschedule, 3 to cancel. Confirmations update your booking system automatically, reschedule requests go to the front desk, and cancellations free the slot early enough to offer it to someone else. Your staff only call back the people who need help.
This post covers keypad IVR confirmations. If you want a conversational AI receptionist that books slots on its own, see automating appointment booking with voice AI.
Who This Is For
- Clinics and polyclinics: OPD, specialist and follow-up appointments.
- Diagnostic labs: home sample collection slots, fasting tests.
- Dental and physiotherapy: multi-session plans where a missed session breaks the schedule.
- Salons, spas, clinics for skin and hair: longer bookings where a no-show costs a whole slot.
- Home services: AC service, pest control, appliance repair visits.
All share one problem: a no-show wastes a slot nobody else can use, and reminder calls by the front desk take time away from people standing at the counter.
Why a Call, Not Only an SMS
SMS and WhatsApp reminders are cheap and worth sending. The difference is the answer. A message is read (or not) silently; a call with keys gets an explicit yes, no or "I need to change it", which is what lets you refill a slot. Many businesses do both: a message at booking time, a confirmation call the day before.
When to Call
| Appointment type | Call | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Next-day clinic / salon | Previous day, late morning to early evening | Enough time to refill the slot |
| Same-day afternoon slots | Same morning | Short notice still lets you rebook |
| Fasting test / home collection | Previous evening | Doubles as the fasting reminder |
| Multi-session plans | Day before each session | Keeps the series on track |
Outbound calls through the Edesy API are dialled only between 09:00 and 21:00 IST, which fits all of these. If key 0 transfers to your front desk, call when the desk is staffed: the IVR does not yet switch routing by time of day.
The Call Design
Keep the whole call under a minute.
- Who and when, in one sentence. Clinic name, doctor or stylist, day and time.
- Three keys. Confirm, reschedule, cancel.
- Short replies after each key, then hang up.
- No input: say it once more, then end the call politely. Do not loop forever.
English script
Hello {{var.name}}, this is City Care Clinic. Your appointment with {{var.doctor}} is {{var.when}}. To confirm, press 1. To change the time, press 2. To cancel, press 3.
After 1: Thank you, your appointment is confirmed. See you {{var.when_short}}.
After 2: Thank you, our front desk will call you to fix a new time.
After 3: Your appointment is cancelled. Thank you for letting us know.
Hindi script
नमस्ते {{var.name}} जी, सिटी केयर क्लिनिक से कॉल है। {{var.doctor}} के साथ आपका अपॉइंटमेंट {{var.when}} है। कन्फ़र्म करने के लिए 1 दबाइए। समय बदलने के लिए 2 दबाइए। कैंसल करने के लिए 3 दबाइए।
Pass when as words your voice reads naturally: "कल सुबह साढ़े ग्यारह बजे" in Hindi, "tomorrow at
eleven thirty in the morning" in English, rather than "2026-10-13 11:30". The
Hindi IVR guide explains why numbers in Hindi prompts should be
spelled out.
Privacy
Name the clinic, the doctor and the time. Do not name the test, procedure or condition: another family member may answer. The same goes for salons offering treatments a customer may not want to share.
Connecting It to Your Booking System
The flow is published once and triggered per appointment:
- Each evening or morning, your system lists tomorrow's appointments and calls
POST /v1/ivr/callsfor each, with variables (name,doctor,when) and your booking ID asreference_id. - Key 1 triggers an HTTP Request node that marks the booking confirmed
(
{"booking": "{{reference_id}}", "status": "confirmed"}). - Key 2 sends a reschedule request to your system, and optionally an Email to the front desk with the patient's number and choice.
- Key 3 marks the booking cancelled, so the slot shows as free.
- When the call ends, the status callback tells your system whether it was answered and which keys were pressed, so you can retry no-answers once.
No booking software with an API? A small script reading a Google Sheet or an export, and an endpoint that writes back to the sheet, is enough to start. The request and callback format is covered in the IVR outbound call API guide.
What to Do With the Answers
- Confirmed: nothing. That is the point.
- Reschedule: the desk calls back the same day with two or three slot options.
- Cancelled: offer the slot to your waiting list or walk-ins.
- No answer after a retry: treat as unconfirmed. Some clinics send a WhatsApp message; some overbook unconfirmed slots slightly. Your data will tell you which works.
- Nobody pressed a key: they heard the reminder. Do not call again.
Track no-show rates for confirmed, cancelled-and-refilled and unconfirmed appointments separately for a few weeks. That tells you whether the calls pay for themselves, using your numbers rather than anyone's industry average.
Multi-Doctor and Multi-Branch Setups
One flow can serve every doctor, stylist or branch, because the details travel as variables. Pass
doctor and branch with each call and the prompt adapts. Use a separate flow only when the
options differ, for example a lab branch that offers "press 4 for home collection".
If each branch has its own front desk, pass the branch in reference_id or a variable, and let your
endpoint route reschedule requests to the right desk. The call can show your branch's own number as
caller ID if you own one per branch, so customers who call back reach the right place. Keep the
script identical across branches otherwise; customers who visit two branches should hear the same
call.
Languages
Hindi and English text-to-speech can speak names, doctors and times per patient. For Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada and other languages, use a recorded prompt such as "This is City Care Clinic calling about your appointment tomorrow. To confirm, press 1..." without the personal details, and send the details by SMS. How to record and upload these is in IVR in any Indian language with recorded prompts.
Common Mistakes
- Calling too late. A cancellation two hours before a slot rarely gets refilled.
- Long greetings. "Thank you for choosing ..." before the time is said loses people.
- Too many keys. Directions, parking and fees belong in the SMS, not in the menu.
- No action on key 2. If reschedule requests are not called back the same day, patients stop pressing 2 and just do not turn up.
Cost
Confirmation calls are short; you pay per minute from a prepaid wallet. Estimate your monthly cost with the IVR cost calculator or see IVR pricing.
Start With Tomorrow's List
See the flow and keys on the appointment reminder IVR page, or talk to us and we will help you set up the first day's calls.