A patient who needs a blood test rarely calls just one lab. They call the first number on Google, and if it rings out, they call the second. For a diagnostic centre, a missed call is usually a test that happens somewhere else.
When a lab's calls go unanswered
- Before opening. Fasting patients call at 6:30 or 7 to ask whether they can drink water, and what time collection starts.
- The collection rush. The person who answers the phone is also registering patients at the counter.
- Afternoon report calls. "Is my report ready?" takes the line while a new patient tries to get through.
- After closing. Home collection requests for tomorrow morning arrive at 9 PM.
Most of these calls need the same answers
Fasting hours, collection timings, whether home collection is available, how reports arrive, whether a prescription is needed. These answers rarely change, but someone at the counter repeats them all day. That is the work worth taking off the front desk.
Three ways to keep the calls
- Publish the answers. Put preparation instructions and timings on your Google Business Profile and website. Some callers will read them first.
- Use WhatsApp for the repeat questions. A patient who gets the fasting chart on WhatsApp does not need to call back to check it.
- Let an AI receptionist take the overflow. It answers when the counter is busy or the lab is closed, gives your own preparation and timing answers, and sends the booking or home collection request to your team.
What to keep with your staff
Anything about a result. A receptionist, human or AI, should tell a patient how and when reports arrive, never what a report says.
See it on a lab's line
The AI voice agent for diagnostic centres page shows how Pluxo handles these calls. You can call +91 93398 30614 and ask the questions your patients ask, or estimate what missed calls cost you with the missed call calculator.