The moment an appointment is cancelled, matching waitlist patients get a WhatsApp offer for the slot. First to confirm is booked automatically — turning dead calendar time back into treated patients.
Typical results
0
phone calls to fill a slot
Weeks
earlier care for waitlist patients
+14%
utilization of specialist hours
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Late cancellations left expensive specialist hours empty. The front desk tried calling waitlist patients between check-ins, usually reaching two or three before giving up — most freed slots simply went to waste.
Before and after
Cancelled slots refilled
4.3×Calls per cancellation
−100%Weeks a waitlist patient waits
−67%The automation
We connected the scheduling system to an automation that reacts to every cancellation: it finds waitlist patients who match the slot's practitioner and treatment type, messages them in order of priority with a tap-to-confirm WhatsApp offer, books the first confirmation, updates the calendar and notifies the team — all within minutes.
How it works
- 01
Cancellation detected
The moment a slot frees up, the automation reacts.
- 02
Waitlist matched
Patients matching the slot's practitioner and treatment type are found instantly.
- 03
WhatsApp offers in priority order
Matching patients receive a tap-to-confirm offer for the slot.
- 04
First confirmation wins
The first patient to confirm is booked automatically.
- 05
Calendar updated
The slot is refilled the same day — dead calendar time becomes a treated patient.
Starts from
- Cancellations
- Waitlist
Delivers
- WhatsApp offers
- Slot refilled
- Staff notified
The impact
About eighty-five percent of cancelled slots are now refilled the same day with zero phone calls. Utilization of specialist hours climbed noticeably, and waitlist patients get seen weeks earlier than before.
Questions about this automation
How does the automation choose which patients get the offer?
It filters the waitlist by the freed slot's practitioner, treatment type and duration, then orders matches by the priority rules the clinic sets, such as clinical urgency or time on the list. Offers go out in small batches, so a single slot isn't offered to dozens of patients at once.
What if two patients confirm the same slot?
The first confirmation books the slot in the scheduling system and closes the offer. Anyone who taps confirm after that gets an instant WhatsApp reply saying the slot is taken and that they keep their place on the waitlist, so a slot is never double-booked.
What happens when nobody accepts the offer?
If no one confirms within a set window, for example 20 minutes, the offer moves to the next group of matching patients. When the slot is too close to its start time, the automation stops and notifies the front desk. Simple automations like this are usually live within days.