Sample assessment
Opportunity brief: Harbor & Pine Veterinary
1. Summary
Harbor & Pine runs two clinics with three veterinarians and eight front-desk and technician staff. The main problem is calls that go unanswered during surgery hours, which turn into phone tag and lost appointments. We recommend starting with a callback queue for those calls, turning on the reminders the practice software already has, and not building an AI that answers medical questions.
2. What we heard
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Calls unanswered between 10 AM and 2 PM | "About 15 to 25 a week" | Owner estimate |
| Front-desk time on callbacks and phone tag | 6 to 9 hours a week, both sites | Owner estimate |
| Average visit value | $140 | Owner estimate |
| Phone system can export call history | Yes | Observed on the call (screen share) |
| Practice software has vaccine reminders | Yes, currently switched off | Observed on the call |
| Practice software allows outside systems to create appointments | Unknown | To confirm with the vendor |
| Clients phone with medical questions | Daily | Owner statement |
3. Prioritized opportunities
| # | Opportunity | Recommendation | Indicative effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unanswered calls during surgery hours | Implement first. A text acknowledges the caller, asks the reason, and adds them to one prioritized callback list. Anything clinical is flagged for a technician. | 3 to 5 weeks, depending on item 3 in section 5 |
| 2 | Vaccine and wellness reminders | Keep your current tool. Turn on the reminders already built into the practice software. No project needed. | About 1 hour of your time |
| 3 | An AI that answers medical questions by phone or text | Don't build this. The clinical and liability risk outweighs the time saved. Route these to a person; opportunity 1 already tags them. | None |
4. Recommended first workflow
Today
- A client calls during surgery hours; nobody is free, so the call goes to voicemail.
- Voicemails are checked when someone has a moment, often after 2 PM.
- Staff call back; about half the time they reach voicemail again.
- Some callers book elsewhere. Nobody knows how many.
Proposed
- An unanswered call gets a text within a minute: "Sorry we missed you. Reply 1 to book, 2 for a prescription refill, 3 for a question. For an emergency, call [emergency line]."
- The reply lands in one callback list, sorted by type and waiting time, visible at both front desks.
- Booking requests are offered open times if the practice software allows it; otherwise staff confirm a held request with one tap.
- Anything clinical goes to a technician and is never answered automatically.
- Every call, reply and outcome is recorded, so after four weeks you can see the real numbers.
5. Configure, build, or uncertain
| Configured from existing systems | Text acknowledgement, reply handling, the callback list, routing rules, quiet hours and opt-outs, the action record. |
|---|---|
| Developed for this project | A connection to the practice software's schedule, if its vendor allows it. |
| Uncertain | (1) Whether the practice software lets outside systems read and write appointments. (2) Whether the phone carrier supports forwarding missed calls to a text workflow. (3) The real number of missed calls, until the call log is exported. |
6. Indicative economics
These are scenarios built from the owner's estimates, not forecasts. Each assumption is shown so you can change it.
| Scenario | Inputs and assumptions | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Front-desk time | 6 to 9 hours a week (owner estimate); the callback list removes 30 to 50 percent of phone tag (assumption, to be measured) | About 2 to 4.5 hours a week of staff time |
| Recovered visits | 15 to 25 unanswered calls a week (owner estimate, not yet observed); 20 percent become visits that would otherwise be lost (assumption); $140 a visit (owner estimate) | 3 to 5 visits, or about $420 to $700 a week in visit revenue before costs |
Time saved is not the same as money saved. It only becomes money if paid hours fall or the time goes to work that earns revenue. The call log export in the next step replaces the estimate with a real count before any proposal is written.
7. Proposed next steps
- You, 15 minutes: export four weeks of call history from the phone system.
- You, about 1 hour: turn on vaccine and wellness reminders in the practice software.
- Us: ask the practice software vendor what appointment access is allowed.
- Then your decision: if the call log confirms the problem, ask for a written implementation proposal for opportunity 1. If it does not, stop here; the reminders alone may be enough.
This sample shows the format. A real brief is usually 3 to 5 pages and is delivered within 5 business days after the conversation.