The Inbox holds what needs someone at the Clinic: replies from Patients, missed Calls and Voicemails, callback requests the AI Receptionist took, Messages that didn't send, and items with no Patient. Each Patient has one Thread: what they and your team have said to each other by text, email and phone.
The list
Open groups what is waiting under Patients waiting, Didn't send and Also open. Recent lists every Thread, latest first; Clinic holds items with no Patient. An Enquiry's row opens on Enquiries.
Reply to a Patient
Open their Thread. Reminders, receipts and other Messages Clayform sends by itself are on the Patient's Timeline, not here.
Under Reply, choose Text or Email. A way that can't reach them is struck through: after "Replied STOP", for example, you can't text them until they reply START. By email, the subject is always "Message from" and your Clinic's name, because a subject line never names a treatment.
While something the Patient raised is open, a tick names what your reply closes, such as "Mark the reschedule request handled", and the button reads Send and mark handled. Untick it to leave the item open.
If something arrives as you write, Clayform asks you to review it before sending, and keeps your words. A colleague writing in the same Thread shows at the top as replying, so two people don't answer the same Patient.
A Message by text sent while nothing is open on the Thread waits out the Clinic's quiet hours ("Held until" a time). While something is open it goes at once, as anything by email always does.
Internal Notes
Choose Internal note, write, then Add note. Only staff see it, never the Patient. It stays on the Thread with your name and the time.
To handle
Beside the Thread, To handle lists each open Inbox Item with its next step: Reply, Call back after a missed Call or Voicemail, Reschedule when the Patient replied R to a reminder, or Update email and Update mobile when a wrong contact detail stopped a Message. The circle on a row marks it handled (No reply needed on a reply from the Patient). Mark all handled closes the lot, with an optional note saved as an Internal Note.
Calls and Voicemails
Calls on the Clinic Number show in the Thread with who answered, how long and a one-line Call Summary. Play the Call Recording or open the Transcript; the Call Recording is deleted 90 days after the Call.
Call under the Patient's name, and Call back, ring your own mobile first ("Calling your mobile. Press 1 to connect."), then the Patient, who sees the Clinic Number. Add and confirm your mobile on your Account first.
A number Clayform doesn't know
A number that matches no Patient shows as "not a Patient yet", with no reply box: every Message belongs to a Patient's or an Enquiry's Thread, so first say whose it is.
- Link to a Patient: someone already on your books, on a new number.
- Create Patient: a new Unclaimed Patient; ask their name first.
- Make an Enquiry: someone asking before they book. Nothing is sent.
Each moves its Messages and Calls there and opens that Thread. For a wrong number or spam, choose Mark handled: Messages from a number never linked to a Patient are deleted twelve months later.
Clinic items
A Clinic item, such as a fee that could not be charged, opens with what happened, an Internal note and Mark handled. In the list, only Didn't send rows and Clinic items close together, with their section's Mark all handled: nobody is waiting on a reply for them.