WhatsApp for clinics: how to organise patient questions and appointment requests

This article is for clinic owners and managers: dental, dermatology, general clinics and others. Every day, a clinic's WhatsApp fills with the same questions about services, prices and doctors' hours, plus appointment requests, all waiting for a busy receptionist. Here is how ATMET Chat helps: an AI that answers from your service and price lists, keyword replies, campaigns the clinic sends to people who agreed to hear from it, and a team inbox for reception staff. We also say plainly what ATMET Chat does not do.

What arrives on a clinic's WhatsApp every day?

Any receptionist knows these messages: "How much is a dental cleaning?", "Is the doctor in on Thursday?", "Where are you?", "I'd like an appointment next week." General questions that repeat in different words, and appointment requests that need someone to answer and confirm them.

These messages often land on one phone at the front desk, answered between patients. Replies get delayed, or a message gets lost.

ATMET Chat automates WhatsApp for businesses that don't run an online store on Salla, Zid or Shopify, clinics among them. The clinics card on our business page gives short examples, each marked with the plan it starts on. This article covers the detail.

How does a clinic connect its WhatsApp number?

Two ways, both on every plan, and you can use them together:

• The official connection (WhatsApp API): Meta's official WhatsApp interface, and the only way to send campaigns.
• ATMET Chat channels: a link made by scanning a QR code from the clinic's phone.

If the clinic's number already runs on the WhatsApp Business app, it keeps working on the phone with the same number.

On fees: since October 1, 2026, Meta charges for customer-service replies beyond the first 1,000 a month per number on the official connection; on the ATMET Chat channels there are no message fees.

On the official connection, when a patient messages you, a 24-hour customer-service window opens, and inside it you reply freely. A message the clinic starts outside that window needs a Meta-approved template.

How does the AI answer patients from your service and price lists?

From the Pro plan, the clinic uploads its files to the knowledge base: the service list, the price list, the doctors' hours and days, a brochure about the clinic. It takes PDFs, images, videos and text, and the AI answers patients' questions from them around the clock, in the patient's own dialect.

So a patient who asks late at night about the price of a facial cleansing session, or which days the dentist is in, gets the answer at once instead of waiting for opening hours.

An answer is only as clear as its file. A few tips:

• Name each service the way patients do, with its price if it is fixed. If the price is set after an examination, say so, so the AI has something to tell the patient.
• List each doctor's hours and days, and upload an updated copy when the schedule changes.
• Add the address and opening hours, and what changes in holidays.

The knowledge base is for the clinic's general files. It is not a place for patient files or medical reports, so don't upload anything of that kind.

On the Ultra plan, the AI also understands a voice note a patient sends instead of typing, and replies. It stays off until the clinic switches it on in the AI settings.

What does the AI do with a medical or personal question?

ATMET Chat's AI answers general questions: which services you offer, what they cost, when a doctor is in, where the clinic is. Medical questions, such as symptoms or a question about a treatment or a medicine, and anything personal to the patient, go to the reception team: the AI answers questions about the clinic only from the clinic's files, and hands the team every sensitive case and anything the files don't answer. To be sure, say so in the AI's main instructions too.

More broadly, when a chat needs a person, such as a patient's complaint, a refund request or a question your files don't answer, the AI stops and hands the chat to the team, and the clinic owner gets an alert with the reason. This escalation is available from the Pro plan.

Our advice: keep medical details for the visit. WhatsApp suits general questions and appointment requests; symptoms, medical history and test results belong in the clinic, where the doctor hears them and examines the patient.

You can tell patients so in your ready replies or your knowledge-base files: "Message us here about services, prices and appointments; the doctor will hear about your health at your appointment." When a medical question reaches the receptionist, the best reply is usually an invitation to book a visit.

Which questions can keyword replies handle?

Some answers never change, so they don't need an AI. From the Plus plan, the clinic writes a keyword and a ready reply. When a message contains the keyword, the reply goes out at once, even without the AI.

Examples for a clinic:

• "location": the address, a map link and short directions.
• "hours": working days and hours, and what changes in Ramadan and on Eid.
• "prices": prices of the most-requested services, or an invitation to name the service.
• "appointment": what to send to request one: the service, a preferred doctor if any, and a time that suits. Reception takes it from there.

Keyword replies are text only, with no buttons or menus, so make each reply complete on its own.

How does the reception team work from one inbox?

From the Plus plan, every WhatsApp chat of the clinic lands in one inbox, and all staff reply from it with the clinic's own number. In the inbox:

• Assigning: assign each chat to a receptionist or to a whole team, so everyone knows who is answering.
• Internal notes: a note on a chat that the team sees and the patient doesn't, such as "Asked for an evening slot, checking the doctor's schedule." Keep notes for coordinating staff, not for medical details.
• Labels: your own labels on chats, on every plan, such as "appointment request" or "price question."
• Closing: close a chat when it's done; a new message from the patient reopens it.

With the AI, from the Pro plan, chats carry ATMET Chat's status labels automatically. On the Ultra plan, the AI also applies your own labels, hands each chat to the right teammate, and the owner sees each teammate's reply speed and chats handled.

Does ATMET Chat book appointments by itself?

No. ATMET Chat is not an appointment system: it has no calendar and sends no automatic booking confirmation. An appointment request arrives as a chat like any other, and the receptionist answers it and confirms the appointment.

In practice:

1. The patient asks for an appointment, or sends "appointment" and gets your ready reply.
2. The chat is assigned to a receptionist, by hand, or automatically on the Ultra plan.
3. The receptionist checks the doctors' schedule the way the clinic does today, in its own system or appointment book, and offers a time.
4. The receptionist confirms the appointment in the same chat, then closes it.

Can the clinic send reminders to patients?

Yes, but to be clear: ATMET Chat sends no automatic appointment reminders, since it doesn't know the clinic's appointments. An automatic follow-up is only possible through a workflow (Beta) you build yourself on the Ultra plan, with a wait step before the message. A reminder here is a campaign the clinic sends by hand, when it chooses, to a list of patients who agreed to hear from it, on a Meta-approved template.

Campaigns are available from the Plus plan:

• Upload an Excel or CSV file of patients who agreed to receive the clinic's messages; the import asks you to confirm their consent. Only add people who really agreed.
• Choose a Meta-approved template; each message is filled in with that person's details from the file, such as their name.
• Send over the official connection; campaigns don't go out over the ATMET Chat channels.

A clinic might send a general reminder about routine check-ups, its Ramadan and Eid opening hours, or news of a new doctor joining.

Keep the template general: no diagnosis, no treatment, no health detail. One template goes to a whole list, and medical details belong in the visit.

Meta charges for each campaign message and sets how many people you can reach a day. ATMET Chat adds no commission on Meta's fees.

Which plan suits a clinic?

There are three business plans, and each includes the one before it:

• Plus (99 SAR a month): the inbox with assigning, notes and labels, keyword replies, and campaigns from an Excel/CSV file with consent confirmed. For a clinic whose team answers patients itself, with ready replies for fixed questions.
• Pro (199 SAR a month): everything above, with the AI that answers from your service, price and doctors' hours files, and hands to the team what needs a person.
• Ultra (249 SAR a month): everything above, with patients' voice notes once switched on in the AI settings, automatic hand-off, AI labelling and team stats, and custom workflows you build yourself (Beta).

You start with a 14-day free trial, no card asked, with every Ultra feature open, and nothing is charged automatically. To continue, choose a plan on the Account page of the dashboard and pay by card (mada, Visa or Mastercard) or Apple Pay. A yearly plan is 12 months for the price of 11. Details are on the plans page.

Where does a clinic start?

A practical order:

1. Connect the clinic's number one way or the other, or both.
2. Write keyword replies for location, hours, prices and appointment requests.
3. Agree with reception on a few labels and on who handles which chats.
4. Upload a file of services, prices and doctors' hours to the knowledge base, if your plan includes the AI.
5. Tell patients that WhatsApp is for questions and appointment requests, and medical details are for the visit.

Then the AI or your ready replies answer the general questions, appointment requests reach the right receptionist, and medical details stay with the doctor. To see these uses by plan, go back to the clinics card on our business page.