Clinics and service businesses
Answer the two questions your phone rings for, and book the appointment
PepoChat answers 'do you offer this?', 'how much is it?' and 'where are you?' from your own pages and Help Center articles, then books the appointment against your connected calendar in the visitor's timezone, with confirmations and reminders sent by the calendar. If the appointment is a call, it collects the phone number first.
It is for clinics, dental practices, salons, studios, repair shops and other businesses whose front desk spends the day on the same questions, and who want the website to take bookings when nobody is at the desk.
Every feature on the free plan · no credit card
Rendered from the widget's own markup with sample data; the conversations are the ones the agent is built for.
How it works
How a clinic or service business sets it up
- 1
Import your website and services
Add your site by crawl or sitemap so services, prices, locations, hours and the FAQ become the knowledge base. Upload a PDF price list or a new-patient form if those facts live only there.
- 2
Publish Help Center articles
Write the how-to and policy pages visitors should read in full, such as 'What to bring to your first visit' or 'Cancellation policy', in Markdown. Published articles appear on the widget's Help tab and are mirrored into the knowledge base.
- 3
Connect your PepoSmart calendar
Paste a PepoSmart API key under Appointments, switch on the appointment types the agent may offer, and write a 'when to offer this' note for each. For call-based types, the agent asks for the visitor's phone number before booking.
- 4
Set business hours and the away message
Choose 'My team answers during business hours', set your timezone and daily hours, and write an away message of up to 300 characters. Outside your hours the widget shows when the team is back, in the visitor's timezone.
- 5
Add voice if you want it
Connect your Vapi account under Plugins, then pick a Voice Assistant and a Display Phone Number in Widget Customization. Visitors get a Start a voice call button and a Call us screen with Copy Number and Call Now.
- 6
Install and set the rules
Paste the script tag, or install the WordPress plugin. Under Never do this, add 'Do not give medical advice' or whatever your profession requires; the agent declines briefly and offers a person instead.
Plans
What each plan gives a service business
| Capability | Free | Starter | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI replies a month | 200, then conversations go to your inbox | 2,000, then $10 per 1,000 | 10,000, then $10 per 1,000 |
| Appointment booking in the visitor's timezone | Included | Included | Included |
| Voice call and Call us button (your own Vapi account) | Included | Included | Included |
| Business hours, away message and offline status | Included | Included | Included |
| Help Center articles | 50 | 300 | 300 |
| Knowledge sources | 5 (a whole-site crawl counts as one) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Team members | 1 | 3, extra seats $15 a month | 10, extra seats $15 a month |
| New-lead emails to the team | Not included | Included | Included |
| "Powered by PepoChat" on the widget | Shown | Shown | Removed |
Starter is $49 a month and Growth $149, in US dollars; yearly billing is ten months' price. Voice needs your own Vapi account, billed by Vapi.
Booking that respects the visitor's clock
Slots are shown in the visitor's own time and the booking is made in yours, so nobody does timezone math. The agent checks availability for the matching appointment type over the next 14 days, offers a handful of openings, asks which location if the type has several, or for a phone number if you call the visitor, then books with the visitor's name and email. PepoSmart re-validates the slot, assigns the host, creates the meeting link and sends the confirmation and reminders.
If a slot was taken in the meantime, the agent offers alternatives. Visitors who prefer to browse can tap Find a time to open the booking page inside the widget. Paid event types are never offered by the agent, and up to 12 appointment types can be enabled.
The 'when to offer this' note on each type is how the agent chooses: 'New patient consultations, 30 minutes' and 'Follow-up calls for existing patients' send different requests to different calendars.
A front desk that knows when it is closed
With business hours set, the widget's status line reads 'team online' during your day and 'team offline, back Mon 9:00 AM' after it, in the visitor's timezone, and it flips at the boundary without a reload. The agent keeps answering around the clock. What changes is the promise: inside your hours it says a teammate will pick up shortly, outside them it gives your away message and asks once for an email address so you can follow up in the morning.
The widget's Contact screen shows your schedule, for example 'Mon-Fri 9:00-17:00', in your own zone. A visitor who asks for a person at 11 p.m. is told when you are back and leaves an address; the conversation waits in your inbox, escalated, with an email to every member.
A practice with no one on live chat at all picks 'No one answers live chat, we follow up by email'. The agent then never promises a person, collects the address, and your team replies by email.
Voice for people who would rather talk
Two voice options sit in the same widget, both powered by your own Vapi account: a real-time voice call inside the chat window, and a phone number visitors can tap to call. Start a voice call opens a Voice Chat screen with a live transcript; Call us opens a Contact Us screen with the number, Copy Number and Call Now. Only your Vapi public key is ever sent to a visitor's browser.
The voice assistant is configured on Vapi's platform. It does not share the chat agent's knowledge base or tools, and voice calls are not saved as conversations in your inbox, so treat it as a separate channel that happens to live in the same widget.
For a service business that usually means the chat agent takes the questions and the bookings, and the phone number is there for the people who want to hear a voice.
What it does not do for a clinic or service business
- The voice assistant has its own configuration on Vapi. It does not use the chat agent's knowledge base or actions, and voice calls are not saved as conversations in the inbox, so there are no call transcripts or recordings there.
- The Call us button shows a phone number. The call itself is an ordinary phone call outside PepoChat.
- Booking creates new appointments through PepoSmart. The agent does not reschedule or cancel existing ones from the chat, and it never offers paid event types or takes deposits.
- Business hours are one opening and one closing time per day; overnight hours and split shifts are not supported.
- PepoChat does not currently claim SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, a signed DPA template or a specific hosting region. Ask [email protected] before relying on it for regulated patient data.
- Visitors get no email when you reply from the inbox. Use the address the agent collected and reply by email for anything time-sensitive.
Clinics and service businesses: questions teams ask
- Can a visitor book an appointment without calling us?
- Yes. The agent offers openings from your connected PepoSmart calendar in the visitor's timezone, books the one they pick with their name and email, and PepoSmart sends the confirmation and reminders. A Find a time button opens the full booking page inside the widget.
- What if the appointment is a phone consultation?
- When the host calls the visitor, the agent asks for the visitor's phone number before it books. The booking then goes to the calendar with that number, and the confirmation email comes from PepoSmart as usual.
- Will the agent give medical, legal or financial advice?
- Only what your content says, and you can forbid it outright. Put 'Do not give medical advice' in the Never do this field and the agent declines such requests briefly and offers what it can help with, or a person.
- What do visitors see when we are closed?
- The widget's status line shows when the team is back, in the visitor's own timezone, and the agent keeps answering from your content. If someone asks for a person, the agent gives your away message, asks once for their email, and the conversation waits in your inbox.
- Does the voice assistant know what the chat agent knows?
- No. The voice assistant is configured on Vapi with its own setup and does not share the chat agent's knowledge base or tools. Voice calls are also not saved to the inbox.
- Can we show hours, directions and policies without the visitor asking?
- Yes. Publish Help Center articles and they appear on the widget's Help tab and in the home screen's help card, with a search box and your top four articles. Published articles are also mirrored into the knowledge base so the agent can answer from them.
Still unsure? Email [email protected] or talk to us.
More use cases
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- Sales teamsSDRs, account executives and founders who sell
- Agencies and consultanciesWeb agencies, freelancers and consultants
- Course creators and coachesOnline educators, coaches and consultants
- Customer onboardingB2B onboarding and customer success teams
Appointments booked while the phone rings
Paste one script tag, point the agent at your content, and the first conversation resolves itself. Every feature is on the free plan.
Claims on this page were checked against the product documentation on October 27, 2026.