The problems clinics face
- A front desk under siege. The phone, WhatsApp and the queue at reception all want an answer at once: opening hours, consultation fees, which HMOs you accept, when results will be ready.
- A diary that double-books. Appointments live in a notebook or a spreadsheet, two patients land on one doctor's slot, and missed appointments go unrecorded.
- The risk of advice by chat. A well-meaning staff member, or a careless chatbot, answers a symptom question on WhatsApp. That is not a risk a clinic should take.
- Patient chats on personal phones. Conversations sit on staff handsets, out of sight and out of the clinic's control.
- Branches that do not talk. A clinic in Port Harcourt and another in Abuja keep separate diaries and separate records.
How NETICS solves them
Answers only from what you approved
Upload your service list, fees, opening hours, HMO list and preparation instructions to the Knowledge Base. Documents are Published for patients or kept Private for your team, so an internal protocol never reaches a patient. Your NETICS agent answers only from published knowledge, and when nothing covers a question it says so and offers a person. The Knowledge gaps page lists the questions it could not answer, so you can add what is missing. See Knowledge Base.
NETICS does not diagnose
In AI Studio, instruct your agent to pass symptoms, results and anything clinical straight to staff. Whatever the instructions say, a patient who asks for a person is always handed over, in English, Nigerian English or Pidgin. NETICS also hands over when a patient is frustrated or asks the same thing twice, and your owners and admins get an alert with a short summary. Staff press Take over from NETICS in the Omnichannel Inbox and reply themselves. See AI customer agents.
One diary for doctors and rooms
In NETICS CRM > Bookings, add each doctor and each consulting or scan room as a resource with bookable hours. Appointments show in week, month and agenda views, move through Pending, Confirmed, Checked in and Completed, and can be marked No show or placed on the Waitlist, with a no-show rate on the page. A course of physiotherapy can repeat every week. If you choose "Takes appointments" during onboarding, NETICS takes the service and preferred time in chat, reads it back, and opens an appointment request for your front desk to confirm. See Bookings.
WhatsApp and the phone line
Once your number is connected, NETICS answers patients on WhatsApp, and every thread lands in the Omnichannel Inbox rather than on a personal phone. Message content needs the right permission: by default only owners and admins see it, and others see "Hidden by your role". See WhatsApp. On Growth, request a NETICS Phone number; NETICS answers calls from the same approved knowledge and every call is summarised on Live Calls. See Voice calls.
Patients, bills and branches
Each patient who gets in touch has a customer profile with their conversations, calls and bookings; NETICS is not a medical record, so clinical notes stay in your clinical system. See NETICS CRM. On the Orders page you can rename steps for paid services, for example "With the doctor". ERP Route > Finance raises invoices and records payments by POS, transfer or cash, with a receipt for each. See ERP and finance.
An example day
A family clinic in Port Harcourt:
- 6:50. A patient asks on WhatsApp whether the clinic opens on Saturday and takes her HMO. NETICS answers from the published fact sheet.
- 8:00. The front desk opens Bookings and sees the morning for two doctors and the scan room.
- 10:15. In the website chat, a parent describes a child's fever and asks what medicine to give. NETICS does not advise; it passes the chat to staff, and the nurse in charge replies from the inbox.
- 12:00. A patient misses an appointment. Reception marks it No show.
- 15:00. A physiotherapy patient is booked every week for six weeks with one repeating booking.
- 18:00. The manager checks Knowledge gaps: three people asked about a vaccine price that is not published yet. She adds it.
Which plan fits
Starter (NGN 50,000 a month) covers one clinic: one NETICS agent on your website and WhatsApp with 1,500 AI answers a month, the Knowledge Base, Bookings, NETICS CRM, Finance and three seats. Pay as you go has the same features with one seat and no monthly fee: you pay from credits as you use them, 3 credits (NGN 45) for each AI answer.
Growth (NGN 200,000 a month) adds a phone line answered by NETICS, 10,000 AI answers a month, 15 seats, a second branch, Analytics, and an Operations Agent that flags bookings still unconfirmed close to their time.
Enterprise, agreed with the NETICS team, adds Website Builder with the "Clinic or health practice" layout, whose booking section books straight into NETICS Bookings. See the pricing page or start the 3-day free trial, which needs no card.
Frequently asked questions
Does NETICS give medical advice?
No. NETICS answers only from information your clinic has published, such as hours, fees, services and preparation instructions. It does not diagnose or recommend treatment, and clinical questions go to your staff.
Can patients book appointments through NETICS?
In chat, NETICS gathers the request and your front desk confirms it in Bookings. On Enterprise, a booking section on your NETICS website lets patients pick an open time that goes straight into Bookings, and a clinic with its own website can create bookings through the API.
Who on my team can read patient conversations?
By default, owners and admins. Other staff see "Hidden by your role" in place of message content, phone numbers and summaries, and conversation exports are recorded in the audit trail.
Is there a healthcare template?
No. The industry you choose is a label for your dashboard. What shapes the workspace is how you work: pick "Takes appointments" and "Handles customer support" during onboarding, and NETICS prepares appointment and support workflows.