As fast as you can do reliably, and the target I built Conduit around is seconds, day or night. I cannot give you a study that says exactly how quickly a person loses interest, because I do not have one and will not make one up. What I can show you is how to measure your own reply times and decide what is worth fixing.
A new enquiry usually arrives when someone has just decided to ask. If the first reply arrives after they have asked the next clinic as well, you are competing for a decision that was almost made. Here is how to look at it.
Why does reply speed matter for a clinic?
Because the person who writes to you is comparing clinics while the question is fresh. The Conduit model of the problem is simple: an enquiry arrives at night, goes cold by morning, and some of those people book somewhere else. That is the first of the two gaps I built the product to close, the other being past patients who are never reminded that a review is due.
How many people go elsewhere is the unknown. Our home page check assumes 40% of after-hours enquiries go to another clinic, and the page labels that as an assumption you should change. Your own data beats it.
How do you measure your current reply time?
- 1Collect a month of enquiries from your inbox, forms, chat and phone log.
- 2For each, note the time it arrived and the time of the first real reply.
- 3Mark whether it arrived inside or outside opening hours.
- 4Work out the typical gap for each group, and the longest gaps.
- 5Check how many of the slowest ones ever booked.
A spreadsheet is enough. The last step is the most useful, because it replaces a general belief with a count from your own clinic. If the slow ones booked anyway, the problem is smaller than you think.
What is a good reply, not only a fast one?
A reply that moves the person forward. 'We have received your message' is an acknowledgement, not a reply. A good first reply answers the question asked, says what happens next and offers a way to book.
- It answers the actual question or says who will
- It asks the health questions your practitioner needs, before anything is booked
- It offers a time to book, not 'let us know'
- It stays inside the wording rules: no offers, no medicine names, no promises
The last point is where speed and compliance meet. A fast reply written quickly is the most likely place for a slip, which is why Conduit checks reply templates before they are used and your clinic approves each one.
What are the options for evenings and weekends?
The same four as in the after-hours cost article: reply next morning, extend hours or roster someone, send an automatic acknowledgement, or use a system that replies in seconds and carries the enquiry to a booked consultation. Each fixes a different part of the problem.
The staffed option is the most human and the most expensive in wages, which you know better than I do. The automatic acknowledgement costs little but does not book anything. A system that replies and books, like the Grow plan, sits in between. Combine them if it suits your clinic.
What should a reply never do?
- Give medical advice. Clinical questions go to your team.
- Skip consent and the health questions to be quick.
- Ask for photos over a social platform's direct messages.
- Push the person with a deadline.
In Conduit the health questions and consent come first, and photos arrive by private link. Speed is only worth having when the reply is safe to send.
Does a fast reply replace your coordinator?
No. It answers the first message and carries the enquiry to a booked consultation. Your coordinator and your practitioner take it from there. If an enquiry is booked at midnight and nobody confirms it until Friday, the patient will notice.
So plan the handover as carefully as the first reply. Decide who looks at new bookings each morning and what they check. A fast front end with a slow back end moves the delay, not removes it.
What about phone calls?
Treat them the same way. A missed call at 7 pm is an enquiry with a timestamp, and a voicemail nobody plays until Monday is a slow reply. Add the phone log to your month of records so the numbers reflect how people actually reach you.
The Pro plan, at A$1,490 a month, adds an AI agent on your clinic number, set up with you. It does not give medical advice, and I would not describe it as a replacement for the people who talk to your patients. Whether it fits depends on how many calls you miss, which only your phone records can tell you.
How do you decide what to do?
Measure for a month, then compare the cost of each option with the value of the enquiries you lose, using the formula in the after-hours article. If the number is small, reply next morning and move on. If it is large, test one option for a month.
Grow is A$697 a month plus a one-off A$990 setup, with no minimum term. You can see how it replies on your own clinic by booking a 20-minute demo, where we run a test enquiry through the system so you can see each step.