Triage vet clinic calls while the team is in surgery
Quick answer
The Pet Pad is a small vet clinic for small and exotic animals in Kearney, Nebraska, with a team of three and a half people. The owner was also receptionist and vet assistant, and the phone always rang mid-surgery. An AI receptionist now picks up overflow calls, gathers details and emails a summary marked by priority.
Business type: Clinics & dental. Tool used: Smith.ai AI Receptionist. Result: The owner says it gathers the right information every time and has saved money compared with hiring another receptionist. The clinic gets 35+ calls a day.
Source: Smith.ai case study (Company case study) · Added Thu, Oct 22 · Last updated 2026-10-23
Set it up for your clinic's terms and the details you need about each pet.
Have each email summary marked by priority, like URGENT.
Call back the urgent ones first when you get back to your desk.
Result
The owner says it gathers the right information every time and has saved money compared with hiring another receptionist. The clinic gets 35+ calls a day. (as reported by the source)
The Pet Pad is a small vet clinic for small and exotic animals in Kearney, Nebraska, with a team of three and a half people. The owner was also receptionist and vet assistant, and the phone always rang mid-surgery. An AI receptionist now picks up overflow calls, gathers details and emails a summary marked by priority.
Which tool did they use?
Smith.ai AI Receptionist.
What was the result?
The owner says it gathers the right information every time and has saved money compared with hiring another receptionist. The clinic gets 35+ calls a day. (as reported by the source)
How did they set it up?
Send overflow calls to the AI receptionist. Set it up for your clinic's terms and the details you need about each pet. Have each email summary marked by priority, like URGENT.
Answers come only from the source. Questions it doesn't answer are left out.
Starter prompt
Our own prompt for copying this setup. Swap in your details. Not quoted from the source.
You answer overflow calls for [Vet Clinic]. Ask the owner's name and number, the pet's name and species, and what is going on. If the pet is struggling to breathe, bleeding heavily or has eaten something toxic, mark the call URGENT and tell them to come in or go to the nearest emergency vet. Otherwise tell them we will call back soon.
Is this your business? Show you're featured. Paste this code into your website. The badge links back to this page.
<a href="https://smallbizagentusecases.com/use-cases/vet-clinic-ai-triages-calls-during-surgery/" title="Featured on Small Biz Agent Use Cases"><img src="https://smallbizagentusecases.com/badge/featured.svg" alt="Featured on Small Biz Agent Use Cases" width="250" height="56"></a>
Hearthstone Animal Clinic, a one-vet practice in northwest Houston with three support staff, has an AI receptionist pick up when the phone rings over 18 seconds, after hours and on half-days. It sends refill links and new-client forms by text, answers price questions, and handles hard calls like end-of-life care with care.
The Flossery, a three-dentist practice in Waltham, Massachusetts, dropped a human answering service that cost more and took wrong phone numbers. The AI answers patient questions, takes their details, texts new patient policies, and tags each call so the front desk can see which ones are scheduling requests.
A two-location dental group put an AI receptionist on calls it was missing (about 500 a month), booking patients straight into the schedule. The vendor reports $134k in booked production from September 2025 to April 2026, including $34k in the first full month.
