7 Must-Have Appointment Booking Chats for Physical Therapy

Bookbot is a lightweight, AI‑powered chatbot that focuses on conversational booking across a variety of industries, including health and wellness. The platform offers a simple drag‑and‑drop interface to build booking flows, allowing physical therapists to set up appointment slots, collect patient details, and confirm bookings without leaving the chat. Bookbot’s AI engine can understand natural language questions about available times, location, and therapist availability, reducing the back‑and‑forth typically seen in email or phone scheduling. Bookbot integrates with popular calendar services such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook, automatically syncing appointments to prevent double bookings. The bot also provides automated reminders via email or SMS, which helps reduce no‑show rates—a critical metric for physical therapy clinics. Additionally, Bookbot supports integration with payment processors like Stripe, allowing patients to pay a deposit or full session fee directly through the chat. The platform offers a free tier for basic usage, making it an attractive option for solo practitioners or small clinics on tight budgets. However, more advanced features such as custom branding, multi‑language support, and analytics require a paid subscription. For physical therapy practices looking for a straightforward, cost‑effective booking chatbot, Bookbot delivers a solid set of core features with minimal setup overhead.

Chatbook is a chatbot platform that specializes in conversational booking and lead capture for service‑based businesses. With a focus on user engagement, Chatbook offers a visual builder that lets physical therapy practices design custom booking flows, integrate with their website’s design, and capture patient information in real time. The bot can answer common questions about treatment options, therapist credentials, and insurance coverage, drawing from a knowledge base that can be populated via simple text uploads. One of Chatbook’s key strengths is its integration with appointment scheduling systems such as Acuity Scheduling and Calendly. Once a patient selects a time slot, the booking is automatically pushed to the therapist’s calendar, and confirmation messages are sent via email or SMS. The platform also supports payment collection through Stripe or PayPal, enabling a seamless end‑to‑end booking experience. Chatbook offers a 14‑day free trial, followed by a tiered pricing model that scales with the number of chats and features. The enterprise plan includes advanced analytics, multi‑channel support, and priority customer service. For physical therapy clinics that need a robust booking chatbot with payment and calendar integration, Chatbook provides a comprehensive solution that can be deployed quickly and managed without IT support.

Calendly is a widely used scheduling tool that has evolved to include chatbot‑style booking experiences. While Calendly itself is not a full chatbot platform, its embedded scheduling widget can be integrated into a live chat or website. Physical therapy practices can use Calendly’s custom branding to match clinic aesthetics and set up appointment types for different therapy sessions. The bot‑like experience is delivered via a pop‑up or inline widget that asks for patient details, shows available time slots, and auto‑confirms appointments. Calendly’s strengths include robust calendar sync with Google, Outlook, and Office 365, as well as automatic email reminders and the ability to collect payments via Stripe. The platform offers a free tier for individual use and a Pro tier at $12/month per user, which adds advanced features such as team scheduling, custom branding, and integration with Zoom. Because Calendly lacks native AI conversational capabilities, physical therapists who want a more natural dialogue will need to pair it with a third‑party chatbot or use Calendly’s API to create a custom chat interface. Nevertheless, its reliability, ease of use, and strong calendar integration make it a popular choice for many clinics.

Acuity Scheduling has long been a favorite among health‑care providers for its powerful online booking capabilities. Acuity’s platform offers a conversational booking flow that can be embedded into a website or a link shared via chat. The system automatically syncs with Google, Outlook, or iCal calendars and supports multiple staff members, making it easy for physical therapists to manage appointments across locations. Features such as custom intake forms, payment collection through Stripe, PayPal, or Square, and automated email/SMS reminders help reduce administrative overhead. Acuity also provides a “Do Not Call” list and HIPAA‑compliant data handling, which is essential for patient privacy. While Acuity does not offer a dedicated chatbot visual editor, it can be paired with a third‑party chatbot or used within a live chat platform. Pricing starts at $12/month for the Basic plan, with Premium at $25/month and Enterprise at $50/month, each adding more staff seats and advanced features. For physical therapy practices that already use Acuity for scheduling, adding a simple chatbot layer can streamline the booking experience without sacrificing the robust features Acuity already offers.

Intercom is a customer messaging platform known for its chatbot automation and live chat features. Physical therapy practices can use Intercom’s chatbot builder to create booking flows that ask patients for their preferred dates, capture contact details, and confirm appointments. The bot can be embedded on a clinic’s website, used within a mobile app, or added to a newsletter link. Intercom offers a knowledge base integration, which allows the bot to pull answers from a curated FAQ database. The platform’s automation builder also lets therapists set up triggers that send calendar invites to staff or push notifications to internal teams. Intercom’s integrations with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Zapier expand its scheduling capabilities. The platform has a free tier for basic messaging, but the chatbot builder and advanced automation come with the Growth plan at $39/month for up to 1,000 contacts. Pricing scales with contact volume, making it suitable for growing practices. While Intercom is powerful, its primary focus is on customer support rather than specialized health‑care booking, so users may need to customize flows heavily to match physical therapy workflows.

Chatbot.com is a low‑cost, no‑code chatbot platform that emphasizes quick deployment and ease of use. Physical therapy practices can create a booking chat by selecting from pre‑built templates that include appointment scheduling, intake forms, and payment collection. The platform’s visual builder allows users to add custom fields, set up conditional logic, and style the chat widget to match clinic branding. Chatbot.com integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook for real‑time slot availability, and it supports payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal for session deposits. The bot can also push confirmation emails and SMS reminders, helping to reduce no‑show rates. Additionally, the platform offers a basic knowledge base feature, enabling the bot to answer common questions about exercises, insurance, and clinic policies. A free plan is available for up to 1,000 chats per month, with paid plans starting at $20/month for unlimited chats and advanced integrations. The platform is ideal for solo therapists or small practices that need a quick, inexpensive solution without heavy customization requirements. While Chatbot.com provides solid booking functionality, it lacks advanced AI features such as knowledge graphs or long‑term memory, and it does not offer e‑commerce integrations beyond simple payment collection.