Opticians and hearing care
AI phone answering opticians use for glasses, lenses and hearing aids
AI phone answering opticians can use has to fit a shop where the phone rings while one person is at the frame wall, another is mid-fitting and a child is choosing a colour. CliniCall answers those calls as your practice’s front desk: it takes the caller’s name, the reason for the call and a number to reach them on. Asked who is on the line, it answers that it is the practice’s virtual receptionist, and it never claims to be a person.
Optical calls are not only appointments. Customers ring about an order, a loose screw, a reimbursement question, a contact lens that feels wrong or a hearing aid that has started to whistle. It is an AI receptionist optician teams can hand the phone to for all of these, because it separates what it can settle on the call from what belongs to your staff. Other kinds of practice have their own pages under the specialties we cover.
It never gives medical advice, and it acts on the emergency rules you write. When a caller wants a person, it transfers to the desk when it is staffed and a transfer line is configured; otherwise it takes a callback request. This page walks through the calls an optician’s phone brings, where a booking goes after the call, how urgent eye and hearing calls are handled, and the rules that limit what anyone on your phone may say.
The XEYEX integration is being rolled out: the AI receptionist holds a slot and your team confirms it. With other software, it takes the request and your team confirms it.
- Patient: Hello, I’d like to book an eye test. My glasses are getting old.
- Receptionist: Of course. Can I take your name, please?
- Patient: It’s Claire.
- Receptionist: Thank you, Claire. Is the test for you, and would a morning or an afternoon suit you?
- Patient: It’s for me. Thursday afternoon, if possible.
- Receptionist: I’m holding Thursday at 3 pm for you. The team will call you on this number to confirm it.
Slot reserved, the practice confirms
Your calls, in practice
The first kind of call is about an appointment: a customer wants to book an eye test or a contact lens check, reschedule one or cancel it. For a new appointment, the receptionist asks for its type and the times that suit the caller, then holds a slot and your team confirms it. It never moves or cancels an appointment itself: your team confirms. A change or a cancellation reaches your dashboard as a callback request, with the name and the appointment as the caller describes it.
Another caller wants to know whether their glasses are ready or where an order stands. The receptionist does not look up a customer’s record or an order in your software, so it does not guess an answer. It notes the name, the order as the caller describes it and when they can take a call, and your team answers from the order book.
Questions about a quote, reimbursement or direct billing come up at any optician’s. The receptionist gives the general information your practice provides, such as whether you bill a given insurer directly, and states no amount of its own. When a caller needs a figure for their own lenses or cover, the request goes to your team, which prepares the written quote.
Customers renewing glasses or contact lenses often ring to ask what to bring. The receptionist repeats the list your practice has given: a prescription, the old glasses, the lens box, the insurance card, whatever applies at your shop. Where the answer depends on the country of cover, it follows the rules you set rather than inventing one, which matters for a shop near a border.
Repairs and adjustments are short calls that still pull someone away from a customer at the counter. A frame that has lost a screw, a nose pad that has come off or arms that pinch behind the ears becomes a request, with the frame and the problem written down. Your team decides whether it is a drop-in job or something for the workshop.
Some callers report discomfort with new glasses or contact lenses. The receptionist gives no medical advice: it neither tells them to keep wearing the lenses nor to take them out. It records what the caller describes and applies your rules, so words that match an urgent case in those rules are directed as the rules say, and the rest become a callback from an optician.
If your shop also fits hearing aids, calls for a fitting appointment arrive on the same line. The receptionist takes them like any appointment request and asks whether the caller already has a prescription or a recent hearing test, if your practice wants to know. Practices that do only audiology will find their own calls on the hearing care page.
Calls about hearing aid adjustment, maintenance or repair follow a similar path. A caller whose aid whistles, crackles or has stopped working is asked which ear, which device if they know it and when they could come in. The request reaches your audiologist, who calls back to arrange the visit.
Some callers simply want a person. The receptionist transfers to the desk when it is staffed and a transfer line is configured; otherwise it takes a callback request. Your staffed hours are set with you before go-live, so a call during lunch or after closing becomes a request in the dashboard instead of a phone ringing out. The opening-hours coverage tool estimates how many of your calls arrive while the shop is closed, from your opening times and monthly call volume.
The receptionist answers in French and English, both verified on lines already in service. Whichever of the two the caller uses, the request your team reads afterwards states the reason for the call in plain words.
- Book, reschedule or cancel an appointment
- Check an order's progress and whether glasses are ready
- Request a quote or information about reimbursement and direct billing
- Check the documents needed to renew glasses or contact lenses
- Request glasses repair or adjustment
- Report discomfort with new lenses or contact lenses
- Request an appointment for hearing aid fitting
- Request hearing aid adjustment, maintenance or repair
What CliniCall takes, and what it leaves to you
For eye tests, contact lens checks and hearing aid fittings, your team reviews the caller’s details and preferred times. The note in your dashboard holds the caller’s name, phone number and the type of appointment they asked for, so nobody has to ring round to fill a gap.
From that note, your team calls the customer to agree the appointment. A caller who can only come on Saturdays is noted that way, and so is one who wants the optician they saw last time. That call back starts from what suits the customer, so it rarely needs a second round.
In practice, your team works through these confirmations between customers. Each request shows the reason for the call and the times the caller asked for, so the confirmation call stays short. Nothing reaches the customer as confirmed until your team has said so.
Some things the receptionist leaves to you on purpose. It never moves or cancels an appointment itself: your team confirms. It does not look up a customer’s record, check an order in the workshop or tell a caller what an insurer will pay.
It also leaves the advice and the sale to you. It does not recommend a lens, a frame or a hearing aid, and it does not suggest a second pair; choosing happens in the shop with your optician or audiologist. A caller who asks for a recommendation is offered an appointment or a callback instead.
The XEYEX connection and where its rollout stands are described on the XEYEX integration page. If your shop runs other software, you still get the requests, the call notes and the dashboard from the first day.
CliniCall is set up for your shop by a team that works in French, from Luxembourg, and answers your questions after go-live. What it costs your shop is set out in a written quote that follows a 30-minute call; the pricing page explains how that quote is put together.
Handled by CliniCall
- A free slot, held for the patient
- Questions about the practice, from the information you have approved
- The patient’s name, date of birth and reason for calling
- The transfer to the front desk when it is staffed, otherwise a summarised callback request
Left to your team
- Any medical advice
- The decision on an urgent case: CliniCall follows your rules
- Moving or cancelling an appointment: CliniCall takes the request, your team confirms
- Confirming the slot it held
Two more calls
- Patient: Hi, I ordered new glasses a while ago and wanted to know if they’re ready.
- Receptionist: I can’t see order details from here, so I’ll ask the team to check. What name is the order under?
- Patient: Tom. Am I talking to a real person?
- Receptionist: I’m the practice’s virtual receptionist. I’ll pass your request to the team. When can they call you back?
- Patient: On this number, after five.
- Receptionist: Noted, Tom. The team will call you after five about your glasses.
Callback request taken for the team
- Patient: My hearing aid has started whistling and I’d like someone to look at it.
- Receptionist: I’m sorry to hear that. Which ear is it, and do you know the model?
- Patient: The left one. I don’t remember the model.
- Receptionist: That’s fine. The desk is staffed and a transfer line is configured, so I’ll put you through to the team to arrange a visit.
- Patient: Thank you.
Transferred to the team
Answering the phone at Hubert Vision since May 2026
- calls answered
- 751
- different callers
- 469
- median call length
- 1 min 54 s
- calls in September 2026
- 173
Hubert Vision, ophthalmology, Luxembourg and Belgium · production data from 31 May 2026 to 1 October 2026 · Read the Hubert Vision case study
Using XEYEX? Our XEYEX integration is being deployed with our first optician practice. See the XEYEX integration
Urgent cases
On an urgent call the receptionist still gives no medical advice; your emergency rules tell it what to say. It does not examine an eye or an ear over the phone; it listens for the situations your rules name and directs the caller as those rules say. The cases below come from French public health guidance, and a practice can give the receptionist rules built on them.
Assurance Maladie (ameli.fr) says a red eye with sudden loss of vision needs an ophthalmologist the same day or a visit to an emergency department, not a routine vision check in a shop. With that rule in place, a caller describing it is not offered an eye test. The receptionist gives the direction your rule states and records the call, so your team knows it happened.
The same Assurance Maladie guidance treats eye trauma, a product splashed into the eye or a penetrating foreign body as a reason for urgent referral to an ophthalmologist or an emergency department. A caller who got cleaning product in the eye should hear that direction straight away, not a list of available times. Your rule decides the wording, and the call is logged for your team.
According to Assurance Maladie, a red and painful eye in the days following surgery needs an urgent ophthalmology assessment the same day. Opticians hear from these customers because new glasses often follow an eye operation. The receptionist should not treat such a call as a lens complaint, and a rule that names the case keeps it from doing so.
Assurance Maladie describes sudden hearing loss as a medical emergency requiring immediate referral to an emergency department. In France, Assurance Maladie advises calling 15 or 112 if travel is impossible, particularly after trauma or with a severe infection. A shop that fits hearing aids can add this to its rules. A caller reporting sudden hearing loss is then directed to emergency care rather than booked for a hearing aid check.
A shop in Luxembourg, or one serving customers who live across the German border, points callers to the services where they are. Those directions are written with you before go-live, from your own practice’s instructions. The receptionist never makes up an emergency number or a referral it has not been given.
Everything outside your urgent rules becomes an ordinary request. Discomfort with new lenses that matches no urgent rule goes to your optician as a callback request with the caller’s own words. When the desk is staffed and a transfer line is configured, the receptionist can also put the caller through. The guide on booking an appointment by phone at the optician looks at how shops sort these calls at the counter.
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France: A red eye with sudden loss of vision requires an ophthalmologist the same day or an emergency department visit; do not offer a routine in-store vision check.
Assurance Maladie — Œil rouge : que faire et quand consulter ?
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France: Eye trauma, a product splashed into the eye or a penetrating foreign body requires urgent referral to an ophthalmologist or emergency department.
Assurance Maladie — Œil rouge : que faire et quand consulter ?
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France: A red and painful eye in the days following surgery requires an urgent ophthalmology assessment the same day.
Assurance Maladie — Œil rouge : que faire et quand consulter ?
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France: Sudden hearing loss is a medical emergency requiring immediate referral to an emergency department; if the person cannot travel, particularly following trauma or with a severe infection, call 15 or 112.
The rules that apply
In France, the national opticians’ agreement published by Assurance Maladie (Convention nationale des opticiens, 2021) asks opticians to protect customer information, including during telephone conversations. It also asks them to send correction information to the prescriber through a confidential channel. The receptionist does not look up records or read prescriptions and orders to callers. A caller needing correction information sent to their ophthalmologist leaves a request; your team uses its existing confidential channel.
The same agreement says reception staff do not replace an authorised professional, and that medical optical equipment cannot be sold without an authorised optician present at the point of sale. The receptionist is reception in that sense. It takes requests and gives your practice’s information, and a sale, a fitting or an adjustment always waits for your optician.
The agreement also asks for neutral, accurate information, without misleading claims and without encouraging consumption that is not medically justified. The receptionist answers what the caller asked with the information you provide. It makes no sales pitch and does not suggest that a customer needs new glasses.
Assurance Maladie says the hearing aid quote must include at least one 100 % Santé offer for each fitted ear. Assurance Maladie also warns against promising zero out-of-pocket cost without checking coverage conditions. The receptionist therefore never tells a caller that a hearing aid or a pair of glasses will cost them nothing. It notes the question and the cover as the caller describes it, and your audiologist answers with the quote.
A shop in Luxembourg works under other rules, and French prescription requirements are not applied there automatically. The CNS covers some glasses without a prescription, while a justified prescription is needed in particular for tinted lenses and patients under 18, with an exception for certain damaged lenses (CNS, cns.public.lu). The list of documents the receptionist gives Luxembourg callers is written from these rules; the Luxembourg city page covers the rest of the city’s phone picture.
Customers with German statutory insurance bring a third set of rules. The KBV notes that glasses are not covered for every adult: eligibility depends on visual impairment or correction criteria, and frames and extras such as anti-reflective coatings are generally not covered by statutory health insurance. The receptionist promises no coverage to these callers either; it notes the insurance they name and leaves the answer to your team.
The details of each call reach your team in the dashboard, with the caller’s words and the request. The security page explains how CliniCall stores and protects that call data.
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France: Protect patient information, including during telephone conversations; send correction information to the prescriber through a confidential channel.
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France: Reception staff do not replace an authorised professional; medical optical equipment cannot be sold without an authorised optician present at the point of sale.
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France: Provide neutral, accurate information without misleading claims or encouragement of medically unjustified consumption.
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France: Do not guarantee zero out-of-pocket cost without checking coverage conditions; the hearing aid quote must include at least one 100 % Santé offer for each fitted ear.
Assurance Maladie — Aide auditive dans le cadre du 100 % Santé
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Luxembourg: Do not automatically apply French prescription requirements. CNS covers some glasses without a prescription; a justified prescription is required particularly for tinted lenses and patients under 18, subject to the exception for certain damaged lenses.
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Germany: Do not promise glasses coverage for every adult; eligibility depends on visual impairment or correction criteria. Frames and extras such as anti-reflective coatings are generally not covered by statutory health insurance.
What unanswered calls may cost your practice
The calculator opens on sourced starting values; replace them with your own figures. The result is a rough estimate, not a promise.
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI receptionist book eye tests for an optician?
The booking condition shown on this page applies to your software. Your team then reviews the caller’s name, number and preferred times and calls the customer to confirm the appointment. Until that call, nothing is presented to the caller as booked.
Can it tell a customer whether their glasses are ready?
No. It does not look up orders or customer records, so it takes a callback request with the name and the order as the caller describes it. Your team answers from the order book.
What happens when a caller wants to reschedule or cancel?
It never moves or cancels an appointment itself: your team confirms. The change arrives as a callback request with the caller’s details and the appointment they mention. Your team updates the diary and calls the customer back.
Does it answer questions about reimbursement and direct billing?
It gives the general information your practice provides, such as which insurers you bill directly. It states no amount and never tells a caller that glasses or hearing aids will cost them nothing, since that depends on their cover. Your team answers with a written quote.
Do callers know they are speaking to an AI receptionist?
It answers as your practice’s front desk. Whenever a caller asks, it says it is the practice’s virtual receptionist, and it never claims to be a person.
Which languages does it answer in?
It answers in French and English only. Both languages are verified on lines already in service.
How much does it cost, and is there a free trial?
The price is set in a written quote after a 30-minute call about your shop. There is no free trial. The quote is fixed before go-live, and every plan has a minimum term.
See it answer a call for your practice
A 30-minute demo by video. We show the assistant live and look at how it would fit your practice, your software and your rules.
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