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Answer new-patient inquiries in under a minute

A family fills out 'Request an appointment' on your site Sunday night. Monday at 10am they've already booked down the street.

⏱ Setup: 1 hour📶 Beginner🧩 n8n workflow

See the full setup Get the ready-to-import template

How it works

Send your website appointment form to the n8n webhook.
AI writes a welcoming reply with your online booking link and office hours.
It goes out by text and email within a minute.
The front desk gets an email summary to call them first thing.

Tools used

n8n Twilio OpenAI API Gmail / Google Workspace

Realistic monthly cost≈ $4.47 + €20/mo

How we got this number

Twilio local number$1.15
Texting registration (A2P 10DLC) monthly fee$2
~120 text segments sent + received$1.00
carrier fees on ~60 outbound texts$0.30
~60 AI-written replies$0.03
Automation platform (or self-host n8n free)€20

Assumes ~60 inquiries a month. Contact info only, no health data. Prices are list prices checked 2026-10-26; see every source.

Plus one-time texting registration (A2P 10DLC): about $19.50 (low-volume brand + campaign vetting). Source

The full setup, step by step

9 steps in one n8n workflow. Everything below is generated from the template itself, so it always matches.

Before you start

You need an n8n account (n8n, or self-host it free) plus your own logins for: OpenAI API Twilio Gmail / Google Workspace.

How the automation flows

When a web lead comes in

1New lead from your form 2Config (edit me)3Tell the form it worked 4AI writes reply

and

5Has a phone number?if yes6Text the lead

and

7Has an email?if yes8Email the lead

and

9Email the owner

Tap a step to jump to its details.

Each step and what it does

1
Trigger
New lead from your form
Your website form (or any lead source that can send a webhook) posts the lead's name, phone, email and message here.
Webhook pathYOUR_N8N_URL/webhook/new-lead
Then → 2. Config (edit me)
2
Settings
Config (edit me)
One place for everything specific to your business. Every later step reads from here, so this is the only node you have to edit.
Editthe settings table below
Then → 3. Tell the form it worked
3
Reply to request
Tell the form it worked
Answers the website form instantly so the visitor sees a success message.
Then → 4. AI writes reply
4
AI (OpenAI)
AI writes reply
OpenAI drafts a short, on-brand reply using your business info and the customer's message. The instructions (prompt) keep it short and stop it from inventing prices.
Modelgpt-5-mini
AI instructions (prompt)
You are the friendly front-desk coordinator at a dental practice. Write one short, warm SMS reply (under 300 characters) to someone asking about an appointment. Welcome new patients, offer the online booking link, and say the team will follow up during office hours. Do not give medical or dental advice, do not ask for health details, do not quote prices or insurance coverage. If they mention severe pain, swelling or trauma, tell them to call the office or, if after hours and severe, seek emergency care.
🔑 Connect your OpenAI login on this node
Then → 5. Has a phone number? · Then → 7. Has an email? · Then → 9. Email the owner
5
Decision
Has a phone number?
Only texts the lead if they gave a phone number.
Rulelead's phone is filled in
If yes → 6. Text the lead · If no → stops here
6
Send SMS (Twilio)
Text the lead
Texts the AI's reply to the lead, usually within a minute of them hitting submit.
Sendsthe message shown under Message copy
🔑 Connect your Twilio login on this node
End of this path.
7
Decision
Has an email?
Only emails the lead if they gave an email address.
Rulelead's email is filled in
If yes → 8. Email the lead · If no → stops here
8
Send email (Gmail)
Email the lead
Emails the same reply, so they have it in writing.
Sendsthe message shown under Message copy
🔑 Connect your Gmail login on this node
End of this path.
9
Send email (Gmail)
Email the owner
Emails you so you know who to call back (and what they were told).
Sendsthe message shown under Message copy
🔑 Connect your Gmail login on this node
End of this path.

Key settings to change

All of these live in the Config (edit me) node. Change them once and every text and email updates.

Setting	Placeholder in the template	Change it to
Business name `business_name`	`YOUR BUSINESS NAME`	Exactly how customers know you. It appears in every text.
Booking / calendar link `booking_link`	`https://YOUR-BOOKING-LINK`	Your online booking page (Calendly, your CRM's scheduler, or your contact page). Use the short public link.
Hours `hours`	`Mon-Fri 8am-6pm`	Short and text-friendly, e.g. Mon-Fri 8am-6pm.
Your email `owner_email`	`you@example.com`	Where the 'new lead' and 'missed call' alerts go.
Your cell `owner_cell`	`+15555550100`	In +1 format (+15551234567).
Twilio number `twilio_number`	`+15555550199`	The number you bought in Twilio, in +1 format. Texts are sent from it.

Leave lead_name, lead_phone, lead_email, lead_message as they are: they map your form's name, phone, email and message fields.

Message copy: exactly what it sends

Highlighted parts are filled in automatically. Edit the wording right in the node.

SMS to [lead's phone] · step 6 AI-written each time

AI-written reply

Email to [lead's email] · step 8 AI-written each time

Subject Thanks for reaching out to business name

AI-written reply

Email to [your email] · step 9

Subject New lead: lead's name

Name: lead's name
Phone: lead's phone
Email: lead's email
Message: lead's message

We already replied with: AI-written reply

Hook it up

Fill in Config (edit me).
Connect your own Twilio, OpenAI and Gmail credentials on the red nodes.
Point your website form to POST to YOUR_N8N_URL/webhook/new-lead with fields name, phone, email, message (or forward lead emails with a Gmail filter + an Email Trigger node).
Register your Twilio number for A2P 10DLC.
Send yourself a test lead, then activate.

Test it before you trust it

Fill in every setting in Config (edit me) and connect your logins on the nodes with a red warning.
Point your form at the Production webhook URL (…/webhook/new-lead), then activate the workflow.
Send a test lead from your own form, or run: curl -X POST YOUR_N8N_URL/webhook/new-lead -d name=Test -d phone=+15551234567 -d email=you@example.com -d message="Need a quote"
Within a minute you should get the text and the email reply, and the owner alert should land in your inbox.
Send one lead with only an email (no phone). It should email but not text.
Open Executions in n8n. Every run should be green. A red node tells you exactly which step to fix.
Texts not arriving? The usual cause is A2P 10DLC registration still pending in Twilio.

Skip the clicking

Get the ready-to-import n8n template

Every step above, already wired up. Paste it into n8n, add your logins, fill in your business info and you're live.

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