Answering Service for Dentists
Have you noticed how much dental practices have changed over the years? Much of that change has to do with the corporate practices that have moved into cities and even towns. These practices have lots of resources at their disposal, and they are doing everything possible to take your patients from your practice. While it might seem like it’s impossible to keep up, our answering service for dentists can even the playing field.
What Are The Benefits of Using an Answering Service for Dentists?
Our answering service for dentists is staffed with operators who answer the phones for you. When people call in, they reach a trained operator, regardless of the time of day or night. The operators are briefed on your practice, so they can answer the most frequently asked questions with ease.
Countless practices are using answering services due to the benefits. Let’s go over some of the top benefits. Then consider using a service to answer the calls for your dental practice.
Never Miss Opportunities Again with a Low Cost Answering Service
Each phone call is a potential opportunity for your practice. The person on the other end of the line likely wants to schedule an appointment, and keeping your schedule full is the key to generating revenue for your practice. You might think that setting up a voicemail service is enough to turn those opportunities into patients, but that isn’t correct. Eighty percent of people don’t leave messages when sent to voicemail.
When people get the voicemail or the line is busy, you are likely to lose lots of opportunities. Fortunately, you don’t have to miss out. By using an answering service, callers can speak to a live person any time of the day or night. Fewer hang-ups mean more patients for your practice.
Immediate Appointment Scheduling
When you use a voicemail service, you can expect to play phone tag. While only some people will leave messages, those who do won’t be waiting by the phone for your return call. You’ll likely call the patient back to schedule, only to leave a message. Then that person might call back and leave another message and so on. Eventually, even the most determined patient will give up and go elsewhere. Fortunately, an answering service eliminates this problem. Your patients can make appointments at any time, day or night. Imagine going into the office after a good night’s sleep to see your schedule filled with new appointments. That’s enough to put a smile on your face.
Get Patient Details with an Answer Service
Your receptionist is one of the busiest people in your practice. Receptionists don’t just answer calls. They also greet patients, handle paperwork, and ensure that people get to treatment rooms quickly. All these tasks make it difficult for receptionists to adequately collect customer details. When you use an answering service, the operators have ample time to collect all of the relevant details, so you can put them in the system. This makes your receptionist’s job much easier and ensures you have all the patient data you need.
Improve Patient Satisfaction With Follow-up Calls
Your dedication to your patients is one reason that your practice stands out above those corporate practices that have moved into your neighborhood. Part of providing the best patient care is following up with people who have dental procedures such as fillings and root canals. You want to ensure that they are recovering and not having any problems. Also, you want to show them that you care. This builds patient loyalty. Unfortunately, your receptionist might not have time to make follow-up calls in a timely manner. When you use an answering service, you can schedule the follow-up calls for the following day. Your patients will know you care about them, and you will be alerted quickly if anything is wrong.
Screen After Hours Calls With an Answering Service
You have set office hours, but you are always on call. If a dental emergency occurs in the middle of the night, you can expect your phone to ring. Of course, many of those late-night phone calls aren’t true dental emergencies and can be handled in the morning. You can get more sleep by hiring an answering service. The service will screen the calls to determine if the caller has a true emergency or not. If there is a dental emergency, the operator will route the caller to your phone. However, if it isn’t a real emergency, the operator can schedule an appointment for the following day. This will make your job much easier.
Reduce No-show Rates
Nothing is worse than having a full schedule when you come into the office, only to be faced with one no-show after another. A study found that physicians have no-show rates of 21.1 percent when patients don’t receive appointment reminders. That number dropped to 13.6 percent when the staff reminded patients of their appointments. While the study was conducted for physicians, you can expect similar statistics for your dental practice.
Also, you can expect to have better results with follow-up calls as opposed to text reminders. In the study, patients who received automated reminders had a no-show rate of 17.3 percent, which is higher than the rate for people who received phone calls. Keep your waiting room full by utilizing an answering service. It’s the best way to reduce no-show rates.
Ensure Patients Find Your Practice
Even with a map on your website and driving directions via Google, some patients will have trouble finding your practice. You can take the burden of direction-giving off your receptionist’s shoulders by using an answering service for your dental practice. Because the service is staffed with multiple operators, turn-by-turn directions can even be provided when needed. There’s no need to rush the patient off the phone, so the service will get people to your practice without any problems. If you worry about people showing up late because they can’t find your practice, this is a very important benefit.
Route Calls to the Right Person
You might be worried about operators trying to answer questions when they don’t know the answers. Fortunately, you can include call forwarding with the service. The operators will answer basic questions, such as practice hours and available procedures, and can handle your scheduling. However, if someone has a more specific question, the operator can forward the call or take a message if it’s outside of normal practice hours. You never have to worry about misinformation with this service. At the same time, you won’t burden your staff with basic questions that the operators can answer easily.
Interested in an Answering Service for Dentists? Contact Us Today To Get Started!
Accelerate Dental Marketing specializes in dental marketing, including answering services for dentists. Whether you are just building your practice or have been established for years, we can help. You can choose to use an answering service 24/7, during business hours, or just after your practice closes. We will work with you to find the best solution for your practice’s needs and then set it up.
Because we only work with dental offices, we understand your unique needs. Our specialized service is just what you need to retain patients, regardless of the competition. Contact us for a free quote today. We also provide free website assessments if you want to add digital marketing to your services.
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