Online Scheduling makes booking dental appointments simple. Despite this convenience, your front-desk staff should still allocate the time and resources to keep up with phone calls throughout the day. Missed phone calls can pose trouble for your dental practice and encourage potential clients to book with your competitors.
How Can Missing a Phone Call Hurt Your Dental Practice?
Missing calls from your patients is a sign of bad customer service. Your patients expect you to be available when needed. Failing to pick up the phone leaves them feeling ignored.
Some potential customers may not try to call your practice again if you don't pick up the first time. As a result, you can miss out on opportunities to grow your business.
Why Might Your Practice Struggle to Keep Up with Calls?
It can be challenging to keep up with these demands if your office experiences high-call volumes throughout the day. In this case, you should consider hiring more front-office workers to avoid keeping patients on hold for too long.
Your customers might abandon calls to your office if you do not have an answering machine or the inbox is full. If you set up voice mail for your front desk, ensure your message is less than 20 seconds long to avoid annoying your patient.
Many of your customers may not have time to call during regular office hours. Without an after-hours answering service, you could lose potential patients. If you can't afford to hire after-hours staff, you can establish a phone tree that directs callers to frequently asked questions or automated scheduling features.
Sometimes, your office staff might not have the conversational skills they need to navigate phone calls professionally. In this case, building dental office receptionist scripts help your team members avoid off-putting responses when callers ask questions.
How Can You Optimize Your Customer Service Over the Phone?
State-of-the-art communication software — such as Dental Intelligence 2-Way Communication — offers more ways to simplify your customer service. Screen Pops lets your team members know who is calling in and allows them to easily access their patient profile while on the call.
Call recording also helps you compile information on your patients' needs or concerns. For example, you may collect information from several patients that indicate your website does not provide clear office hours or service details. Call recording can help you plan your phone script according to your patients' commonly asked questions.
How Can You Train Your Office Staff for Over-the-Phone Service?
Missed phone calls could stack up if your front desk employees lack proper instruction or discipline. Fortunately, training can significantly improve their responsiveness to incoming calls, leading to a much more rewarding experience for your customers.
It's always best to pick up the phone as soon as it rings. However, sometimes your assistant may be too busy to answer the phone. In this case, they can redirect it to a second front office worker or kindly place the caller on a short hold.
Your dental assistants should practice a customer-first approach when answering the phone — asking questions to understand patients’ needs and responding with practical solutions.
For example, suppose a client calls your office asking to schedule an appointment. It’s important to ask questions like, “Are you a new or returning patient?” and “What date works best for you?” while providing alternative dates if the schedule is already full.
Enhancing Your Day-to-Day Operations with Practical Phone Services
Not every dental practice invests in the workforce and technology they need to provide productive over-the-phone service. At Dental Intelligence, we can help your business stay ahead of the competition.
We provide products like dashboard reporting features, customizable appointment reminders, and ringless voicemail drops for your patients to help boost dental office efficiency and patient satisfaction. Reach out to us and schedule a demo today to learn how we can help you improve your office operations.
