Most dental practices lose patients before they even open their doors. Not because their operators are fumbling with care. And not because they forgot to invest in the latest technology.
But instead, the difference between a potential patient and a missed opportunity may come down to someone simply not answering the phone fast enough. It seems so easy, just pick up the call. But, in reality, here’s what’s happening instead:
The hygienist is busy cleaning teeth. The dentist is answering questions about treatment options. The office manager is in the middle of verifying insurance benefits. When that call comes in? It goes to voicemail. And the person on the other end? They’re already dialing the next dentist on their list.
These missed calls mean more than just annoyance. They mean lost revenue. Canceled appointments. And patients who never become patients.
The Challenges of the Conventional Front Desk
Finding coverage for the front desk has become next to impossible.
Dental practices need someone to answer the phone, manage appointment scheduling, process questions about insurance benefits, check in patients, and even manage payments, and they have to be friendly and welcoming in the process. Finding someone with that kind of experience is tough. Keeping them? Tougher.
Turnover rates for dental office staff keep climbing. And that means weeks of training time spent in a new hire’s ear, and current employees having to pick up extra work. Even when offices have team members in the right positions, keeping the phones covered is still a challenge.
Lunch breaks. Bathroom breaks. Sick days. Vacation days. All of these can create a break in communication between patients and their dentist. And patients don't care why no one answered when they call, only that they’re calling elsewhere.
How Practices Are Addressing This Coverage Issue
More dental offices are addressing this challenge by hiring a remote dental receptionist to answer patient phone calls and manage incoming appointment requests without needing a new chair (or cubicle).
This solution covers phones during those peak calling hours and also the gaps that are usually left by conventional front desks. The beauty of this arrangement is that it doesn’t replace the practice’s current office staff; it enhances it.
When calls to the physical office become too much for existing staff, these calls can be redirected to trained support staff who are already knowledgeable about the office’s scheduling system and other capabilities.
What makes this different from hiring an answering service is that these remote receptionists are integrated members of the practice, not just message-takers. They can access the practice management software to actually book appointments and answer patient inquiries in real time, they can respond to questions about services and treatment availability, and they can do what used to require a live team member on-site.
What Happens When Phones Are Actually Answered
The immediate impact of increasing phone coverage is more appointments booked for offices. But what many practices do not realize is how much this benefit can also improve virtually all aspects of how the office operates.
Patients become happier customers when they can reach someone after 8 a.m. The annoyance of having to play phone tag searching for an office willing to answer questions dissolves. Potential new patients don’t give up mid-call and decide to go to another dentist. Old customers don’t end up in a vicious cycle of trying to call someone back after needing treatment or rescheduling.
The practice team also experiences less stress when there is someone available to address these calls on arrival at the office.
The dental assistant does not need to ask interrupt a patient mid-procedure to pick up a phone call. The office manager can spend their time on other tasks rather than constantly being interrupted by incoming questions that can be easily addressed by a front desk staff member.
This is when practices start seeing operational improvements with phones getting answered consistently. Appointments booked per dentist chair increase without patient traffic being interrupted through stress placed on current team members.
Administrative tasks can be completed consistently over time without interruption from phone inquiries. And when one element of operation is de-stressed, everything runs more smoothly.
The Cost of Improved Phone Coverage
The cost comparing hiring another full-time receptionist for the office front desk versus hiring remote support for phone calls is simple.
Hiring a full-time employee means coming up with funds for their salary and benefits, payroll taxes, paid time off for sick time or vacation days, and cover the potential hidden costs of turnover, when staff need to be replaced or retrained with protocols on arriving into a new office environment.
The cost for hiring remote support for phone inquiries is usually only a fraction of that price, and often consistently covered without gaps.
The impact of increased phone coverage goes beyond reducing overhead costs related to staff turnover or benefitting from keeping one person busy instead of every team member in the office.
Some practices report needing fewer employees at their physical location or using those employees for other purposes (like generating more revenues) as opposed to handling administrative tasks.
Other practices who hire remote staff end up maintaining the same amount of operational employees while managing larger volumes of services booked each day/week/month/year.
How Practices Can Make This Transition Happen
The best practices for implementing systems for remote dental receptionists involve treating them as assets to an already functioning team rather than as people who have come in to “replace” that team.
Establishing proper training on practice protocols, enhancing communication between remote team members and in-house staff members, and ensuring remote support also feels included rather than segregated is essential.
Most practices begin transitioning current issues with answering phones by sending overflow to remote staff or after-hours inquiries (that do not get routed) instead of trying an all-at-once approach.
Gradually increasing their load allows existing staff to adjust, and it gives everyone time to smooth over any hiccups that occur during this transitional period where two distinct teams may be interacting with the same patients.
Another benefit of incorporating this step? The technology used does not need much in terms of expectations from the practice wanting to transition these processes.
Most dentists already use cloud-based management software that provides secured access capabilities without needing new equipment purchases or setups. The transition typically can be set up in days, not weeks.
Remote Support Can Reduce Overhead Costs
Dental practices do not require additional chairs or budgets if they wish to keep their appointment books full. They simply need better systems for addressing patient inquiries, so no one becomes lost along the way when needing to reach us on the phone
Practices getting busy do not do anything groundbreaking, they just ensure that someone gets every phone call who may need their services even when their in-office staff are busy looking after other existing patients’ needs.
