How Does Our Dental Office Phone Support Work?
The idea is simple. Your practice lets us know when you need help answering your phones. Some offices use Dental Support Specialties to answer their phones daily, while others use DSS to answer their phones on days when the practice is closed. We can even answer phones for practices during their staff meetings, breaks, or vacations!
Imagine that someone calls your office at a time when normally no one would be available to answer. Instead of a voicemail message, a friendly voice picks up who can answer any questions about your practice, seamlessly schedule an appointment, or adjust an appointment.
If the call was a new patient, you just started a new relationship that previously would have been lost to your answering machine. If the call was an existing patient, you have met their expectations that their call was answered and acted upon.
Our phone support will not only capture new patients that may have otherwise been lost, but it will improve your customer service/patient experience as well. This creates trust, and trust creates loyalty.
What Makes Our Phone Support Different from an Answering Service
Perhaps you’ve used an answering service before, or have experienced one with other dental practices. Unfortunately, most do not take the time to learn about your practice or integrate with your scheduling software. Your calls are often answered by an entry-level employee with no background in dentistry. Even if they are friendly, these answering services will frustrate patients if they are unable to act on the call. They will simply forward you a message and let your staff sort it out. This can often lead to more problems than it solves, as your team now has a new pile of work to sift through each day.
Another Benefit: Outbound Calls
Dental Support Specialties offers practices outbound calls included as part of our phone support. We like to say, “If the phone’s not ringing in, we’re making it ring out.”
Outbound calls made during phone support can include past-due re-care, undone treatment, patient confirmations, post-op, or even AR balance calls. We do not rest or take breaks when supporting your phones! DSS can give your practice the ability to be “open” even when you and your team aren’t there. No matter the situation, we will handle it. It is our goal that you and your team will never have to undo or re-do anything completed by a DSS support specialist.
Here are some things you can expect when Dental Support Specialties is working your phones:
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Top-Notch Service: Each one of our team is trained and familiar with the basics of exceptional customer service. Whenever we pick up the phone for you, you can be assured that we’ll be friendly, informative, and provide an experience that will make people eager to visit your practice.
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Specialized Training: Our support specialists all come from a background in dentistry, making our team completely unique and effective at what we do. We “speak” dental. We know how dental offices operate and what is most important to the practices we support. Also, we will take the time to learn specifically about you and your practice. What are your specialties? Do you help a particular kind of patient? Do you have any promotions going on? They will know everything just like your in-house staff, making the caller’s experience seamless.
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No Phone Trees: When DSS supports your phones, all calls are routed to a single support specialist. There is no phone tree or phone menu that your patients must navigate through. Their experience will be efficient, friendly, professional, and helpful.
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Directly Linked To Your Practice: We will never simply forward you a list of appointments. We will fully integrate our system with your scheduling software. That means that you can go to lunch, and when you come back, a list of new appointments will be in the same place as the ones you have already scheduled yourself. This streamlines the whole process and will make it feel like we’re actually at your front desk.
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We do not face typical in-house distractions: Your front desk has many other duties beyond answering the phones. They are greeting patients, organizing your schedule, following up on insurance claims, and keeping track of patient records. These duties are essential, but they all take time away from answering calls. Our team can fill in this gap because our entire focus is on picking up the phone. This can free your staff to take care of innumerable administrative duties without your practice having to sacrifice calls.
Frequently Asked Questions
About Our Dental Answering Service
Do you only answer the phone?
No, we do not simply answer your calls. While we do provide this valuable service, our work doesn’t stop when the phone isn’t ringing. Our team will proactively take care of other tasks such as past-due re-care, undone treatment, patient confirmation, and post-op calls.
Will my patients know you are not in my office?
Our team of specialists will represent themselves as if they are sitting at your front desk. If they are asked directly if they are in your office, they will, of course, answer truthfully. We work to become an active part of your practice, so our physical location will not have an impact on your patients’ overall experience with us.
Can I trust you to treat my patients well?
We take pride in our customer service. It is what makes us different from other dental office answering services. Whenever we answer your phones, we will engage your patients and try to build a lasting relationship with them every time. This includes our interactions with you, as well.
What types of practices do you support?
We support general practices, pediatric practices, periodontal practices, oral surgery practices, endodontic practices, orthodontic practices, as well as DSOs.
We’re Ready to Help
Dental Support Specialties is designed to help practices maximize their production by increasing office efficiency. We want to help your practice develop and grow. We are passionate about our work and partnerships with our clients. Accessible, responsive, professional - We are different and it shows!
If you’d like to know more information about all of the services we can provide, or if you are ready to partner with us, please give us a call today.
