Typically, patients will encounter their dentist’s office first with a phone call. This is why it is essential that all calls are answered in a professional and friendly manner, no matter what time it is. It used to be that the only way to make sure phone calls would be taken care of 24 hours a day was to hire an evening receptionist or to use an answering machine. Both of these options are inadequate, expensive, or insufficient.
Patients care about who is answering the phone. People do not want to hear a machine. It is important for patients to hear a real, live voice on the other end when possible. Your patients will feel that your office is a lot more welcoming and caring when it comes to customer service, and that will certainly go a long way.
This is why many dental offices are opting for dental calling services. Many hospitals and medical offices implement these kind of systems, but they are starting to gain more popularity with dental offices as well. These dental calling services provide experienced staff members 24 hours a day so that any time your patients call, day or night, someone will be there to answer the phone and direct the call to the proper place. If there is a dental emergency that needs to be attended to, someone will be there to answer the phone and act accordingly.
Studies have shown that one in three dental emergencies occur between the hours of 5 pm and 10 pm, which is exactly the time that most dental offices are closed. If there is no one answering the phone during these hours, your patients may feel that you don’t care about them. Simply having a real live person talk to them when they call in at 8:00 with a dental emergency can go a long way and provide a real personal touch.
More and more dental offices are beginning to take advantage of dental answering services like those that we offer here at Telemed. If you are interested in having trained and experienced professionals answering the phone for your office 24 hours a day, have a look at our website for more information.
