Signs Your Dental Office Needs Answering Service in 2019
Is your customer phone service taking up too much time? Discover 5 telltale signs your dental office needs a professional answering service now.
What if your dental practice was losing customers you had never even heard about?
Most of your customers are calling ahead to make appointments. But if they have trouble getting through, they simply hang up and call another dentist.
The answer to this issue is getting a professional answering service. Keep reading to discover the signs that you need such a service can help you and your business!
Lost Productivity
One of the biggest signs that you need a phone answering service is lost productivity. And it’s usually easy to see where the productivity has gone!
Even without an answering service, the phone must be answered. Worst case, you’ll have untrained staff playing receptionist and not being able to do their actual job.
When this happens, productivity can grind to an absolute halt. However, with the help of professional service, all of your best employees could get back to doing the job you hired them for.
Short-Staffed
It’s much easier to notice that lost productivity if you have a small staff. And an office with a small staff has the biggest need for an answering service.
Like we said before, you can easily see when too few people are having to do too many jobs. And unfortunately, there aren’t many easy ways to fix this!
For example, you could always hire an entire reception staff. But then your small office must cope with paying full salary and benefits for multiple people.
However, an answering service gives you all the benefits of hiring more people at a much lower cost. This way, both you and your customers win!
Tons of Interruptions
The goal of any good dentist is to focus on the job in front of them. However, it’s almost impossible to do this when you keep getting interrupted!
When you have untrained staff answering the phones, they may not know when to take a message and when to transfer the call to you. That means you may face interruptions at very inconvenient times.
With a dedicated dental answering service, you will end up with fewer interruptions. And that translates to better reviews from your customers and more repeat business.
Ultimately, such an answering service is an investment that pays off by boosting profits!
Voicemail Veteran
Here’s a quick question: how well do you know your way around the office voicemail?
When customers can’t get through to you, some of them will give up. And others will content themselves with leaving you a message.
Therefore, the math is simple: if you constantly have a lot of voicemail, it means that many people have been unable to reach your business when they call. This leads to one of two annoying outcomes.
First, if you are too slow to respond, even more of them will give up. And while some will stick around as customers, it forces you to spend a lot of after-hours time responding to people.
With an answering service for your office, you can save time for both yourself and your customers.
Customer Complaints
Common business wisdom holds that “the customer is always right.” And while we don’t always agree with that, we do think you should be listening to your customers.
If some of your regulars are complaining that they cannot reach you, this is a big problem. Similarly, you should watch out for complains on social media and other online outlets (like Google Reviews or online testimonials).
Your business thrives on good word of mouth, but a few complaints and bad reviews can really drive people away. If customers are complaining, it’s time to fix things!
After Hours Callers
Even if you are regularly answering calls during business hours, you may still have lots of voicemail. Why? Because your customers aren’t limited to a 9 to 5 schedule!
It’s not uncommon for your customers to call in the evening or over the weekend. However, it’s impossible for you to have local staff available simply to field their calls.
With a phone answering service, though, they can receive an answer whenever they call. This increases customer confidence while also giving you one less thing to worry about on Monday morning.
Frequent Ringing
You’ve probably noticed most of this is about keeping customers happy. And sometimes, simply answering the phone is not enough to please them!
Customers are actually really turned off if they have to wait a long time for someone to pick up (especially if they hate making calls). Similarly, anyone who is waiting in your reception area is going to be annoyed to hear the phone ringing off of the hook.
Long story short? If you hear a constant ringing, then it’s time for you to get a dental answering service.
The Human Touch
Be honest: are you excited when you call a business and get the voicemail or a phone tree? You may even worry that no one will listen to you!
Most of us expect a human voice to answer when we call someone. And your dental patients are no different!
One of the best things about a professional dental answering service is that you aren’t trading one machine for another. Instead, you are ensuring that your customers hear a human being on the other side whenever they pick up the phone.
This leads to more customer happiness and more efficient patient interactions. And you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that you treat your patients the way you want to be treated.
More Calls Than Customers
If your office is busy, it can sometimes be hard to detect the next sign. However, you need to worry about getting more calls than customers.
For example, when your phone has been ringing off the hook, that should translate to an increase in patients. If it hasn’t, it means that many potential patients have been turned off by long waits and voicemails.
When there are more calls than customers, you need an answering service.
Professional Answering Service: The Bottom Line
Now you know the benefits of good answering service. But do you know how else to grow your dental practice?
At Peak Marketing Service, we help every business grow as large as you can dream. To see how we can help more people discover your practice, just contact us today!
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