For dental practices
Calls, recalls and the enquiries that went quiet.
For one practice or a group, a team of ours can take the calls your front desks can’t get to, and work the lists behind the diary. Or we can set it up for your own staff to run, or advise on how it’s organised.
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What we do
A dental diary is filled from the phone, from the recall list and from last week’s enquiries. We help with all three. By running the work, setting it up, or advising on it.
Pain gets an appointment, not advice
Someone in pain is offered the next slot your rules allow. When you’re closed, they hear your own out-of-hours arrangements. What to do about the tooth, and whether a treatment would suit someone, are for your dentists. The team says so, and passes the question on.
Which parts we take on is up to you
It could be the recall list, with no phones involved. It could be the calls your front desks can’t get to, or the hours you’re closed. Or it could be one project to write down every practice’s appointment types and rules.
Who gets in touch, and why.
People ring a dental practice for three quite different reasons. Each needs something different from whoever answers.
In pain, or with something broken
Often first thing, or when you’re closed
- Toothache that’s kept them up
- A lost filling or crown
- A broken denture
- A child who’s broken a tooth
- Can I be seen today?
Routine care
Through the week
- Are you taking new patients?
- Booking a check-up or a hygienist visit
- Moving or cancelling, sometimes that morning
- An appointment for a child
- A charge for a missed appointment
Asking about a treatment
Before they’ve decided
- What do implants or aligners cost?
- Can I come in and talk it through?
- Could it be done before the wedding?
- Do you offer whitening?
- I’m nervous about the dentist. What happens?
What we’d take on.
Calls that come in, and lists that come due. A team of ours works each one in your practice software, to your rules.
- Appointments booked, moved and cancelledCalls answered when your front desks are busy or closed, and the booking made in your practice software. Each appointment is matched to your types and lengths.
- New patients“Are you taking new patients?” answered exactly as you state it that week. Registration is taken, and the medical history form sent and chased before the first visit.
- People in painOffered the slots you keep for emergencies, by your own rule. When you’re closed, your out-of-hours arrangements are read as written, and the call is waiting for you when you open.
- RecallsPatients due or overdue a check-up contacted and booked, from the recall list your software keeps. The list and the intervals are yours. Where your software already sends reminders, the team’s part is the patients who haven’t answered them.
- Treatment enquiries followed upPeople who asked about implants, aligners or whitening and haven’t booked are contacted on the schedule you set, and no further. Answers come from your published fees and information pack.
- Missed and cancelled appointmentsPatients who missed a visit rung to rebook. A slot freed by a cancellation is offered to your short-notice list, where you keep one.
Recall · Check-ups overdue
A family, all overdue a check-up
- Rung from this week’s recall list
- Booked together, on the same afternoon
- Noted
- They moved in the spring. New address added to each record
In your practice software, and off the recall list
Behind the front desk
And the things you hadn’t thought to ask for.
Someone to pick up the phone may be what you had in mind. Here are six other things we could set up, run or advise on.
- We set it up
Appointment rules and out-of-hours wording, written down
Each practice’s appointment types, lengths and fees in one guide, with what is said to a caller in pain. That wording is approved by your dentists.
Processes and knowledge base - We set it up
A starter guide for your own front desk
Training material for the receptionists you hire yourselves, built once and used for every new starter.
Training material - We set it up
When calls go unanswered
Which hours and which practices miss calls, drawn from your phone system’s own records where it keeps them.
Reporting - We run it
Forms back before the day
Coming appointments with a form still outstanding worked through as a list, and each patient reminded before they arrive.
Back office and admin - We run it
Website chat and messages, answered
Enquiries that arrive through your website or by message answered to the same rules as the phone.
Customer service - We plan it with you
Before the next practice joins the group
Whether calls and lists should be worked in one place for every practice, and how each keeps its own name, fees and dentists.
Consultancy
Between the appointments
From first enquiry to the check-up after next.
A patient who stays with a practice is in touch with it for years, and part of that contact is the practice getting in touch first. This follows one patient, with where they ring and where the team does.
Enquiring
Looking for a practice, and curious about aligners.
They get in touch
“Are you taking new patients?”
The team gets in touch
Follows up the aligner enquiry on your schedule, if no consultation is booked.
First visit
Booked in for a new patient examination.
They get in touch
“Can I move it to after work?”
The team gets in touch
Sends the medical history form, and chases it before the day.
In treatment
Part-way through a course your dentist has planned.
They get in touch
“When is my next appointment?”
The team gets in touch
Rings to rebook when a visit is cancelled.
Between check-ups
Nothing booked until the next one is due.
They get in touch
“I’ve lost a filling. Can I be seen?”
The team gets in touch
Makes contact when the check-up comes due on your recall list.
Overdue
A check-up missed, and no word since.
They get in touch
Nothing. They’ve gone quiet.
The team gets in touch
Rings from the overdue list, and books them or notes that they’ve moved away.
The team behind it.
Patients deal with your practice by name throughout. The team works in your practice software, to each practice’s own rules.
Our employees, led by our team leads
Trained on your appointment types, your fees and your written rules before they take a call. Each team has a team lead whose job is coaching.
How we workA location chosen with you
The Philippines, Portugal or Ireland. The hours you need covered and the kind of work decide which, and we settle it with you first.
Where we workPatients’ records
A named login for each person in your practice software, with access only to what the work needs. Health information is handled only where that is agreed with you in writing first.
Security and data protection
Questions, answered.
The things dental practices are likely to ask first.
What does the team say to someone who rings in pain, in the day or when we’re closed?
In the day, the caller is offered the next slot your rules allow for someone in pain. When you’re closed, the team reads out your own out-of-hours arrangements, as you’ve written them, and the call is logged for when you open. The team gives no advice on the tooth, and says so in wording your dentists have approved. It doesn’t decide what counts as an emergency. That comes from your written list of what a caller might say, and what to do for each.
What stays with our dentists and our own front desk?
Anything clinical stays with your dentists. That includes what to do about a problem, whether a treatment would suit someone, and any price for treatment that hasn’t been planned. Questions about paying over time stay with you, and so does any dispute about a charge. Your front desk keeps the patients in front of it. The team takes the calls and the lists you choose to hand over.
Can the team book straight into our practice software, with our appointment types and lengths?
Yes. The team works in your practice software, and each person needs a login of their own, which is yours to give. Your appointment types, their lengths and who carries each out are written down as rules, and the team books to them. A check-up isn’t put in an emergency slot.
Can calls come to the team only when reception is busy or closed?
Yes. Calls can come across only when a front desk doesn’t pick up, or only at the hours you choose. Your receptionists carry on answering whenever they’re free. How calls are passed across depends on your phone system, and we’d work that out with you.
How does working our recall list work?
The list is yours. It is kept in your practice software, with the intervals your dentists have set. The team works through the patients who are due or overdue, and books them. Where your software already sends reminders by message, the team’s part is the patients who haven’t answered. Someone who has moved away, or asks not to be contacted, is noted on their record for you to see.
We have several practices. Can each be answered in its own name, with its own fees and dentists?
Yes. Each practice is answered in its own name, and whoever picks up has that practice’s diary, fees and rules open. How the work is shared across your practices depends on how alike they are. We’d settle that with you.
How is the answer to “are you taking new patients?” kept right when it changes?
Through one route for changes. You tell the person who owns your service, and it goes into the notes the team answers from. The same route carries a new fee, a new dentist or a change to your hours. The team answers from those notes, and doesn’t guess.How we work
Who manages the team?
We do. Hiring, the rota, cover and performance are ours, and each team has a team lead whose job is coaching. Your own staff don’t hand out the work or check it. You deal with one person who owns your service.How we work
What if the work I need help with isn’t listed here?
Tell us about it. This page covers the work dental practices are most likely to need, not everything we do. If the work follows a process and happens on the phone, in an inbox or in your practice software, there’s a good chance we can take it on. If it isn’t one for us, we’ll say so.Tell us about your business
More for health and care providers.
- Health and careClinics, dental practices, care at home and the rest of the group.
- Reception and call answeringCalls answered in your practice’s name, and the appointment booked.
- Back office and adminRecall, enquiry and missed-appointment lists worked through.
- All industriesThe other kinds of business we work with.
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Tell us what's going on. If we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone we trust.
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