If your current dental answering service only answers calls for you and leaves messages, you should definitely take a moment to learn what it should be offering you. While it’s convenient to have extra support when answering patient calls, it’s actually nothing more than a glorified call center. Most of these centers don’t cater to specific industries and will attempt to work with any company that hires them.

However, some services cater their expertise exclusively to dental practices. By choosing that service, you get so much more. Here’s what you can expect.

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When you hear the phrase “dental answering service,” you may assume that it’s only job is to answer calls when your own staff is too busy speaking with patients in the practice. However, it truly is so much more than that. While having a dedicated support staff can catch more calls and take messages as needed, it can also make your patients feel like their part of something bigger when they visit the dentist.

Here are five reasons why they’re perfect to support your practice.

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You may have already experienced this at your practice or heard another dentist tell you about an angry patient they had because their dental bill was much higher than expected. When it comes to patients, the absolute worse thing your practice can do is mishandle their money.

If they’re told a service was covered and learn later their insurance doesn’t provide as much as you told them, they’ll assume your practice is incompetent, when in reality you just don’t have a team dedicated to the process of dental insurance verification.

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When you speak with a marketing consultant for your practice, do they tell you that reaching a certain conversion rate is necessary? Do they hound you for not reaching rates as high as 80 percent? If so, you should know that reaching that percentage is actually nonsense. That’s why your local dental answering service wanted to provide practices three factors that actually help you keep patients.

The three points of success for landing quality conversion and a better patient base include process, people, and patients.

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As a practice, you understand that getting that conversion is key to building up your patient base. However, it can be difficult to keep that patient’s interest elevated. In some medical practices, no-show rates can reach as high as 50 percent, leading to tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Uninterested patients also waste your time and the time of your other dental staff.

To convert calls into appointments, reduce the no-show rate, and find the right patients to build your base, you need a dental answering service to build sustainable connections with patients.

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Is it a common problem for your patients to not attend their follow-up appointments for treatment? Maybe you schedule an appointment for a first-time patient only to have them never show up? When people live such busy lives, it can be easy for them to forget when their dental appointments are happening. Once the date passes, they typically won’t bother to reschedule, costing you a patient and money.

With effective dental scheduling, you can keep your patients informed on upcoming appointments!

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It’s unfortunate, but many dental practices run into the issue of losing money because of the dental insurance verification process. Failing to send a complete or accurate verification form can cause hiccups in coverage, leading to lost payments from clients. Luckily, there is a service out there designed to help practices deal with the pitfalls that typically accommodate verification.

If you’re tired of losing money or dealing with the complicated process of dental insurance verification, keep reading to learn how a dental support system can make the process easier.

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How many times has this happened at your practice? A patient calls intending to schedule an appointment, but instead of being able to do so, they’re met with a voicemail and not a human being. Instead of leaving a voicemail with their contact information, they simply move on to another dental practice who does answer their call.

New patients aren’t willing to wait for a practice to respond when they need to schedule an appointment. Take a moment to learn how a more proactive dental answering service can help!

We’re dedicating this week’s blog post to someone who’s closing 2017 with a bang! Mary Beth, our founder and CEO of Dental Support Specialties has been nominated as one of the Top 25 women in dentistry. What an honor for her and a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to work with her!

We’re sending out a huge congratulation to her in this week’s article, thanking her for sticking with the vision of providing better oral health care for patients through active dental answering service and administrative support. Not only has she lead the way in exceptional customer service and organization, but she’s done it with grace despite the challenges she’s faced with validating virtual support over the years.

Let us stop rambling about how great she is, you can hear it from here with an exclusive peek into her interview involving the opportunity for the nomination.

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