Top Six Benefits of a Virtual Dental Receptionist
- March 14, 2024
People don’t like going to the dentist, so getting them to call for an appointment is half the battle for any dental practice. Unfortunately, most dental practices feel like cold and impersonal spaces, which is why many have written off the dentist.
Just because you can attend to your patients doesn’t mean you are doing enough for them. Accessibility is about more than just being available; it’s about creating a warm environment where your patients feel comfortable enough to reach out to you.
Unfortunately, time is always in short supply, and finding the room to build meaningful patient relationships can be difficult. Instead of throwing in the towel, you should consider hiring a virtual dental receptionist. Only a virtual dental receptionist has the experience and manpower to help settle your patients.
Here are the benefits of hiring a virtual dental receptionist.
Virtual Dental Receptionist Benefit #1: 24/7 Availability
Dental emergencies are among the most painful emergencies that can afflict anyone. Unfortunately, dental practices don’t stay open 24 hours a day. The good thing is a virtual receptionist service does.
With a virtual receptionist service, your patients can call in at all hours of the day and night. When they do so, they can expect a warm, friendly receptionist to pick up on the other side, which is exactly what one would need in such a situation.
The patient can explain their problem to the receptionist, who will, in turn, send that information over to you. When you wake up, you’ll know exactly what to expect for that day.
Virtual Dental Receptionist Benefit #2: Appointment Scheduling
This next benefit is a pseudo continuation of the first one mentioned. A virtual dental receptionist can set appointments for you. As mentioned earlier, a virtual dental receptionist can set up an appointment if somebody requires immediate attention, regardless of when they call in.
If you decide to integrate a virtual dental receptionist service with your scheduling platform of choice or, better yet, employ a virtual dental receptionist that offers its own scheduling platform (such as My Receptionist), the service can plan around your existing appointments.
This is a great way to prevent scheduling clashes and the annoying rescheduling of appointments that they inevitably lead to.
Virtual Dental Receptionist Benefit #3: Cost-Effective Solution
This is a benefit that many don’t consider when looking into getting a virtual dental receptionist. Simply put, a virtual dental receptionist will always be much more cost effective than hiring an in-person receptionist. Not to mention that an in-person receptionist will never be able to provide the scalability and accessibility of a dental or healthcare receptionist service.
In fact, not only would an in-person receptionist be much more expensive than a virtual dental receptionist, but you’d also lose the 24/7 availability that such a service would grant you, costing you two key benefits.
The cost of an in-person receptionist also increases when you factor in the time spent looking for a suitable candidate.
Virtual Dental Receptionist Benefit #4: Reduced Administrative Burden
Thanks to its scalability, a virtual dental receptionist would have enough manpower on hand to reduce your administrative workload, regardless of how high it may climb. Think of all the different parts of your daily workflow that can be automated with a cost-effective virtual medical receptionist.
A virtual receptionist service can handle the following tasks for you:
- Scheduling appointments
- Sending out appointment reminders
- Answering patient questions
- Upselling additional services
- Handling contact and payment information
How much more time in your workday would you have if the tasks above were automated? It’s a powerful scenario and one that could see you with more time on your hands to build stronger patient relationships.
Virtual Dental Receptionist Benefit #5: Multilingual Support
A virtual dental receptionist service offers the invaluable advantage of multilingual support, ensuring effective communication with patients from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
By employing bilingual agents fluent in languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, or French, dental practices can cater to the needs of non-English-speaking patients with ease and professionalism. Multilingual support fosters inclusivity and accessibility, allowing patients to communicate comfortably in their preferred language.
Not only does My Receptionist offer multilingual support, but Always Answer, its sister service, even trains its agents to use state-of-the-art translation software to provide language support for more than 170 different languages.
Whether scheduling appointments, discussing treatment options, or addressing concerns, multilingual capabilities enhance patient satisfaction and facilitate smoother interactions. This strengthens the patient-provider relationship and improves overall dental practice performance.
Virtual Dental Receptionist Benefit #6: Customizable Call Handling
One of the key benefits of a virtual dental receptionist service is its customizable call-handling capabilities, allowing dental practices to tailor call management protocols to their specific needs and preferences. With customizable call scripts, practices can ensure consistency in communication and deliver a personalized experience to every caller.
Whether greeting patients, scheduling appointments, or providing information, call handling can be customized to reflect the practice’s brand identity and adhere to established service standards.
This flexibility enables dental practices to adapt call-handling processes based on changing requirements, optimize efficiency, and enhance patient satisfaction by delivering exceptional service tailored to individual preferences.
Best Virtual Dental Receptionist Service
My Receptionist is the only virtual dental receptionist service on the market that can offer all the features and benefits we’ve discussed.
Throughout that time, instead of resting on its laurels, My Receptionist has been tweaking and fine-tuning its system and what it can offer you.
What it can offer you — and any dental practice, for that matter — is a strong foundation built around three key features:
- A robust scheduling platform
- Routine appointment reminders
- Secure and encrypted messaging system
You’ll have to check out its “how it works” page to find out how the service works. The headline here is that My Receptionist’s live agents will handle incoming calls with a warm and friendly attitude.
Relevant information will be gathered from each call and then sent to you via their secure and encrypted messaging system. This messaging system will prevent unwanted eyes from accessing sensitive patient information. Afterward, routine appointment reminders will be sent to your patients, ensuring that they don’t miss any important dates.
As good as My Receptionist may be, if your dental practice requires more than what’s been mentioned, then your only solution is to contact the only complete answering solution on the market.
Expanding Past My Receptionist
Always Answer is the complete answering solution, doing what My Receptionist does and offering a plethora of additional features. Its feature set can be divided into two categories: its general receptionist capabilities and its call center services.
Its general receptionist capabilities are easily explained and understood, with features like bilingual answering and live call transfer rounding out the service. However, Always Answer truly shines in its call center services, which makes It an effective dental answering service.
With its call center services, Always Answer can help you handle incoming calls and even grow your team. It also has employee screening services that can filter out unqualified candidates, leaving only the most qualified for you to interview.
Always Answer can even help you develop a set of survey questions that can be used to gather crucial information from your patients and callers! There’s a lot more to Always Answer, but the main point is that not only are My Receptionist and Always Answer the top answering services on the market, but they are also easy to integrate into your dental practice.
For the Best Virtual Dental Receptionist Service
Getting started is easy, whether you are after the best virtual dental receptionist or a complete answering solution. All you need to do is contact us via our online form! Spend a couple of minutes entering your information, and then expect a response from one of our agents within 24 hours.
From there, you’ll select which simple payment plan you want, and My Receptionist will handle the rest. You can expect a smooth integration into your daily workflow and a cadre of friendly and personable live agents manning your phones, helping you treat your patients how they deserve.