How can a dental practice stop missing patient calls?
Send every missed caller a short text that says you’ll ring back, links to online booking for routine and private appointments, and points urgent cases to your emergency arrangements. That frees the phone line for the calls that really need a person, such as the morning rush for emergency appointments.
By Sammy Morgan, who runs M1 Studio in Chichester. Updated .
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- Industry
- Dental practices
- Problem
- Missed calls
- The fix
- Missed-Call Rescue, £800
- Do it yourself?
- Yes, the first steps below
Why it happens to dental practices.
- The morning rush
- Many practices release emergency slots first thing, so the phones all ring at once as the doors open. Callers who get an engaged tone often try the next practice on the list.
- Reception does three jobs at once
- The same team checks patients in, takes payments and books follow-ups at the desk. The phone is the job that loses out.
- New patients ring to ask one thing
- Whether you’re taking new NHS or private patients. If nobody answers, they don’t leave a voicemail, they ring somewhere else.
- Private enquiries are worth a quick reply
- Someone asking about implants or aligners has usually researched for weeks. A call back the next afternoon can be too late.
What to do, in order.
Fix the answerphone message
Say your opening hours, how to book, and what to do for urgent care when you’re closed. In England, patients can use NHS 111 when their practice is shut; the other UK nations have their own services.
Put the common answers online
Whether you’re taking new NHS or private patients, your fee guide and how to book, so the text back can link to them.
Keep clinical detail out of texts
A missed-call text should say who you are and what happens next, nothing about the patient’s treatment. Patient confidentiality applies to texts as much as letters.
Set call-back times
Pick a quieter slot, such as mid-morning, and say it in the text so patients know when to expect you.
Automate the text back
Missed-Call Rescue texts every missed caller, keeps each enquiry in one list and sends reminders, so private enquiries get a same-day reply.
Where M1 can do it for you.
Fixed prices, or a fixed quote before any work starts. No VAT is charged. Any running costs are listed before you agree.
- Missed-Call Rescue £800
Every call reception can’t reach gets a text with your booking link and call-back time, and private treatment enquiries go into one list to follow up.
Missed calls get a text back, automatically.
- Website Chat Assistant £1,800
It answers evening questions about new patients, fees and opening hours on your website, then passes serious enquiries to your team on WhatsApp.
Questions answered day and night, then passed to you on WhatsApp.
- Online Booking & Deposits £1,800
Private patients book a consultation on your website instead of ringing, with a deposit if you choose and reminders before they come.
Bookings taken online, with a deposit paid up front.
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Before you decide.
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What should a dental missed-call text say?
Keep it short and general: who you are, that you’ll call back and when, and a link to book routine or private appointments online. Tell urgent callers how to reach your emergency arrangements. Leave out anything about a patient’s treatment. The missed-call text-back guide has more examples.
Can a text back handle dental emergencies?
No, and it shouldn’t try. Its job is to make sure no caller hears nothing. Urgent cases still need your own emergency process, agreed by your clinicians, and out of hours in England patients can use NHS 111.
What does it cost to run?
Missed-Call Rescue is a fixed £800. Text and app fees are paid at cost or directly by you, and listed before you agree. Try the missed call cost calculator with your own numbers first.
Keep reading.
Know what to fix. Then decide.
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