Mastering Dental Phone Conversion

Phone skills are vital to the success of every organization, but learning the ins and outs of dental call handling is quite unique. Team members that answer inbound calls need to be “ON” for all calls. Their job as the practice’s representative is to WOW that new patient and wipe out their need or desire to interview other competitive practices.



It is imperative that your practice selects the most enthusiastic and outgoing employees to represent you on the telephone. On top of that, these individuals need to have excellent product knowledge and call-handling skills.

Because the person answering your phone IS your practice to new patients, they must project the proper attitude, voice tone, knowledge level, and techniques to best represent it.

“Enthusiasm communicates and gives motivation to oneself and others. It’s important that everyone works at it. Enthusiasm isn’t always easy.”

The right marketing campaign will generate a steady flow of new patient calls, but that’s just the start. Exceeding patient expectations from the first interaction – or not – will make or break your dental practice results. If you’d like more quality new patients, be sure to schedule a free consultation today.

There’s a good list below with some of our top tips, but first, let’s set the stage as to why call handling training should be in place for everyone who answers the phone at your practice.

The average value of a new dental patient is $2,000 in production in the first year. That means each new patient phone call has the potential to contribute $2,000 to the practice.

We have tracked and scored over two million new dental patient calls. Top practices answer 94% of their inbound calls and our average client answers 75% of calls. Top practices convert 85% to appointments, while the average office converts 53%.

On 100 calls, a top practice will convert 80 to appointments and generate production close to $200,000. This chart shows how call answer and call conversion percentages can impact production.

GREY – Calls answered at 94%, 75%, and 50%
GREEN – Potential production at $2,000 per new patient
BLUE – 85% of calls answered live converted (top/average/low) to appointment and associated projected production
BEIGE – 53% of calls converted and associated projected production
ORANGE – 25% of calls converted and projected production
RED – The variance between top-performing and low-performing offices, which is simply based on how 100 calls are handled.

The variance between doing a great job on the phone – or not – adds up to a loss of $135,000 to top-line annual production. Do that every month and consider the magnitude of lost potential.

Jennifer Pearce, CEO of Prosperity Dental Solutions, says, “Inviting new talent into dentistry requires an investment in training. Gone are the days of having time to correctly train new team members on the job due to the fast-paced nature of offices. Throwing the newest person on the phone with no training is professional suicide.”

It’s critically important to have visibility into your patient values and call handling metrics so that the practice can help the front office team effectively handle new patient calls. That’s why we include unlimited call scoring with our marketing campaigns in addition to our Phone Power training series.

Our clients can listen to inbound calls, see the word cloud for quick scan, read transcripts, and get reports on call success. Tried and tested on two million dental patient calls, there isn’t anything better in dentistry.



Find out how our dental marketing programs work with unlimited call scoring:

Good call-handling skills that are combined with qualities such as empathy, patience, and positivity can really make a difference with patients and appointment rates. The importance of this role is often underrated, but good call handlers make a massive difference to practice success. Cheers to all the great ones out there, and here are a few call conversion tips we’ve learned over the years.

Tip #1: Answer all (or most) calls live. No matter what the practice call conversion rate is – 85% or 25% – if more calls are answered live, more new patients will be scheduled.

Tip #2: Make sure your practice and call handler names are clear in the greeting. “Thanks for calling Smith Dental; this is Julie,” or “Good morning, Smith Dental; this is Julie; how can I help you today?” In focus group research with patients, one of the primary complaints is that callers can’t understand the company name, the call handler’s name, or what’s being said. Remind anyone answering the phone to pause before speaking, and to speak clearly and slowly.

Tip #3: Smile! (Probably a top tip!) You’re in dentistry and you know how important your smile is. Smiling while speaking changes the tone of a person’s voice, which makes them sound less dominant and more approachable. People on the phone can literally hear a smile! 

Tip #4: Sound enthusiastic and project your eagerness to help. Your mood can be heard. Stay positive. You must do this all day, every day.

Tip #5: Listen. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason! Listening is underrated in its importance in relationship-building. And incorporate icebreakers such as, “How are you enjoying the weather today?” or “How has your day been so far?” And be patient and empathetic. “I understand how you feel” can go a long way toward helping someone feel valued. Think about what you’d like to hear if you were calling.

Tip #6: Book more new patients by asking the caller if there are any additional family members who also need a dental appointment. You can book two, three, or more new patients on a single call.

Tip #7: Know your stuff. Practice your scripts so that they sound natural. If you struggle to overcome a common objection, ask your team for help, or call your Account Manager at Patient NEWS^®. We probably have a script to assist.

Tip #8: Avoid putting callers on hold. Almost 50% of new patients interviewed say they did not schedule because of poor customer service – especially because they were kept on hold.

Tip #9: Know your offers. If your practice has a free consultation appointment, this can be used to overcome a variety of patient objections. If your practice has a low point-of-entry membership plan that’s less expensive than the average local dental insurance plan, know the numbers to help patients make good decisions for themselves, which includes choosing your practice!

Tip #10: Review your entire marketing presence. Your website, social media sites, and direct mail campaigns, and be cognizant of your brand voice and services.

Tip #11: Avoid TMI (too much information). When you explain too much to a patient before they have a chance to experience how wonderful your practice is in person, you can raise additional objections related to nerves or time requirements. Clinical terms can add confusion. When your team is asked common questions – such as “What does a cleaning cost?” – their response should be brief, friendly, and empathetic, but they need to control the call and come back to scheduling the appointment.

Tip #12: Set goals. Sometimes, incentivizing your team to take small steps – like answering 5% more calls live or booking three more new patients each week – can result in huge production returns. Predictive Analytics in Practice ZEBRA^® will allow you to benchmark where you’re at and the production you can gain with a certain focus.

Tip #13: Build in positive words. “Yes, I’ll be happy to do that,” “My pleasure,” “Sure, I can,” “Definitely,” “Absolutely,” and similar phrasing create a sense of conviction that you truly want to help. It’s also hard to say “Absolutely” without being enthusiastic!

Tip #14: Listen to your call recordings to get a sense of how you and/or your team come across to patients. Is the person answering the phone friendly? Does their stress level come across to the potential patient? Did they maintain control by offering various solutions to the patient?

Tip #15: Have space available for new patients. New patients won’t wait three weeks or longer for their appointment. Try to get them in within 48 hours so they don’t move on to a competitor. (They might book but then be a no-show.)

Tip #16: Build relationships. People buy from people. Patients who do not schedule often say it’s due to a lack of attention paid to them and/or because they felt rushed or weren’t important enough.

Tip #17: Provide your team with scripts to overcome common objections. A metric we track in Practice ZEBRA is “reasons patients don’t book.” Often, it’s heavy with “insurance not accepted.” If you’re dropping or have dropped insurances, be sure to load your team up with the top three reasons patients should choose your practice despite it not being in-network. “Many out-of-network patients still choose to come to our office because of the diligent/compassionate/personalized care we provide” is a great one.

Tip #18: If you can, dedicate your top performer(s) to inbound call handling so their focus can be exclusively on new patient callers and booking appointments.

Tip 19: Be proactive in finding a solution. When listening to calls, notice if there isn’t a further attempt to schedule a new patient beyond the first inquiry. Sometimes, a little extra push in trying to schedule the patient is helpful in conversion. How can you problem-solve the objection to turn the call into an appointment?

Tip #20: Share your new patient value with your team so they know how important prioritizing inbound call answering is. On average, a new dental patient contributes $2,000 in annual production, but what is the metric at your practice? We have many clients who have much higher average new patient values. Or maybe you have an example of a recent new patient – let’s call her Margaret – who you would not have guessed on the first call would invest in her smile, but she ended up spending over $5,000 within two visits. Use her name and remember that every time a call goes to voicemail, you could be losing another “Margaret.”



Bonus Tip: Set achievable goals and bonus your team for improving call answer and conversion rates and scheduling more new patients.

At Patient NEWS, we are dedicated to helping you attract and retain quality patients. Ask your Account Manager for help if you’d like more new patients, help with call conversion, insights on how to access our Phone Power video series, and/or how to set your practice goals in Practice ZEBRA.

Joanne Bishop