Every missed call can mean a lost patient — and many practices don’t even realize how often it happens. Here’s a fast self-audit to spot gaps and how Unique Dental Scheduling (UDS) can help you fix them. Download a PDF version and take a look at your own process.
Quick Self-Audit: Are You Meeting Industry Standards?
1. Call Coverage: Make Sure Every Call is Answered
Key Questions:
- Are calls answered within 3–4 rings during business hours?
- Do you have coverage during lunch, shift changes, after hours and on weekends?
- Are you answering at least 95% of your calls?
Patients who call and don’t get through often book elsewhere. Even a few missed calls per day can add up to dozens of lost opportunities each month.
How we help:
- Full Coverage: UDS answers every call live and books directly into your practice management system, ensuring no call slips through.
- Overflow / Peak Coverage: UDS handles calls during busy windows while your staff focuses on in-office patients.
- After-Hours Coverage: Nights, weekends, and holidays are covered, and calls are booked or flagged for next-day follow-up.
2. Conversion & Follow-Up: Make Sure Every Call Counts
Key Questions:
- Are you tracking new-patient conversion rates?
- What happens to missed calls? How quickly are they returned?
- Are calls monitored for quality, consistency, and accuracy?
Answering calls is only half the battle — if calls aren’t converted into appointments, the opportunity is lost. Practices without follow-up processes often leave revenue on the table.
How we help:
- Playbook: our proprietary software automatically pulls up practice information so that our trained agents can answer calls quickly and correctly.
- Dashboard & Call Recording: Review calls in real time to monitor quality, identify issues, and train staff for improvement.
3. Patient Experience: Make Every Call Professional
Key Questions:
- Are patients greeted by a live person rather than voicemail or a menu?
- Is the average hold time under 30 seconds?
- Does your staff undergo regular training and performance reviews?
- Are your calls recorded and evaluated?
How we help:
- Availability : Our agents are available to answer phones even when your practice isn’t. We are open outside of practice hours to capture calls when patients are ready.
- Overflow coverage: When your front desk is busy or is not available to take calls, we can take the pressure off by answering on your behalf.
- Dedication to transparency: All calls are recorded and available to your practice. We recognize the trust you place in us, and we want to make sure that we are living up to expectations.
Real UDS Customer Feedback
“We have the confidence that if a new patient calls… Unique will schedule that patient as if we had taken the call ourselves. We have been very pleased with your service and are confident that we are not only better servicing our patients but also allowing our staff to better focus on patients in the office.” — Dr. Mark Perelmuter, Perelmuter & Goldberg Orthodontics