To grow a dental practice, you need a steady stream of new patients. If you’re fortunate enough to attract more patients than you lose every month, the volume of calls will inevitably increase. But an increase in patients isn’t the only reason for a high call volume. Seasonal spikes, staffing shortages, and inefficient processes can all play a part. Whatever the cause, a high call volume will eventually overwhelm even the most proficient office teams and begin to impact the patient experience.
What is considered a high call volume in a dental practice?
When determining high call volume meaning, remember that what feels “high” to your team is relative. The busiest dental offices using TrueLark receive over 900 monthly calls. A large front office or call center team may be able to successfully manage 900 monthly calls, while a two-person team might struggle with half that. Rather than focusing on the number of calls, Call Abandonment Rate (CAR) is a better yardstick for determining if a practice’s call volume is unmanageable. (CAR is the percentage of callers who hang up before connecting with a staff member.)
What does a high call volume indicate about my practice?
If your practice’s high call volume isn’t due to patient demand, it may be due to staff capacity or inefficient processes. The issue isn’t the number of calls; it’s your office’s ability to manage them. Long hold times, missed calls, and unreturned voicemails result in frustrated patients and increased no-shows. Balancing efficiency with patient experience is a challenging task that many growing practices struggle to overcome.
Since 2018, we’ve helped dental practices successfully manage patient communication and scheduling. Along the way, we’ve refined strategies for effective front office operations. In this article, we discuss ten ways dental practices and DSOs can manage high call volumes without sacrificing the patient experience. These techniques apply to both dental call centers and front office teams.
1. Offer callback options to reduce hold times
Nobody likes to wait on hold. When a patient calls a practice and hears those dreaded words, “Please hold,” it sets the patient up for a negative experience from the get-go. While the ideal scenario is having each call answered promptly by a human who can resolve the patient’s request quickly, this is not realistic for a growing dental practice. Phil Toh, co-founder of The Smilist DSO, explained that solving a call volume problem by hiring more admin staff is not practical either. “There is only so much room at the front desk,” he explained.
Virtual Hold Technology helps practices better manage high call volumes by enabling callbacks instead of requiring the patient to wait on hold. This eases the burden on both sides of the call. When a receptionist is talking with a patient face-to-face, they know that callers waiting on hold have the option to request a callback. This helps them provide unhurried service to the patient right in front of them.
2. Build a comprehensive self-service knowledge base
Patients contact their dental practice to get answers to a broad range of questions. “How is a dental implant different than a crown?” “Should I get sealants for my child?” Practices that create a knowledge base or FAQ section on their website can significantly reduce call volumes. When a patient can get answers to questions at any time of day or night, it strengthens trust and reduces friction.
Furthermore, it keeps your practice top of mind and may prevent patients and prospects from seeking information on your competitors’ websites. Don’t forget to update the content frequently. Consider adding patient case studies or behind-the-scenes videos to enhance your practice’s credibility and help patients become more familiar with your team.
3. Optimize call routing using advanced technology
Each front desk and call center employee possesses a unique skill set. Perhaps it’s a detailed understanding of the benefits offered by various dental insurance providers. Or maybe it’s a special ability to empathize with a frustrated patient. Use call routing tools to direct patients to the most appropriate team member. Not only will patients get better service, but as your staff members narrow their focus to their specialties, they will become increasingly proficient.
Dental practice operating margins are already thin. By anticipating call volume trends, predictive analytics tools can help your practice manage resources with greater precision and efficiency. These tools improve accuracy with time as they accumulate more data on which to base their forecasts.
When working to handle your high call volume better, it’s also helpful to map your practice’s communication workflows. When you can see how conversations flow between systems, channels, and staff members, you can remove friction. Some interactions require transferring a patient between staff members or departments. Sophisticated AI systems allow a human agent to take over if necessary, resolve the issue, and then hand the conversation back to the AI engine. The patient doesn’t have to repeat themselves, and everyone involved has full context.
4. Expand support channels beyond the phone
To reduce the burden of high call volumes, enable as many communication channels as possible. Ideally, your patients can interact with your practice via phone, text, web chat, email, and social media. With advanced technology, each channel can have a self-service mode as well as live engagement. Omnichannel support not only eases call volume pressure, it also provides a better patient experience. Industry research backs this up: in a 2024 survey by the Beryl Institute, 82% of respondents cited “The ability to schedule an appointment in the way you prefer (e.g., phone, online app, etc.) as “Extremely” or “Very Important.”
Patients expect to interact with their dental office on multiple channels, often switching between them. With the TrueLark omnichannel customer service platform, it doesn’t matter whether a conversation is initiated by a patient, staff member, or a workflow tool; our platform consolidates them into one dashboard. Conversations can be synchronous or asynchronous; either way, front office and call center teams have full context. They can view transcripts, along with appointment history and other relevant details. Additionally, staff members can respond from the TrueLark dashboard using the patient’s channel of choice.
5. Utilize AI-powered agents for instant assistance
You don’t need a staff member to handle routine transactions–and the majority of patient-practice inquiries are routine. The TrueLark AI Virtual Receptionist can quickly resolve the majority of conversations, both during and outside of business hours.
Unlike missed-call software that answers the call, takes a message, and promises a callback, TrueLark resolves conversations end-to-end using AI agents. AI agents are sophisticated, autonomous systems that can complete complex, multi-step tasks without human intervention. Unlike a traditional bot, an agent doesn’t just answer simple questions or respond to basic requests. They engage, process, and resolve customer inquiries from start to finish. Moreover, they don’t require continual human oversight.
An AI agent:
Interprets intent
Executes multi-step processes
Escalates to a staff member only when necessary
Improves with time by learning from interactions
How does an AI agent handle a customer service conversation? Let’s use an example of a patient calling a dental office to see if the practice takes their insurance. If a staff member doesn’t answer the call, an AI agent begins engaging with the patient in natural language (via SMS, voice, or web chat). First, it attempts to identify the patient profile in the EHR or PMS. If it’s a new patient, there won’t be a profile in the system. In that case, the agent requests the necessary information from the caller and creates one. Once that’s done, the agent will answer the patient’s initial question, “Do you take Delta Dental?” If the answer is yes, the AI agent is smart enough to know they probably want to schedule an appointment. It will ask the patient if they would like to book an appointment and determine the type of appointment needed. Suppose the practice doesn’t accept the patient’s insurance. In this case, the agent will present financing options. If the patient does, indeed, want to schedule an appointment, the agent will pull available times from the PMS and present them to the patient. When the patient chooses the time slot that works best, the agent registers the appointment in the PMS and confirms the appointment with the patient.
6. Focus on improving first call resolution (FCR) rates
To better handle large call volumes, practices should focus on their First Call Resolution (FCR) rate. To improve this KPI, make sure front desk and call center staff are well-trained and have comprehensive, up-to-date information. Use patient feedback to fine-tune processes and improve FCR rates over time. Agentic AI can help here as well. Our AI agents are trained to accomplish specific objectives. These include booking or rescheduling an appointment, getting answers to questions, and connecting callers with the payment system. Because each client’s AI system is programmed on their customer service manual as well as millions of patient conversations, TrueLark resolves the vast majority of interactions on the first call. Furthermore, each system gets smarter over time.
7. Leverage predictive analytics for resource allocation
By anticipating call volume trends, predictive analytics tools can help your practice manage resources with greater precision and efficiency. By adjusting your employees’ shift schedules based on demand forecasts, you ensure you have the right people with the right skills at the right times. Proactively managing staffing rather than reacting after the fact is essential for keeping call volumes in check. Plus, these tools perform better with time as they accumulate more data on which to base their forecasts.
8. Implement proactive customer support
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to patient communication. The workflows are well-defined. For example, in the case of first-time bookings, your practice must provide every new patient with the same set of instructions. You need to confirm the appointment time, remind them to bring their insurance card, and ensure they know where your office is located. But why stop there? Tell them where they can park, inform them of financing options, and remind them of your cancellation policy. An automated appointment reminder text or phone call can do all that without requiring a staff member!
9. Invest in continuous agent training and development
Staff onboarding and training aren’t one-time tasks. Take the time to develop a structured and comprehensive onboarding process. Then, schedule regular training sessions to reinforce knowledge and keep everyone up to date. Using an agency that specializes in employee training is a worthwhile investment.
Remember that soft skills, such as active listening and empathy, are just as important as technical proficiency. Make customer service instruction as prominent in your curriculum as training on policies, services, and software tools. Review call recordings with your staff so they can hear soft skills in action.
You also want to know if your onboarding and training programs are working. Establish and monitor customer service benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of your processes. We mentioned FCR in a previous section. Additional KPIs include Average Handling Time (AGT), Quality Assurance scores (QA), Schedule Adherence, and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Set clear expectations and give employees frequent recognition for their efforts.
10. Regularly review call center and front office processes
Good dental teams create efficient systems for delivering patient care. Great dental teams pair effective systems with a mindset of continuous improvement. The oft-repeated advice, “you can’t improve what you don’t measure,” serves as a reminder that you can’t optimize without tracking metrics. When researching communications systems, don’t overlook the analytics functions. Robust reporting is one thing that sets a full-service AI platform apart from a point solution.
TrueLark Reports & Insights measure what matters so you can identify your baseline and iterate as needed. Additionally, gather feedback from customers and employees to identify opportunities for improvement. Look for duplicated work, disparate software, and manual tasks that could be automated.
Conclusion
How does a practice owner or DSO know if they are effectively managing their call volumes? Answering the following questions can help:
Does your practice:
- Answer every call, text, or web chat 24/7 via a human or AI agent (without requiring them to wait for a callback)?
- Provide high-quality customer service across channels, even during peak call periods?
- Assist callers quickly and accurately without escalating unnecessarily?
- Convert leads into booked appointments as often as possible?
- Support a growing patient base without a proportional increase in overhead or headcount?
- Create a positive work environment, preventing employee burnout and high turnover?
- Track and monitor communication KPIs for continual improvement?
Top dental practices and DSOs across the country rely on TrueLark to alleviate the burden of high call volumes while maintaining an excellent patient experience. If you’re trying to understand high call volume meaning in the context of your business, we invite you to book a demo. You’ll see TrueLark in action, and we can discuss how advanced TrueLark AI can help your dental business manage high call volumes without sacrificing the patient experience.
