Call Tracking For Dentists: Tracking Numbers Do’s & Don’ts

Call Conversion Metrics to Grow Your Practice

It seems simple. Answer the phone. Help the caller. Schedule the appointment. And yet the majority of dental offices perform poorly on new patient call conversion. Tracking the call conversion of your dental team is vital if you want to maximize the return on investment of your dental practice marketing. 

However, it can be overwhelming to make sense of the mountains of data that comes in. Paying someone to listen to every call, from every patient, can easily become a full-time job for a multi-doctor office and that alone will kill your ROI. So, you need to be selective. To help maximize your time, we’ve identified three things you should stop and what you should do instead.

The Dos and Don’ts of Dental Call Tracking

Don’t: Focus on Number of Appointments

Your phone is ringing, and your front office staff is answering. Your schedule is full, but your dentists are not meeting their production goals. What is going on? 

If you only focus on how many appointments you have on the schedule, you are unlikely to reach your production goals. Ignoring whether these appointments are for complex, high-revenue procedures or routine care means missing out on a critical benefit of dental call tracking software. Additionally, if a lot of appointments end in cancellations, you will want to know where these calls are coming from and how to stop it.

Do: Track Quality Over Quantity

Call tracking software will show you which marketing channel has generated the most phone calls. Additionally, it logs whether the call ended with an appointment and what the motivation of the caller actually was, or why the caller did not schedule an appointment. With this information, you can quickly determine which marketing channel is producing the most high-revenue procedures. 

While routine dental work is essential to your practice, it does not bring in as much revenue as more complex procedures. Pinpointing which channel is responsible for bringing in each procedure will help you make data-driven decisions about how to spend your marketing budget. 

Not only will you know where to source your most valuable appointments, but you will be able to locate what marketing channel is responsible for the most cancellations and no-shows. Being able to assess the value of each dental marketing strategy accurately means maximizing your ROI and boosting that profitability of your practice.

Don’t: Assume Your Front Office Staff Is Handling It

Your front office staff seems to be answering phones and scheduling appointments. However, if you don’t track the quality of their phone calls, then you are missing out on a huge factor in the success of your dental practice. Dental offices can be extremely busy at times, and that puts a lot of stress on your front office staff. If they are missing phone calls to deal with the patients in front of them, you cost yourself and your practice money. 

Do: Listen In and Learn

As soon as the phone starts to ring, it logs what marketing channel produced the call, whether it was answered or sent to voicemail, and when the call came in. Knowing this information lets you schedule your front office staff according to your busiest days and times, minimizing the number of calls that you miss. 

Listening to recorded new patient calls also allows you to identify if your team needs more training in a particular procedure, or if they are capturing contact information for callers who need to check their schedule and get back to the office. The ability to re-contact that potential new patient heightens the likelihood that you’ll schedule them.

Don’t: Ignore the Customer Experience

The first time a potential patient interacts with your dental practice is usually through a phone call. If you want to build a reputation of quality and trust in your community, it is crucial to know how your staff handles incoming calls. Poor customer service and unanswered phones will not only cost you your reputation, but it could cost you your dental practice.

Do: Confirm That Your Values Are Being Communicated

Dental call tracking software records each phone call for you to listen to at a later time.  Reviewing these recordings unlocks vital information that can help you improve the patient experience.  You will be able to hear what patients are asking and decide if you need to update the information on your dental office website. In addition to this, you will be able to listen to how your staff members answer the phone. Hearing these conversations lets you compare the recording to the number of appointments they schedule. If you are struggling to get patients in the door, you may find that your staff’s customer service skills are not as effective as you need them to be.

Conversely, you will see which phone calls result in appointments for complex, high-revenue procedures. Comparing this to the recording may show you what the average patient needs to hear to convert. Knowing what questions your patients are asking will help you develop and train your front office staff according to what works, ultimately leading to higher revenue. 

A Final Word on Phone Tracking Numbers

Call tracking for dentists is an invaluable resource for your practice. Knowing which numbers to look at and understanding how they affect your bottom line helps you make data-driven decisions on how to spend your marketing dollar. In addition to this, you can get a clear picture of the efficacy of your dental practice’s front office staff. For more information on what to track to grow your dental practice, download our free guide, Transform Your Dental Practice by Tracking These 8 KPIs.