Handling After Hour Patient Calls

What do you do what a patient calls in the evening or weekend with a problem or question?

Nothing can be more maddening for a patient (or worse - mother of a patient) than to have a challenge and have no one to talk to about it. What happens to your patients when your office closes?

Many patients will have concerns and call the dental office but not feel their situation is an 'emergency' worth of disturbing you. What does your voicemail instruct patients to do with challenges that are not emergencies?

I suggest you look at having a voicemail box that sends you a text message and email. Our patients can be told on the office voicemail that if they have an after hour challenge that they can leave you a voice mail and you will receive a text of their issue.

You receive the text and can decide if you want to call the patient back or wait until the morning to deal with the situation. If you are in the movie or a kid's school performance you can choose to wait to deal with the situation.

A call back on a patient question can go a long way into build a strong relationship with your patient. Just knowing that you are available to your patients will help set their mind at ease.

Get a new voicemail system that will allow you to set up an afterhours mailbox. The patients can leave regular messages on the normal voicemail but can also select the alert the dentist voicemail option. This option I'll send you a text and email.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com