Should You Use VoIP for Your Dental Office?
In the busy environment of a dental office, good telecommunications technology is essential. You’ll want to be able to effectively help patients on the phone, record messages, and send appointment reminders – but that’s just the start. You’ll also need to collaborate within the office and send and receive records efficiently and securely.
What’s the best way to handle all these tasks? VoIP is a technology that can help keep dental offices running smoothly while also providing the best possible patient experience.
Read on to explore what VoIP for dental offices is, what it can do, and whether it’s. right for you.
What is VoIP?
As the UK’s PSTN landline network ages out of use, the nation is increasingly transitioning to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.
In short, VoIP lets you make calls by sending audio data – your voice – over the internet. That means no landline is involved. All you need is an internet connection.
But VoIP is so much more than a technology for speaking on the phone. It also comes with a host of additional features and benefits, as you’ll see below.
Why use VoIP for dental offices?
The great thing about VoIP for your dental office is that it’s great for both you and your patient for so many reasons, including …
Useful functionalities for your phone system
A lot of patients have anxiety around going to the dentist. That’s why anything you can do to make their experience a little better and easier will always be a plus.
VoIP for dental offices has this covered. Features like a virtual receptionist and automated appointment reminders help make your patients’ experiences smoother and avoid long hold times on the phone. Plus, they free up your receptionists to speak to patients in your office.
Voicemail to email functionalities can be handy too, making sure any out-of-hours messages are effectively passed on to the right person. With this function, your voicemails get automatically transcribed and automatically sent to your inbox.
Call recording can also be a big help, so you can check to see what was discussed on an earlier call with a patient. That helps avoid costly mistakes or miscommunications.
Savings
When you switch to VoIP, you’re free from the financial burden of a traditional landline. There’s no need to worry about phone line maintenance and hardware – or the worsening condition of the UK’s copper landline network, which will be entirely switched off in 2027.
Instead, with VoIP you get phone calls and an internet connection through one system. There’s no line rental to pay for, no physical phone line that can need repairs, and no high costs for international calls if you’re getting records for a patient who’s lived overseas.
In other words, you don’t have to worry about a plethora of charges added to your bill. You just have a simple monthly subscription.
Easy integration
Many dental offices rely on numerous software systems to handle customer data, health records, payments and more. It’s a big help if your phone system can integrate with them and make everyone’s day easier.
Fortunately, VoIP is designed to do just this. Whether you’re managing appointments, checking inventory, or making sales, VoIP for dental offices is made to integrate seamlessly with whatever software you’re using.
Quality
Nothing’s more frustrating than being on a phone call that’s fuzzy or hard to understand. High-quality VoIP systems ensure you don’t have to deal with low call quality or, even worse, dropped calls.
Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms for your VoIP connection help avoid these issues and others like delays by prioritising your VoIP calls over other data on your connection.
To ensure you get the best call quality, it is also important that you have a good internet connection, like high-speed broadband.
The environment
Can your telecommunications solution help the environment?
Yes, it can! If you’re looking to make your dental office greener, switching to VoIP is a step that can help.
It’s an environmental win because, again, it avoids all the wasteful hardware and infrastructure required for landlines. VoIP can also use less energy to operate.
Security
All dental offices know that they have to take the utmost care when handling patient medical information. In fact, there are laws like the Data Protection Act 2018 that set out clear and important requirements about how patient data should be stored and transmitted.
Moreover, managing sensitive data safely is just good sense. Nobody wants to be responsible for a data breach that harms patients!
VoIP for your dental office is up to the job. You’ve got tools at your disposal like access controls and encryption to keep patients’ information safe. When you implement these safeguards, you’ve got the top security you need.
Preparing for the future
Whatever’s in your dental office’s future, VoIP can help you thrive today and in years to come.
As we’ve already mentioned, the UK’s copper-based landline system will be shut down in 2027. Most businesses will then have no choice but to switch to VoIP. So, it’s better for your business to go ahead and switch now while you can take time to prepare and choose your best options.
Moreover, VoIP is very flexible and able to adapt if your dental office either grows larger or scales down. There’s no long contract you’re tied into that will make it hard for your communications to adjust with you.
Explore VS Group’s VoIP for dental office services
Long story short – VoIP is good for patients, for employees, and for dental office owners. It’s a solution that makes operations simpler and smoother for everyone, whether you’re scheduling appointments, sending X-rays or taking payments. At VS Group, we’re specialists in providing high-quality VoIP services to small businesses like dental offices. So, if you’re curious to know how VoIP can help your dental office, why not reach out to our expert team? You can call us on 0330 094 0170, email us at info@vsgcomms.com, or simply start by reading about our VoIP services.
