More and more, dental offices realize the benefits of migrating to the Cloud. Whether it’s a CRM solution, accounting software, or a cloud phone system, using cloud-based software hands dental practices a distinct advantage. Why? The Cloud is more affordable, offers more state-of-the-art features, and provides access to business phones and features from outside the office.
What is the Cloud?
You’ve probably heard the term “the Cloud” used before, and it basically refers to a technology that is accessible from anywhere while remaining secure.
It’s not a new technology. You use the Cloud everyday with your email. For example, when you send a document attachment with your email, it’s “in the Cloud.” What’s so great about that document being in the Cloud is that when you hard drive dies—and you lose all your documents—you can still access those document via your email.
Today, dental offices may enjoy a similar convenience with cloud-based software. (And there are even more advantages then backing up files.)
The Benefits of a Cloud Phone System
Cloud software for the office benefits your business in four ways: cost, convenience, features, and mobility. To illustrate the competitive advantage a single cloud-based software can afford your business, we’re going to outline the benefits of switching to a cloud phone system. Why? You still receive up to 80% of incoming business via the telephone.
#1. Cost effective
Many dental offices are turning to cloud-based PBX and VoIP because it’s more affordable. With a traditional business phone system, you have to buy, store, and upkeep on-premise servers. That makes for an expensive buy-in. It’s also expensive in the long run because your on-premise servers will eventually age and break down.
That’s why Forbes lists the Cloud as an excellent money-saving strategy—because your servers are virtual and providers are in charge of their upkeep and maintenance. So you’re no longer left with the bill!
For a more in-depth break down of how switching your dental office phone system to the Cloud can save you money, check out this TCO comparison between legacy PBX and Hosted VoIP phone systems.
#2. Feature-rich
As cloud providers upkeep servers, your dental office phone system can access state-of-the-art features. It’s exciting because the list of features is always growing, and these features can give you an advantage in a myriad of ways.
Winning patients
According to DentalEcomonics, phone mistakes are a liability when recruiting new patients. To avoid these mistakes, dental office must know the number of new-patient calls received, whether they have enough staff to answer these calls, and if their staff is properly trained on the phone.
Features of a cloud phone system will help you answer these questions. With call report features, you can assess call volume and better track marketing campaigns. And your dental practice can utilize call recording and call monitoring to evaluate and coach your staff when answering calls from prospective patients.
Retaining patients
It’s easier to retain patients when dentist offices improve caller experiences. To minimize the wait time and number of connections for your callers, your dental office can install auto attendants that professionally list options. This way your patients, vendors, and insurance contacts reach the right person directly.
According to some surveys, 85 percent of missed calls won’t call your practice again! That means your dental office needs a better plan handling incoming calls and after-hours calls.
To limit the number of patients sent to an answering machine, 37% of calls to your practice occur when no one is there to answer the phone, there’s Find Me/Follow Me settings that can bounce a call from your office to another extension. And with cloud phone system mobile app, you can answer incoming phone calls to your business number via your smartphone.
#3. Mobile
With a mobile app, you can pick up emergency voicemails or return calls to patients from your business number. (So you don’t have to give out your personal number!)
You can also conduct business via text messages! According to studies, dental patients prefer to communicate via text. With a cloud-based phone system, your dental office can text!
#4. Convenient
Completing tasks like adding new phone lines or changing the operation hours for the holidays with a traditional phone system is time consuming and painful. Often these changes required hiring an expert to tinker with your on-site servers. With a cloud phone system, accessing your system is a breeze. Your secretary or manager can make changes directly, in real-time, with a few clicks of the mouse. And you can access it from anywhere!
That means configuring new features, locations, and users is simple. Changing outgoing messages during bad weather or impromptu office closings is easy. And customizing hold music and auto attendants is effortless.
Integrations for Dentist Offices
Seamless integrations is another brilliant advantage by upgrading your office systems to the Cloud. Specifically, If you’ve never heard the term API integrations before, an API integrations allows two different applications, programs, or databases to talk to each other and share operations.
So potentially, your cloud-based CRM solution for the dental office can interact and share information with your office phone system. And that’s precisely what Jive Communications, a cloud phone system provider, does.
Jive is one of the only Hosted VoIP leaders to provide integrations with a popular CRM solutions for dentists, Curve Dental. Find out more about the integration between CurveDental and Jive to see how it can benefit your local dental office.
Move to the Cloud
So by simply migrating to the Cloud, your dental office can cut down on costs, win and retain more dental patients, and leverage cloud integrations to increase your office efficiency. For more information on selecting the right provider for a cloud-based phone system, check out our free and insightful buyer’s guide.
