Challenge
A two-person front desk drowning in phones
Dr. Chen and Dr. Sullivan built Riverline Dental on word-of-mouth and a friendly front desk that knew patients by name. For years, that was enough. But as the practice grew, the phones never stopped, and a two-person desk could not be in two places at once.
Mornings opened with the overnight voicemail backlog. By midday, calls were coming in faster than the team could answer. Dr. Chen estimated the practice was missing 15 to 20 new patient calls every week, with after-hours callers going straight to voicemail and rarely calling back.
Riverline had tried a third-party answering service and considered a third front-desk hire, but neither solved the problem. The answering service took messages but rarely converted callers; a new hire wouldn't help nights, weekends, or lunch breaks.
Solution
An AI receptionist trained to sound like the team
Riverline Dental deployed DentiVoice, the DentalBase AI receptionist, in under two weeks. After-hours and weekends route to DentiVoice automatically. During business hours, calls overflow to DentiVoice after two rings, so the front desk picks up when they can and lets DentiVoice handle it when they can't.
DentiVoice was trained on Riverline's specific services, providers, insurance accepted, and scheduling rules. Callers can book, reschedule, or get answers to common questions at 11 PM just as easily as at 11 AM, with appointments dropping straight into the practice management system. No voicemail. No callback queue.
“We trained DentiVoice on how we actually talk to patients, not how a script would. The first time I heard it explain our sedation options, it sounded like one of us.”
Dr. Maya Sullivan, Co-owner
Results
Zero missed calls. A quieter front desk. A better-run practice.
Within weeks of going live, Riverline Dental had transformed from a practice losing 20 calls a week to one that captured every patient call, day or night.
- Zero patient calls missed, including nights, weekends, and lunch breaks
- 100% of after-hours calls answered live by DentiVoice
- New-patient appointments booked directly into the practice management system
- Front desk freed from phone duty, with time back for the patient at the counter
- Third front-desk hire no longer needed, even as call volume grew
Dr. Chen and Dr. Sullivan are now exploring DentalBase's marketing services to drive more inbound demand into the practice, now that the phones are no longer the bottleneck.
“We don't think of DentiVoice as software. We think of it as a third person on the front desk who never takes a sick day, never gets overwhelmed, and never lets a patient call go to voicemail.”
Dr. Aaron Chen
Co-owner, Riverline Dental
