Blog - Page 2 of 310 - The McAnally Selling System

How Many Dental Calls Get Answered Live in Your Office

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

How many of my dental practice phone calls actually get answered live? If you're like most practices, about half. I've watched the numbers across hundreds of offices and millions in advertising, and 50% of calls answered live is what a practice doing well looks like. That means the other half slips through. You're busy. You've got patients in chairs, consults coming and going, and the phone rings on top of all of it. So calls get missed, and you never feel it happen. That's the trap with a busy day. The misses are invisible. You only see the patients who got [...]

How Many Dental Calls Get Answered Live in Your Officejames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Monitoring Call Logs in Your Dental Practice

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Why should I monitor my dental practice's call logs every month? Because the numbers tell you the truth your gut won't. When you log into the call data, you see every call that came in, how many, and whether they were answered or missed. I'll pull up a single office in Florida and see 60 calls in a thirty-day window, right on target for a couple arches a month. Without that view, you're guessing, and guessing is how practices convince themselves the phone is handled when half the calls are dropping. Reviewing the logs lets you catch a missed call, listen [...]

Monitoring Call Logs in Your Dental Practicejames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

How a Phone System Boosts Patient Connection

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Why does a phone system free up the front desk to connect better with patients? Because once the mechanics are automatic, your attention goes back to the human. When the front desk first learns a system, it feels stiff, like they're reading off a checklist while a real person waits on the line. But that's temporary. Once they know it cold, the structure fades into the background and they're free to actually listen, show empathy, and guide the caller to the next step. That's the opposite of robotic. The system isn't there to make you sound scripted, it's there so you [...]

How a Phone System Boosts Patient Connectionjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Tickler File Follow Up for Dental Prospects

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Is a simple tickler file good enough for following up with dental prospects? Yes, a tickler file works fine, as long as you actually go back to it on the right date. People hear follow-up system and assume they need expensive software. You don't. A tickler file can be as simple as writing the next step on the back of the patient's intake sheet and filing it under the date you'll act. An Excel sheet does the same job. So does a free CRM, which is really just a digital tickler that reminds you when to reach out. The tool matters [...]

Tickler File Follow Up for Dental Prospectsjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Capturing Patient Information From Callers Who Won’t Book

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

How do you get a caller to share their information when they won't book an appointment? Offer them something valuable enough that handing over their details feels like a fair trade. Plenty of callers aren't ready to schedule, and if you push for the appointment and get nothing, you've lost them completely. So flip it. Instead of the booking, ask for the information, and give them a reason. I use what I call a big and outrageous packet, a genuinely useful piece you mail them about their options and your practice. It's enticing enough that people willingly give up their name [...]

Capturing Patient Information From Callers Who Won’t Bookjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Three Patient Call Outcomes Every Front Desk Must Know

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

What are the three possible outcomes of a new patient phone call? Every call that you actually answer ends one of three ways, and knowing them tells you what to do next. One, a consult gets scheduled, and now you run the follow-up sequence, twice in the first month and monthly for five more. Two, no consult booked but the caller gives you their information, which means you can keep marketing to them and follow up at the right date. Three, the caller refuses to participate at all, no appointment and no information. That third one is the one that hurts, [...]

Three Patient Call Outcomes Every Front Desk Must Knowjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Implant Patient Follow Up Cadence That Wins Cases

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

How long should a dental practice follow up with a new implant prospect? Six months of real contact when they schedule, then once a year forever. Most offices do zero, which is why they leave so many cases on the table. Here's the cadence I want. When a consult gets booked, you follow up twice in the first month, then once a month for the next five. That's six months of personal touch with a patient considering a serious case. After that, they drop into an annual hopper where you reach out once a year. Big cases take time to decide, [...]

Implant Patient Follow Up Cadence That Wins Casesjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Patient Information Collection on the First Call

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

What information should the front desk collect on every new patient phone call? Get the caller's contact details and enough about their situation to follow up, and get it on the very first call. This sounds basic, and that's exactly why practices skip it and bleed money. If you don't capture who they are at the start, every downstream process is dead on arrival. You can't follow up on a name you don't have. The trick is using a system so you collect what you need while you still stay focused on the person, not fumbling for a form. Put it [...]

Patient Information Collection on the First Calljames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

What Unanswered Dental Calls Cost Your Practice

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Why do so many dental implant calls go unanswered and what does it cost the practice? Here's the brutal number. Across millions of dollars in advertising I've watched, only about 50% of calls get answered live, even in practices doing well. That means half your callers never reach a human. And of those missed calls, 80% just hang up. They don't leave a message, most never call back, because they're strangers. They saw an ad, dialed once, and moved on. They don't know you, like you, or trust you yet, so there's no reason to try twice. You paid for that [...]

What Unanswered Dental Calls Cost Your Practicejames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Recording Dental Calls to Improve Case Presentations

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Should dental practices record their phone calls and case presentations? Yes, and if you're not, you're flying blind. Recording is the single thing that turns a call into something you can actually improve. If the call lives only in memory, it's gone, and so is every chance to fix it. When the calls are recorded, you can pull up a great one and study why it worked, or pull a rough one and do feedback in the office, or hand it to a coach when you meet. Same goes for case presentations. Record yours, watch them back, critique them honestly. That's [...]

Recording Dental Calls to Improve Case Presentationsjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

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