Phone Systems for Dental Practices

Feature by feature: why SwitchboardFREE works for dental practices

Every SwitchboardFREE account comes with over 40 features. These are the ones that make the biggest difference to dental practices, and why.

Call queuing

At 8am, patients with toothache, patients wanting a check-up and people trying to register all ring at once. Call queuing holds them with music instead of an engaged tone, so they wait for the next free receptionist rather than hanging up and trying another practice.

Queue position announcements

A patient who hears "you are number three in the queue" knows the wait is worth it. Telling callers their place in line keeps them on the phone through the morning rush, so fewer people hang up and redial and add to the pile.

DepartmentsStandard & Unlimited plans

Not every call at 8am is equally urgent. With departments, "press 1 for dental pain or an emergency, press 2 to book or change an appointment, press 3 to join as a new patient" lets emergencies ring every receptionist while routine bookings queue.

Ring groups

Rather than one receptionist taking every call while others are free, ring groups ring every desk phone or headset at once, so the first free person answers. Practices with a dedicated triage phone can ring it first for emergency calls.

Open and close times

Calls before you open or after you close hear your hours and, for NHS patients in England, a reminder that urgent dental care out of hours is available through NHS 111. Set your open and close times once, and close the lines from the app if the practice shuts early.

Voicemail to email

Messages left at lunchtime or after hours, from cancellations to new patient enquiries, arrive by email with a written transcript. The morning team can read them before the phones open and fill a cancelled slot first thing.

Music on holdStandard & Unlimited plans

Patients waiting in the queue, or held while reception checks the appointment book, hear music on hold rather than silence. A calm wait feels shorter and reassures an anxious patient that they are still connected.

Time-of-day routing

Late opening evenings, Saturday clinics and lunchtime closures each need different call handling. Time-of-day routing changes it automatically by time and day, so nobody has to remember to switch the phones over.

Divert calls to your mobile

When the practice manager is at another site or working from home, calls can still ring the SwitchboardFREE app on their mobile or be diverted to any UK mobile. If the surgery has to close for the day, patient calls can follow the team to their mobiles.

Custom greetings

If the practice has to close unexpectedly because of a burst pipe or staff illness, record a new message on the app and it goes live straight away. Custom greetings can also explain how emergency appointments work, with professional voice artist recordings available as a paid extra.

Call recordingPaid add-on

Complaints, treatment discussions and disputes over missed appointment fees can come down to what was said on the phone. The call recording add-on records all or some calls, so you can play back and download a call if a patient's account differs from reception's.

Unlimited UK callsIncluded on Unlimited

Reception spends the afternoon ringing patients about cancellations, recalls and treatment plans. The Unlimited plan includes unlimited UK calls (fair use applies), so recall calls do not run down a minutes allowance.

Dental answering servicePaid add-on

On the busiest mornings, or when a receptionist is off sick, the Telephone Answering Service can take the calls your team cannot. Trained receptionists answer in the practice's name and email you each patient's name, number and reason for calling, so you can ring back and fill the diary. You pay only for the calls they answer.