What is an AI Phone System? A Deep Dive into the Future of Practice Management

Dental IT
5 days ago
3 min read

An AI phone system is more than just a way to answer calls; it's a revolutionary tool designed to use artificial intelligence to enhance your patient communications and streamline the management of your staff.

Let's break down exactly what an AI phone system is and where AI can make a significant impact on your daily operations.

What is an AI phone system?

Effortless Backend Management

Forget complex IVR menus and rigid pre-recorded messages. An AI system brings unprecedented flexibility.

Live Narrative Updates: Need to close for a training session? Simply type your narrative directly into the system: "we are on training today, please leave a message or call us back after 3pm". You can then choose the voice you prefer, and with a single click - boom, it's live. This dynamic approach allows you to adapt to your practice's daily needs instantly.

Unprecedented Insights into Agent Performance and Call Quality

AI gives you the tools to monitor and improve the quality of every single patient interaction, automatically.

Agent Performance Metrics: The system can get stats on whether your agent is showing key qualities like empathy and patience. It can also track whether they are using good opening and closing remarks. This feedback is generated automatically for every call, providing consistent and objective training opportunities.
Overall Tone of Calls: Understand the sentiment of your patient interactions at a glance. An AI system can present the tone of calls in a simple RAG (Red-Amber-Green) format, allowing you to immediately pick out and investigate complaints or negative experiences.
Concept Analysis and Summaries: No more listening back to entire calls. You can see in one sentence or one paragraph what the call was about, saving valuable time.
Identify High-Value Opportunities: The AI performs concept analysis to see exactly what topics people are calling about. For a specialised field like dentistry, this can automatically identify all your high-value opportunities, such as calls about implants, orthodontics, or cosmetic procedures.

Real-Time Assistance for Your Team

Support your staff while they are live on a call, ensuring they have the information they need to succeed.

Live Call Intelligence: Ever wished you could get instant context during a call? With an AI system, you can ask questions about the call when in the call!
AI Expert Assist: Integrated with platforms like Zoom Contact Centre (ZCC), the AI can help your staff handle complex calls. If the AI recognises it's a certain type of call (e.g., a nervous patient or a specific treatment query), it can give the staff automatic knowledge prompts- an "AI expert assist" to guide them through the conversation.
Smarter Call Transfers: When a call needs to be transferred, the system can get a summary for the receiving agent. This ensures they know what the call was about so far, creating a seamless experience for the patient.

Streamlined Investigations and Training

AI provides a clear and objective record for post-call analysis.

Summaries and Transcripts: For handling complaints, training, or investigations, having instant access to full call summaries and transcripts is invaluable. This creates an accurate record and helps identify areas for improvement.

The Ultimate Evolution: The AI Voice Agent

Finally, the pinnacle of AI phone technology is the ability to have the entire call handled by a sophisticated voice agent.

Full Automation: Imagine your patients being able to make or change appointments and handle other routine queries entirely without a human at all! This frees up your front-desk staff from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on in-person patient care and more complex responsibilities.