If you're a dental practice owner or office manager, you already know the frustrating reality: your phone rings during lunch, after hours, or when your front desk is buried helping patients check out. Those calls go to voicemail. And most patients? They don't leave detailed messages—they just call the next dentist on Google.

Each missed call represents roughly $450 in lost revenue. Miss 10 calls weekly, and you're losing over $200,000 annually to competitors who simply answered faster.

The Real Problem Isn't Your Front Desk—It's the Coverage Gaps

Your front desk team is doing their best. But they can't be in two places at once. When three patients need checkout help simultaneously and the phone rings, someone loses. Usually, it's the potential new patient on the other end.

The coverage gaps are predictable:

• Lunch rush (12-1 PM): Staff takes lunch in shifts, but calls still pile up

• After hours (5-7 PM): Working parents call after picking up kids from school

• Weekends: Emergency toothaches and broken crowns don't wait for Monday

• Peak check-in/checkout times: Front desk is physically occupied with in-office patients

These aren't failures—they're physics. One person can't answer a phone while processing a payment and checking insurance simultaneously.

What RelayAI Actually Does (In Plain English)

RelayAI captures every missed call and turns it into an organized Bookable Patient Request (BPR) that appears in your Spruce Health dashboard. Your team books the appointment in about 2 minutes instead of 15 minutes of phone tag.

Here's exactly what happens:

When You Miss a Call:

Option 1: Text Capture ($299/month base)

1. Patient calls, gets voicemail

2. Within 10 seconds, they receive an auto-text: "Hi! We missed your call at Smith Family Dental. Are you a: 1) New patient 2) Existing patient? Reply 1 or 2"

3. Patient replies, system collects: name, date of birth, reason for visit, insurance, preferred appointment time

4. Complete booking request appears in your Spruce dashboard with all information needed

Option 2: Voice + Text ($399/month base)

1. Patient calls, AI answers: "Thank you for calling Smith Family Dental. We're currently with patients, but I can help you schedule. Are you a new or existing patient?"

2. AI has natural conversation, collects: name, DOB, reason, insurance, preferred time

3. If patient prefers texting instead, system seamlessly switches to SMS

4. Complete booking request appears in Spruce dashboard

What Your Team Sees:

Instead of a vague voicemail like "Uh, hi, I think I broke a crown..."

You get an organized booking request:

📅 NEW PATIENT REQUEST
Name: Sarah Johnson
DOB: 05/15/1985
Phone: (555) 123-4567
Reason: Broken crown, pain level 7/10
Insurance: Delta Dental PPO
Preferred Time: Tomorrow AM or ASAP
Status: [Ready to Book]

Your front desk team member clicks "assign to me," calls Sarah once with all the information, books her for tomorrow morning, and marks it complete. Total time: 2 minutes.

Why This Works Better Than Just "Answering the Phone Better"

You're not replacing your front desk—you're eliminating the coverage gaps that cost you $200,000+ annually.

The Math That Matters:

Scenario: 100 missed calls per month

• 100 calls captured by RelayAI

• 70 complete booking requests delivered (70% completion rate)

• 35 patients book appointments (50% booking rate)

• 28 patients actually show (80% show rate)

• 28 visits × $450 average = $12,600 in captured revenue

Your investment:

• $299 base (Text) or $399 (Voice + Text)

• $49 per additional Spruce seat (most practices use 2-3 seats total)

• $15 per completed dental BPR

• Total bill for 70 BPRs: approximately $1,600-1,800

ROI: 7× your investment

And here's the guarantee: if your month-end pipeline from BPRs isn't at least 3× your bill, we adjust the bill so it is. You literally can't lose.

"But We Could've Gotten Those Patients Anyway"

This is the most common objection, and it's fair. Here's the reality:

Without RelayAI:

1. Patient leaves vague voicemail (50% don't leave one at all)

2. Front desk finds it 2-4 hours later

3. Calls back, gets voicemail

4. Phone tag continues

5. 40% of patients give up and call another dentist

6. You eventually book 60% of the ones who persisted

7. Total time invested: 10-15 minutes per patient

With RelayAI:

1. Patient gets immediate response (within 10 seconds)

2. Complete information collected while motivation is high

3. Front desk calls once with all details, books in 2 minutes

4. 70% booking rate because information is complete

5. Patients feel taken care of, not forgotten

The difference:

• Speed = fewer patients abandon to call competitors

• Complete information = fewer callback attempts needed

• Time savings = 100 BPRs × 13 minutes saved = 21.7 hours monthly (~$540 at $25/hour)

Even if you captured the same number of patients (which you won't—faster response captures more), you're saving 20+ hours monthly on phone tag.

What Dental Practices Actually Say

Dr. Martinez, General Dentistry (San Diego): "We were skeptical about the 'we could've gotten them anyway' thing. But in month one, we got 83 booking requests. Our front desk said at least 20-30 of those were people who never left voicemails before. And the time savings is real—Sarah used to spend 90 minutes daily on voicemail callback. Now it's maybe 20 minutes."

Dr. Patel, Multi-Location Practice (Phoenix): "The after-hours capture was the game-changer. We were missing 15-20 calls weekly between 5-8 PM. Those are working parents who can't call during the day. First month we captured $8,400 in after-hours booking requests alone. System paid for itself in week two."

Dr. Chen, Cosmetic Dentistry (Austin): "The organized workflow in Spruce changed everything. Before, we had voicemails, emails, texts all scattered. Now everything's in one place with assignment and status. The BPRs are so complete that booking takes 2 minutes instead of three callbacks trying to get insurance info."

Common Questions from Dental Practice Owners

"Why do I need to pay per seat?"

Each person who views, assigns, or responds to booking requests needs their own Spruce login for accountability and collaboration. Most dental practices use 2-4 seats total:

• Front desk lead

• Office manager

• Backup receptionist

• Treatment coordinator (for larger practices)

You're paying exactly what Spruce charges ($49/user) with no markup. You can add or remove seats monthly as needs change.

"What exactly counts as a billable BPR?"

A billable BPR includes: name, callback number, reason, preferred time, new/existing patient status, and insurance (if new).

Not billable: spam calls, wrong numbers, hang-ups under 10 seconds, vendor calls, duplicate inquiries within 72 hours, or any response missing callback number.

You only pay for complete booking requests your team can actually action.

"Can't we just use our existing answering service?"

Traditional answering services cost $500-1,000/month and deliver vague messages like "Patient called about appointment, please call back." Your front desk still plays phone tag for 10-15 minutes.

RelayAI costs $1,600-1,800 for 100 complete booking requests ($16-18 per request) and delivers organized information your team can book in 2 minutes. Plus the 3× ROI guarantee.

Most practices replacing answering services save money AND capture more revenue.

"What if we already have Spruce?"

Perfect! Setup is even faster. We configure the automation in your existing Spruce workspace and add our admin seat to manage the call flows. Your team keeps using Spruce exactly as they do now—organized booking requests just start appearing.

"How long until we're live?"

• Text Capture: 7-10 days

• Voice + Text: 10-14 days

No integration with your practice management software required (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, etc.). You book appointments in your existing system exactly as you do today.

Text Capture vs. Voice + Text: Which One?

Choose Text Capture if:

• You have solid coverage during business hours

• You just want to capture overflow (lunch, after-hours, peak times)

• Your patients are comfortable texting

• Budget is primary concern

• You want your team to maintain full scheduling control

Choose Voice + Text if:

• You get urgent after-hours emergencies (broken teeth, severe pain)

• You have older patients less comfortable with texting

• You need bilingual support (English/Spanish)

• You want AI to handle complex questions before escalating

• You're currently paying $500+ for an answering service

Not sure? Start with Text Capture. You can add Voice capabilities anytime if you discover urgent coverage needs.

How to Get Started: The Risk-Free Pilot

Text Capture Pilot:

• Duration: 30 days (single location) or 60 days (multi-location)

• Cost: Base fee waived—pay only $15 per dental BPR delivered

• Guarantee: If captured revenue isn't 3× your bill, we true up

• Setup: 7-10 days to go live

• What you get: Full system, Spruce organization, team training

• After pilot: Convert to $299/month base + $15/BPR, or walk away

Voice + Text Pilot:

• Duration: 60 days (gives you time to track which patients book and show)

• Cost: Base fee waived—pay only $20 per dental BPR delivered

• Guarantee: If captured revenue isn't 3× your bill, we true up

• Setup: 10-14 days to go live

• What you get: AI voice answering, text fallback, Spruce organization, team training

• After pilot: Convert to $399/month base + $20/BPR, or walk away

The Bottom Line for Dental Practices

You're losing $200,000+ annually to missed calls. Not because your front desk is failing—because coverage gaps are inevitable when humans are helping in-office patients.

RelayAI captures those missed opportunities and delivers organized booking requests your team can action in 2 minutes. You pay only for completed requests (not spam or wrong numbers), and we guarantee 3× ROI or adjust your bill.

The question isn't whether this works—the math is straightforward and the technology is proven. The question is whether you implement before your competitors capture the patients you're currently missing.

Next Steps:

1. Calculate your missed call cost: How many calls go to voicemail daily? Multiply by $450 × 22 working days. That's your monthly opportunity.

2. Start a pilot: 30-60 days, base fee waived, pay only for booking requests delivered. Zero risk.

3. Track results: Month-end, we show you exactly how many booking requests were captured and their estimated revenue value.

4. Scale or walk away: If the ROI isn't there, we true up your bill or you cancel. If it is (and it will be), you've just solved a $200,000/year problem for $20,000/year.

Ready to stop losing patients to voicemail?

Schedule a 10-minute demo or Start your risk-free pilot