By Jill Allen | Hey Docs! Podcast with Richard May of Mango Voice
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The phone is still one of the most important communication tools in an orthodontic practice.
It is where new patients make their first connection with the office, parents ask questions, appointments get scheduled, concerns are addressed, and countless details are exchanged every day.
But the way practices manage those conversations is changing.
In this episode of the Hey Docs! Podcast, Jill Allen sits down with Richard May, VP of Business Development at Mango Voice, to discuss how artificial intelligence is beginning to change phone communication and what that could mean for orthodontic practices.
From AI receptionists and automated call summaries to sentiment analysis and call scoring, new technology is giving practices the ability to do more than simply answer the phone.
It is creating an opportunity to better understand what is happening during those conversations and identify ways to improve them.
It is easy to think of a phone system as infrastructure.
It rings. Someone answers. The call gets transferred. The job is done.
But from the patient's perspective, the phone system is part of the practice experience.
Think about the new patient calling your office for the first time.
How quickly is the call answered? What happens if no one is available? Does the caller get the information they need? Is the conversation welcoming? Does someone follow up if an appointment is not scheduled?
Those moments matter because patients are evaluating the practice long before they meet the orthodontist.
Communication technology cannot replace a great patient experience, but it can help remove some of the friction that gets in the way of creating one.
JA&A Insight: Every communication system in your practice should be evaluated from the patient's perspective. The question is not simply whether it works. The question is whether it makes interacting with your practice easier.
A phone conversation rarely ends when someone hangs up.
There may be notes to document, information to enter into the practice management system, follow-up tasks to assign, or details another team member needs to know.
That administrative work adds up.
Richard discusses how AI-powered note-taking can automatically capture and summarize phone conversations, reducing the amount of manual documentation required from the team.
For an orthodontic practice, the potential value is not simply saving a few minutes on one call.
It is what happens when you multiply those minutes across every call, every day, throughout the year.
Reducing repetitive administrative work can give team members more time to focus on responsibilities that require their judgment, attention, and personal connection.
It can also create more consistency in documentation by reducing the chance that important information gets lost between the conversation and the patient record.
Not every practice has the ability to answer every phone call immediately.
The front desk may be helping a patient, checking someone in, handling another call, or managing one of the dozens of other responsibilities competing for attention.
But the caller does not necessarily know that.
They only know that no one answered.
AI receptionists are emerging as another option for helping practices manage those moments.
Richard discusses Mango Voice's AI receptionist, Margo, which is designed to interact with callers when the team cannot.
The broader opportunity for orthodontic practices is worth considering.
If technology can answer basic questions, capture information, assist with routine requests, or help move a caller toward the appropriate next step, the practice may be able to reduce missed opportunities without requiring the team to be available every second of the day.
That does not mean every patient conversation should be automated.
The goal is to determine where automation makes the experience easier and where a human interaction creates greater value.
One of the more interesting opportunities with AI may not be answering calls at all.
It may be learning from them.
Most practices know how many calls they receive, but that number alone tells you very little.
What happened during those conversations?
Did the new patient schedule?
Was the caller frustrated?
Did the team member answer the question clearly?
Were there recurring concerns or objections?
Are some team members consistently creating stronger patient interactions than others?
Tools such as call scoring, transcription, and sentiment analysis can potentially give practice leaders more visibility into the quality of phone conversations.
That creates an opportunity to move from assumptions to actual information.
Instead of telling the team to "answer the phone better," leaders can identify specific patterns and coach around real conversations.
JA&A Insight: Data is most valuable when it changes behavior. Call analytics should not become another dashboard no one reviews. Use the information to identify patterns, coach your team, and improve the patient experience.
AI can provide information, but it cannot create a strong communication culture on its own.
A practice may have detailed call analytics and still need to teach team members how to listen, respond to concerns, explain next steps, and create connection.
In fact, better data may make training even more valuable.
If a practice can identify where calls are breaking down, leaders can create more targeted coaching.
Maybe the team is answering calls quickly but struggling to convert inquiries into consultations.
Maybe callers are repeatedly asking questions that suggest the website or pre-appointment communication is unclear.
Maybe one team member consistently receives stronger call scores, creating an opportunity to identify what that person is doing differently and train the rest of the team.
Technology can help uncover the opportunity.
Leadership still has to do something with it.
Orthodontic practices already use a significant amount of technology.
Adding another system is only helpful if it improves the workflow rather than creating another place for the team to log in, enter information, or search for answers.
That is why integration matters.
Richard discusses the ability for communication technology to connect with practice management systems so call information and summaries can become part of the existing patient workflow.
That should be an important consideration whenever practices evaluate new AI tools.
Ask where the information goes after the technology creates it.
Does someone still have to manually move it?
Does the tool communicate with the systems your team already uses?
Does it eliminate steps or add them?
Does it make the workflow simpler for the team?
A technology may have impressive capabilities, but if it creates more administrative work than it eliminates, the practice may not realize the intended benefit.
The conversation around AI can quickly become focused on what the technology can do.
Practice owners should remain focused on what they actually need it to do.
Start with the problem.
Are too many calls going unanswered?
Is the front desk overwhelmed?
Is documentation inconsistent?
Does leadership lack visibility into new patient calls?
Are team members spending too much time on repetitive administrative work?
Once the problem is clear, then evaluate whether AI can help solve it.
This prevents practices from adopting technology simply because it is new.
JA&A Insight: Do not start with the technology. Start with the bottleneck. The best technology investments solve a defined practice problem and create measurable improvement.
As AI becomes more capable, orthodontic practices will have more opportunities to automate routine communication.
But automation also makes it increasingly important to understand which interactions should remain human.
A patient asking a basic scheduling question may appreciate an immediate automated response.
A nervous parent trying to understand a complicated treatment recommendation may need something very different.
Efficiency and connection are not opposing goals.
The opportunity is to use technology to handle the work that does not require a person so your team has more capacity for the interactions that do.
AI may become increasingly sophisticated, but patients will still remember how your practice made them feel.
The strongest communication strategy will likely combine the efficiency of technology with the empathy, judgment, and relationships only people can provide.
AI can help orthodontic practices manage repetitive communication tasks, summarize phone conversations, analyze calls, assist with routine patient inquiries, and reduce administrative work. This can give team members more time to focus on patient interactions that require personal attention.
An AI receptionist is technology designed to interact with callers and assist with certain routine phone tasks when a team member is unavailable. Depending on the system, it may answer common questions, collect information, route calls, or help callers take the next step.
Some AI-powered communication systems can record, transcribe, and summarize phone conversations. When integrated appropriately with a practice's existing systems, these tools may reduce the amount of manual documentation required after patient calls.
Call analytics can give practice leaders greater visibility into what happens during patient conversations. Information such as call scoring, transcription, and sentiment analysis can help identify communication patterns, training opportunities, missed opportunities, and areas where the patient experience could improve.
AI can automate or support certain repetitive communication and administrative tasks, but many patient interactions still require human judgment, empathy, problem-solving, and relationship-building. Practices can use AI to create capacity for their teams rather than viewing it solely as a replacement for people.
Practices should first identify the communication problem they are trying to solve. They should then evaluate reliability, integration with existing systems, workflow impact, team training needs, patient experience, and how the technology will help the practice measure or improve results.
AI is going to continue changing the way orthodontic practices communicate.
The opportunity is not to automate every conversation simply because the technology makes it possible.
It is to become more intentional about communication.
Where can technology remove repetitive work? Where can it prevent missed opportunities? Where can better data help your team improve? And where does a patient still need a person on the other end of the conversation?
The practices that get the most value from AI will likely be the ones that answer those questions first.
Because ultimately, better technology should not make your practice feel less human.
It should give your team more time and capacity to be human where it matters most.