We go through how your front desk really runs: the calls nobody could answer, the recall list that never gets worked, the treatment plans that go quiet. Then we tell you which of it is worth handing to AI, and in what order. Nothing clinical.
Most principals already know the phone and the recall list are costing them money. What they are missing is someone who will look at their own numbers and say which of the two to fix first.
So it went unanswered, and whoever was calling rang the practice down the road instead. It happens several times a day, nobody logs it, and it never shows up in any report you look at.
There is a voice agent in every dental email you get. It might well be the right answer. But nobody has looked at your practice to check whether the calls, the recalls, the plan admin or the treatment follow-ups are actually where your money is leaking.
A general chatbot pointed at a dental inbox will start answering questions about pain, treatment and suitability, which is not a time saving but a patient safety problem with a friendly tone.
None of that is a technology problem. It is a question of which job goes first, and that is the bit we do.
These come up in nearly every practice audit we run, and all of them sit on the admin side of the line. Which lands in your plan, and in what order, depends on your list, your private and NHS mix, and the software you already work in.
The recall list is worked when reception has a quiet ten minutes, which is never, so the list grows.
Contacts everyone due on the channel they actually answer, offers real appointments, books what it can, and hands reception a short list of the rest.
Anyone who replies with a problem rather than a preference goes straight to a person.
Calls go unanswered while reception is with a patient, and nobody knows who they were.
Captures the caller, takes the reason in their own words, offers a booking where it is clearly routine, and logs everything so you can see the pattern.
Anything urgent or in pain is routed to a person immediately and never answered by a machine.
A gap appears at 2pm and someone tries to fill it by ringing down a list between patients.
Offers the slot to the right patients in order, first come first served, and closes the gap without anyone dialling.
Who belongs on the priority list in the first place.
A plan is presented, the patient goes away to think, and nobody follows up because everyone is busy.
Runs your own follow-up sequence, answers the practical questions about timing and payment options, and books the return visit.
Every clinical question, and any conversation about whether the treatment is right.
Enquiries arrive by phone, web form and social media, and the slow replies are the ones that go elsewhere.
Answers the routine questions about availability, location and what to expect, collects the details, and books the first appointment.
Anything about symptoms, suitability or cost of clinical work. Those go to a person.
Somebody does not turn up, and the rebooking happens if anyone remembers.
Follows up the same day, rebooks, and flags the patients who are doing it repeatedly.
The conversation about repeat non-attendance and your policy.
Plan sign-ups, failed payments and lapses handled by hand between patients.
Handles the sign-up paperwork, spots the failed payment, and runs your own recovery sequence.
Anything that means taking a patient off the plan. That is a conversation, not a cancellation.
Medical history forms filled in on a clipboard in the waiting room, then typed up afterwards.
Sends the forms before the visit, chases the ones not returned, and files the responses against the record.
The clinician reviews every medical history. Nothing summarises it away.
You ask for reviews when you remember, which is rarely when the patient is most pleased.
Asks at the right moment after the right kind of appointment, and routes unhappy responses to you privately first.
Any complaint. Immediately, and to a named person.
You suspect the missed calls and the unworked recall list are costing you, but there is no number attached to it.
Reports what came in, what got answered, what got booked and what did not, so the gaps are visible.
What you do with the numbers once you can see them. That is a business decision.
Nobody starts with ten. A plan usually puts two live in the first month and leaves the rest ranked and waiting, so when you have the appetite for the next one you already know which it is.
Most of the job is joining up the software already sitting on the front desk rather than replacing it. These are the ones we come across most, and we have no affiliation with any of them.
Three steps. You do the talking on the first one, and nothing is committed until you have seen what we found.
No prep, no agenda to fill in. We ask the questions and you walk us through how your week actually runs: the jobs, the tools, the emails you send a dozen times a month.
Recorded and written up, so you never repeat yourself.
We work back through the call and map where your time actually goes. Then we find the automations that suit your tools, your team and your budget, ordered so the biggest time saving comes first.
Back with you within a week.
We walk you through the whole report, recommendation by recommendation, and you decide what to take on first. Most people have their first automation running within a week of that call.
The report is yours to keep either way.
The plan tells you what to build. The dashboard shows you what it is doing once it is built, so you can see what you are getting back without asking us.
Set up when the plan is delivered, at app.fewerhours.com under your business name. No shared login and nothing to install.
Every one we build reports the hours it saved and the work it handled, so the value is a number you can check rather than a promise we made.
The rest of the ranked list sits there waiting. When you have the appetite for the next one, you already know which it is.
This works best where the principal still knows the diary by sight. There are a few cases where it would waste your time, and those are worth saying out loud.
Fewer Hours exists because too many owners knew AI could help them somewhere and had no way of telling a good idea from a sales pitch. The plan is the boring part done properly: sitting with the real workflow and working out which jobs are worth handing over.
Whoever takes your call is the person who writes your plan. No account manager, no junior doing the analysis, and nobody trying to move you onto a retainer at the end of it.
Three steps, and you can stop after any of them. The first one is a conversation, and nothing about it commits you to the next.
A short chat about how your business runs. If there’s nothing here worth mapping, we’ll say so on the call.
The full job. We map the workflows, score every candidate, and hand over the ranked list and the 30-day plan.
If you’d rather we built the projects than just planned them, we’ll do the ones the audit put first. Anything from a quick win to a full agent build.
If there are fewer than five of you and admin takes about an hour a day, there probably isn’t enough here to be worth mapping, and we’ll say so. If you already know exactly which job you want automated, skip the audit and just ask us to build it. And if your processes only exist in your head, we’ll tell you to go and write them down first.
If yours is not here, ask on the call. It is twenty minutes about how the practice runs, not a pitch.
No. Nothing in the plan touches diagnosis, treatment, triage of symptoms or clinical advice, and anything that sounds like pain or urgency is routed to a person rather than answered. The line is drawn in writing, job by job.
Every recommendation states what data it touches and where that data ends up. Keeping patient data inside systems you already control is the default, and anything that would move it somewhere new is flagged, with the alternative, before it reaches the plan. Special category data gets the most cautious option available.
The CQC's guidance sets out principles rather than prohibitions, and expects providers to govern their use: documented rules on data handling, accuracy, human oversight and disclosure. The plan gives you that documentation as part of the deliverable rather than leaving you to write it afterwards.
It might be, and some of them are good. But it is one answer to one problem, and we would rather look before buying. Sometimes the recall list or the treatment plan follow-up is worth more than the phone, and you would never know without checking.
Yes. Anything automated that talks to a patient says so at the start, and the plan treats that as non-negotiable rather than a setting. Practices that hide it get found out and it costs them more than the automation saved.
Usually yes, because recalls and reminders repeat on a schedule regardless of size, and a small reception team feels missed calls more sharply. If you are fully NHS with a closed list, there may be less in it, and we will say so.
The plan lands about two weeks after the call. Most practices have the first automation live within a week of that, because the first one is usually recalls or reminders and neither needs anyone to change software.
Either. The plan is yours to take to anyone, including whoever supports your practice software. If you would rather we set up the first two, that is a separate job and you decide after you have read the plan.
The call takes twenty minutes and it is about how the practice runs, not about software. The plan lands about two weeks later.