You're mid-procedure. Hands gloved. Phone's ringing. You let it go to voicemail.
By the time you finish, clean up, and check your messages? They've already booked with the practice down the street. Most callers who reach voicemail call a competitor within 15 minutes. They don't wait. They don't call back. They just move on.
Now multiply that by a typical week. Your practice gets 80-120 calls: new patient inquiries, recall reminders, insurance verification, urgent appointments. A third of those calls go unanswered during procedures. That's 25-40 missed opportunities per week. At a $350 average new patient value, you're bleeding $40K-60K annually just in scheduling friction.