Let me paint you a picture of a Tuesday afternoon at your practice.

Phone’s ringing. Your front desk person is checking in a patient. Another patient’s asking about their glasses order. The optical assistant just walked over with an insurance question. Phone’s still ringing.

It goes to voicemail.

The person calling was a new patient who found you on Google. They’d never called an optometrist before—their old one retired. They were going to ask about insurance and maybe schedule a comprehensive exam.

Instead, they heard “Please leave a message” and hung up. Called the next practice on their list. Got a human. Booked an appointment.

That patient—and every exam, pair of glasses, and referral that would have followed—just walked out your door. And you have no idea it happened.

The Math On Missed Calls

Most eye care practices answer somewhere between 55-70% of incoming calls during business hours. That’s considered “good” in the industry, which tells you something about how low the bar is.

Let’s do the math on what that costs you.

Say you get 50 calls a day. At 60% answer rate, 20 calls go to voicemail daily. Maybe half of those leave messages—so 10 voicemails per day that someone has to call back (if they have time). The other 10? Gone.

Of those 10 lost calls, assume 3 were potential new patients (the rest might be existing patients who’ll call back, vendors, etc.). That’s 3 new patients per day you didn’t capture.

At an average lifetime value of $800-1,200 per patient in optometry, you’re looking at $2,400-3,600 walking out the door. Every single day.

This math is why missed calls are one of the biggest revenue leaks in healthcare. It’s invisible—you never see the patients you didn’t get—but it’s very real.

What A Call Center Actually Does

When I say “call center,” I don’t mean a warehouse of bored people reading scripts. I’m talking about trained professionals who become an extension of your practice.

Here’s what good medical answering service support looks like:

Every call gets answered. Not “97% of calls”—every call. During business hours, after hours, during lunch when your staff is eating in the break room. The phone never rings to voicemail.

Callers talk to someone who knows your practice. Not a generic operator who’s juggling 50 different clients. Someone trained on your specific systems, your specific services, your specific insurance policies.

Appointments get scheduled in real-time. Caller wants an appointment? They get one. On the first call. No “let me take your number and call you back” (which we all know means 50% of those callbacks never happen).

Emergencies get triaged properly. Someone calling about sudden flashes and floaters doesn’t get treated the same as someone asking about reading glasses. Trained agents know the difference.

Your in-office team can focus. When phones aren’t constantly interrupting, your front desk can actually help the patients standing in front of them. Quality of in-person interactions goes up.

Why Your Front Desk Can’t Do This Alone

I’m not criticizing front desk staff. They’re usually hardworking people trying to do an impossible job.

The problem is structural. One or two people cannot simultaneously:

Something has to give. Usually it’s the phones, because there’s no angry patient standing in front of them when a call goes to voicemail. The in-person stuff feels more urgent.

But here’s the thing: your front desk’s primary job should be patient experience—the people who are physically in your practice. That’s where their attention should be. The phones need dedicated coverage, not leftover attention.

The Hidden Benefit: Data

When you have consistent call handling, you start getting data you’ve never had before.

How many calls are you actually getting? (Most practices have no idea.)

What times are busiest?

What percentage convert to appointments?

What questions are people asking most often?

What’s the most common reason for cancellations?

This information is gold. It tells you where your marketing is working, where your scheduling could improve, what FAQs you should put on your website, and a hundred other operational insights.

Without consistent call management, you’re just guessing about all of this.

What We Do Differently

At My Business Care Team, we specialize in eye care. That’s not a nice-to-have—it’s the whole point.

Our agents know what a comprehensive eye exam covers. They know the difference between ophthalmology and optometry. They can explain insurance benefits for medical visits versus routine vision. They understand why someone describing flashes needs to be seen today, not next week.

They’re trained on your specific EHR and scheduling system. When they book an appointment, it shows up in your schedule immediately. When they document a call, your team can see exactly what was discussed.

And they don’t just answer calls—they convert them. Our training emphasizes patient engagement, not just polite handling. The goal is to get callers scheduled, not just to be pleasant while they decide to call someone else.

Getting Started

If your phones are ringing to voicemail, if your front desk is drowning, if you’re pretty sure you’re losing patients but don’t know how many—it’s worth having a conversation.

We can look at your call volume, your current answer rates, and your scheduling patterns. We can show you exactly what you’re losing and what consistent call coverage would look like.

No commitment required. Just data.

We’ve helped optometry practices achieve remarkable results - see how one practice reached a 95% answer rate. Schedule a discovery call and let’s see if this makes sense for your practice.

Need help managing your practice’s calls and scheduling? Book a discovery call to learn how MyBCAT can help.