Dental Care Alliance Achieves 10.8x ROI—And Patients Are Asking to Give 'Katie' a Pay Raise

"Katie Needs a Raise"ʼ

When patients start advocating for your AI assistant's compensation, something is working. For Dental Care Alliance - one of the largest dental service organizations in the country - this moment captured what made their Resonate AI deployment different: technology that patients genuinely enjoy interacting with. It's also why DCA is expanding Resonate AI to additional practices across their network.

The Organization

Dental Care Alliance operates 400+ dental practices nationwide, with a central focus on operational excellence and patient access. Like any large DSO, they faced a math problem: thousands of incoming calls across dozens of locations, finite front desk capacity, and no scalable way to ensure every patient inquiry received a timely response.


The question wasn't whether calls were being missed. It was how many - and what that was costing them.

The Gap They Needed to Fill

At enterprise scale, the patient access challenge compounds:

• Demand Slipping Through the Cracks: Missed calls and after-hours inquiries disappeared into voicemail, requiring manual follow-up that often came too late
• The Menu Problem: Traditional phone systems meant patients navigating long-winded prompts and multi-layer menus before reaching anyone - or giving up entirely
• Inconsistent Follow-Up: With varying staffing levels and workflows across locations, there was no standardized way to recapture missed opportunities
• No Visibility: Leadership couldn't see what was actually happening with missed calls - how many patients they were losing, where the breakdowns occurred, or how to fix them

"Resonate AI has helped us capture patient demand that was previously slipping through the cracks - especially missed calls and after-hours outreach - without adding pressure to our front desk teams."

- Erica W., Senior Director of Schedule Optimization

The Solution at Scale

Dental Care Alliance deployed Resonate AI, implementing an intelligent patient engagement platform that transformed how they handle missed opportunities:

• Instant, Human-Like Response: When calls go unanswered, patients receive immediate text engagement - no menus, no hold times, no friction
• Direct Scheduling Integration: AI books appointments directly into practice management system Denticon, not just captures information
• Enterprise Visibility: Real-time dashboards showing missed call recovery, conversion rates, and booking patterns across all locations
• Seamless Escalation: Complex cases handed off with full context, enabling staff to close efficiently
• After-Hours Coverage: Patient demand captured around the clock without extending staff hours

30-Day Results: 15 Practices

The Acceleration: New patient bookings jumped 61%. The system got better as it scaled.

The Automation Story: Two-thirds of all appointments were booked entirely by AI - no staff involvement required. The remaining 36% came from escalations where AI gathered information and staff closed the booking for complex treatments like Consults and Restorative procedures, typically best handled by staff.

ROI based on new patient revenue only; excludes existing patient appointments, future revenue from acquired patients, and operational efficiency gains.

What DSO Leadership Says

The Calculator Analogy

When colleagues express nervousness about AI in healthcare settings, Joel O. offers perspective:

"AI is doing what calculators did for accountants. It's increasing their ability to do more and with greater accuracy. It’s not perfect - but statistically it is better than humans."

- Joel O., Chief Information and Security Officer

The data supports this: 2,520 patient conversations handled in 30 days that would have otherwise required staff time - or gone unanswered entirely. Front desk teams stayed focused on patients in the office while AI managed the overflow.

It Extends the Team, Not Replaces It

The most common concern about AI in dental practices is patient experience. Will it feel cold? Will patients disengage?

"Like most people I had concerns about utilizing AI because of the potential impact on patient experience. From the start, we were intentional about finding a system that engages patients in a human-like way—one that makes them feel comfortable sharing information and confident they are receiving a thoughtful, responsive interaction. When implemented correctly, it functions as an extension of the office, supporting staff rather than replacing them."

- Erica W., Senior Director of Schedule Optimization

"Resonate AI doesn’t replace your team—it extends it. The strongest results come when it’s treated as a core component of the patient access strategy and aligned with how schedules and workflows are actually built"

- Erica W., Senior Director of Schedule Optimization

The proof: patients requesting pay raises for "Katie."

Enterprise Deployment Without Enterprise Headaches

Rolling out new software across 15 locations typically means months of implementation, extensive training, and workflow disruption. This was different.

The Numbers That Get Attention

"The most meaningful metric for us is recovered lost opportunities. When teams can clearly see how many appointments are being added to the schedule without additional manual effort, the impact and value become immediately apparent."

- Erica W., Senior Director of Schedule Optimization

For Joel, the metric that matters most is straightforward: "The conversion rate of the missed calls into actual scheduled production."

What This Means for DSOs

Scale doesn't have to mean complexity. Deploying across 15 practices delivered consistent results without proportional implementation burden. The platform adapted to each location's workflows while maintaining enterprise-wide visibility.

Automation rates can exceed expectations. 64% of appointments booked without staff involvement means front desk teams handle fewer callbacks and more in-person patient care.

Visibility changes everything. When you can see where demand is leaking and how recovery is performing, you can actually fix problems instead of guessing at solutions.

Patient experience improves, not suffers. Clear, concise, human-like interactions beat phone trees and voicemail every time. Patients notice the difference - and appreciate it.

Already Recommending to Peers

"The most meaningful metric for us is recovered lost opportunities. When teams can clearly see how many appointments are being added to the schedule without additional manual effort, the impact and value become immediately apparent."

- Erica W., Senior Director of Schedule Optimization

The Bottom Line

Dental Care Alliance set out to solve a specific problem: capture the patient demand that was slipping through the cracks. They've proven it works at scale and are now rapidly expanding to more of their locations - with patients so satisfied they're requesting raises for their AI assistant. That is why they are expanding Resonate AI to more locations.

"Missed calls and delayed follow-up were significant stress points for both patients and staff. Knowing that patients are acknowledged immediately—even during peak times or after hours—reassures patients that their needs matter, reduces frustration, and creates a more positive, consistent experience, while also easing the operational burden on our teams”

- Erica W., Senior Director of Schedule Optimization

Managing patient access across multiple locations? See how Resonate AI turns missed calls into booked appointments - at scale, without adding staff burden.