Liza Choa
Quick answer
Do dental patients book their own appointments after hours?
Yes. At 1 Melbourne practice, 46 bookings came through the website booking form in 30 days, carrying $248,400 of treatment. 30 of the 46, which is 65.2%, were made outside 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Booking form enquiries ended up booked in 63.0% of the time, against 26.3% for every other channel.
At 5:02pm on a Sunday, somebody booked themselves an emergency appointment at a dental practice in north-western Melbourne. The practice was closed. Nobody saw it until Monday morning, and by then the patient was already sitting in the calendar for 12:30pm that same day.
That was 1 of 46. In the 30 days after the practice switched on SmileBridge™ on 22 July, 46 bookings came in through the dental booking form on their website, carrying $248,400 of treatment.
$248,400 is the number people notice. The part worth reading is how those 46 compare with everybody else who enquired in the same month, and what time of day they booked.
- Bookings through the booking form in 30 days
- 46
- Case value of the 46
- $248,400
- Of booking form enquiries ended up booked in
- 63.0%
- Of the 46 booked outside 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
- 65.2%
The numbers
| What we counted | Result |
|---|---|
| SmileBridge™ switched on | Wednesday 22 July |
| Window | 22 July to 20 August, 30 days |
| Enquiries through the SmileEngine™ Form | 73 |
| Booked in from the SmileBridge™ add-on | 46, which is 63.0% |
| Enquiries every other way | 19 |
| Booked in from every other way | 5, which is 26.3% |
| Bookings made outside 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday | 30 of 46, which is 65.2% |
| Case value of the 46 | $248,400 |
When they booked
30 of the 46 bookings landed while the front desk was not there.
- On a weekend
- 11
- After 6pm on a weekday
- 11
- Before 8am
- 6
The first one I showed you booked in at 5:02pm on a Sunday. Nobody rang anybody. The patient found a time that suited them, chose it, and turned up on Monday at 12:30pm.
In plain English
Same practice. Same month. Same team. Same ads.
The people who used the booking form ended up booking 63.0% of the time. The people who rang, or sent an enquiry and waited for a call back, ended up booked in 26.3% of the time. That is 36.7 percentage points between 2 groups of people who wanted the same thing.
The only difference was how they booked.
Now… think about what a Sunday evening enquiry normally looks like. It sits in an inbox overnight. Somebody rings at 8am. The patient is at work and does not pick up. By Tuesday they have booked somewhere else, or talked themselves out of it.
These 46 did not have to wait for anyone. They picked their own time, on the practice website, when it suited them.
AND… the front desk did not lose anything. They spent Monday morning talking to patients who were already in the calendar, instead of chasing people who had gone cold.
Frequently asked questions
Did the patients book themselves in?
They started on the booking form on the practice website, chose a treatment, and 46 of them ended up booked in. The front desk team confirmed and looked after them from there.
What does outside business hours mean here?
Anything outside 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. 30 of the 46 bookings, which is 65.2%, fell outside that window: 11 on a weekend, 11 after 6pm on a weekday and 6 before 8am.
What happened to the people who did not finish the form?
The front desk followed up every one of them. Some were not ready yet, some never answered, and a couple wanted a treatment the practice does not offer.
How is the treatment value of a self-booked appointment worked out?
From the treatment your patient chooses when they book, priced off our standard case value table. It is an estimate of what is sitting in your calendar, not what has been invoiced.
Which practice management systems does it write into?
Any system that gives you API access to your own account. Tell us which one you use and we will confirm before you commit to anything.
Are we replacing our front desk with this?
No. The patients who are ready to go book themselves, so the phones are freer for the ones who need a human. The nervous patient, the payment plan question, the full-arch patient who wants reassurance before they commit.
Written by
Liza Choa
Liza Choa is the founder of DCRM and Practice Growth Studio, a boutique dental marketing agency working behind the scenes with some of the most respected dental practices in Australia. She has spent over a decade helping practices grow and scale.
She built DCRM after seeing the same problem in practice after practice. The enquiries were already there, but the new patient numbers did not reflect it. DCRM bridges that gap, so practices increase the return on the marketing they are already paying for.
Disclaimer: The figures in this case study reflect the results of one dental practice over a defined period, and were taken from that practice’s DCRM account at the date stated. The practice is not identified, and identifying details have been removed or generalised. Results vary between practices and depend on factors outside the platform, including enquiry volume, treatment mix, pricing, location, team capacity and how consistently the practice follows up. These figures are not a prediction, projection or guarantee of the results any other practice will achieve. Data is reported as recorded in the platform and has not been independently audited. No patient information is disclosed.
