Liza Choa
Quick answer
Do dental patients really book their own appointments outside business hours?
Yes. A Victorian practice switched on DCRM SmileBridge™ and 24 patients booked themselves in over 18 days. 13 of the 18 appointments that resulted were made at night or over the weekend, when nobody was there to answer the phone. They were worth $82,000 of treatment.
A Melbourne dental practice switched on DCRM SmileBridge™, a dental online booking form, for the first time on 14 July. By the 31st, 18 days later, 24 patients had booked themselves in, and 18 of those turned into appointments worth $82,000.
$82,000 in 18 days is the number that gets attention. But it is not the part I find interesting. What makes it interesting is when they happened. Most of them were after hours dental bookings.
- Of treatment in 18 days
- $82,000
- Patients who booked themselves in
- 24
- Appointments made at night or over the weekend
- 13of 18
What changed in July
| Measure | 1 to 13 July · Before | 14 to 31 July · After |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries | 23 | 47 |
| Booked in | 15 | 35 |
| Booking rate | 65.2% | 74.5% |
| Patients who booked themselves | 0 | 24 |
In plain English
Before 14 July, every patient who wanted a time had to speak to the front desk on the phone first. After 14 July, 24 of them did not.
AND… 13 of those 18 appointments went into the calendar while the practice was closed. 7 of them on a weekend. That is what after hours dental bookings look like when you make it easy for them.
2 were full-arch implant consultations. Those 2 alone are $40,000 worth of treatments. One booked at 7:47pm on a Thursday, the other at 1:22pm on a Saturday, when the clinic is closed!
- Thursday, 7:47pmBooked by the patient, after hours
- Saturday, 1:22pmBooked by the patient, with the clinic closed
In the meantime, the front desk still booked 23 enquiries in the same 18 days. They took the ones that needed a person, building trust, and answering questions. Exactly what they are great at.
Frequently asked questions
Do patients really book dental appointments after hours?
Yes, and it is the main reason this exists. In one Victorian practice, 59 per cent of self-bookings were made while the doors were shut, including an All-on-4 consultation at 12.52am on a Sunday.
Can patients book their own dental appointment without any staff involvement?
Yes. SmileBridge™ shows live availability from your calendar and writes the confirmed appointment into your practice management system. In one Victorian practice, 18 patients booked themselves in 11 days and nobody on the team typed 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.
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.
How long does the integration take to set up?
The practice’s only task is obtaining API access from their provider. Build and testing happens after the key is handed over. We can have this live for you in as little as 7 days.
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.
