Implant leads not showing up? 5 stages from lead to chair

In short

An implant patient who clicked your practice's ad and left a number goes through five stages before the first consultation. The stages are the lead, the appointment, the confirmation, the reminder, and the consultation. At each one you can check what happens to that person and who at the practice owns it. If a patient doesn't show up, send one neutral message offering a new time. Sample messages are below.

Who this is for

This is for you if you run a private practice that places implants, you run ads, and you have open chair time for implant consultations. We write about a person who saw an ad and is coming to your practice for the first time. We don't cover existing patients here.

If your front desk already calls leads back, confirms appointments, and sends reminders, use the table below as a checklist. If your schedule is full for months, this article won't help you, because a person from an ad has no appointment times to choose from.

We wrote this at Helpify. Helpify brings patients to dental practices and follows up so they make it to the chair. You can read more on the About Helpify page.

Five stages from the lead to the consultation

Next to each stage, write the name of the person who owns it. The "Who owns it" column tells you who to look for.

We explain how to count the people who move from one stage to the next in how to get more dental patients when your ads already work. Here we look at what the practice does at each stage.

A confirmation and a reminder are two different messages. The confirmation goes out right after booking and tells the patient the appointment is on the schedule. The reminder goes out before the consultation.

A lead without an appointment

Check what hours your ad runs. If it also runs in the evening and on weekends, a person who leaves a number then waits for a call from the practice until the next business day. If the page behind the ad lets the patient pick a time right away, they don't have to wait for the call.

Sometimes a person leaves a number and puts off choosing a time. Decide ahead of time what the practice does with these people, and write it down in one place:

1. Who contacts them: by name, with a backup for vacations.
2. What hours they call, and whether they also send a message.
3. How many times they try, and after which attempt they stop.
4. Where they log each attempt, so a second person at the front desk doesn't call again the same day.

On the first call with such a person, three things are enough. Make sure they're asking about an implant consultation. Offer two specific times to choose from. Say how long the consultation takes and what it costs.

If the person asks you not to call again, note it next to their number and don't call.

A test: call your own practice as a new patient

A dentist who is chairside all day doesn't hear a new patient's first call with the practice. You can check that call yourself, or ask someone whose voice your front desk doesn't know.

Call during business hours from a number the practice doesn't know, ask about an implant consultation, and write down the answers to these questions:

1. How long did it take for someone to answer? Was there a recording or a phone menu first?
2. Did the person offer a specific time, or ask you to call back another day?
3. Did they give the dentist's name and say how long the consultation takes?
4. Did they ask for your name and phone number, so they could call you back?
5. Did they ask how you heard about the practice?
6. Did a confirmation with the date, time, and address arrive after the call?

Then call a second time, after hours. Write down what a patient hears then, and whether they can leave a number or book on your site.

Last, open the page your ad leads to on your phone. Check whether you can pick a time on it right away. If there's a form and nothing else, send it and see whether the page says who will get in touch and when.

This test shows one call on one day. If the result surprises you, repeat it on another day before you talk to your team.

The reminder before the consultation: when to send it and what to say

Send a confirmation right after booking. It gives the patient the date, time, address, the dentist's name, and how to change the appointment. If the dentist wants to see the patient's earlier X-rays, ask the patient to bring them. If the office is hard to find, add a sentence about the entrance or parking.

Send the reminder the day before the consultation, for example. If the patient booked far ahead, add a second reminder a few days earlier. When a patient cancels ahead of time, the practice has more time to give that slot to someone else.

In the reminder, say the same things as in the confirmation and add one sentence about changing the appointment. Don't add promises about treatment or sentences that put pressure on the patient. A sample text:

Hi Emily, this is a reminder of your implant consultation at Sample Dental: tomorrow, Tuesday, at 4:30 PM, 1 Sample Street, with Dr. Miller. If the time doesn't work, call us at (555) 123-4567 and we'll find a new one.

Check what happens to the patient's reply, too. If the patient texts back, someone at the practice should see that reply the same day.

Before you text patients, ask your attorney what your practice needs to have in place.

A patient didn't show up: what to do

First, mark in the schedule that the consultation didn't take place. Do it the same day, so the count of kept consultations at the end of the month is true. A person who didn't show up doesn't go into the calculation we describe in how to calculate dental patient acquisition cost.

Then send one message offering a new time. Don't ask in it whether the patient came in, because the practice knows that from the schedule. Don't write about the dentist's lost time. An example:

Hi Emily, this is Sample Dental. To set a new time for your implant consultation, call us at (555) 123-4567 or reply to this message.

If the patient answers, book the new time and send a confirmation, the same as the first time. If they ask you not to message them, note it and don't message them.

It's different when the patient canceled before the visit. Offer a new time right away, on the same call or in your reply to their message, and mark in the schedule that the visit was rescheduled.

A deposit and a fee for a missed visit

If you're thinking about a deposit at booking or a fee for a visit the patient didn't cancel, answer five questions first. They're about the first consultation of a patient from an ad:

1. Is a patient who paid at booking more likely to come in or to cancel earlier?
2. Will a payment at booking cut the number of people from ads who book at all?
3. Who at the practice takes the payment, records it, and settles it at the consultation?
4. What does the practice tell a patient who missed the visit for a good reason?
5. How will you check the effect? Compare bookings and kept consultations from the month before the change and the month after.

Work out the rules for charging patients with your attorney.

Who at the practice owns the new patient

Ask your front desk who owns the person from the ad from the lead to the consultation. If you hear two names or none, pick one person and tell the team.

Once a week, that person goes through three lists from the schedule: people without an appointment, people booked for the coming week, and people who didn't show up. For each one, they check whether someone from the practice got in touch.

If an agency handles some of the stages, write it in the table next to those stages and agree on who at the practice gets the leads from it.

How we do it

Helpify brings patients to dental practices and follows up so they make it to the chair. We run Facebook and Instagram ads with videos filmed at the practice, and we build a service page with a form. After every lead, the patient gets a confirmation and the front desk gets reminders to call and book. We remind patients about appointments, and after a no-show we help the front desk reschedule. The dashboard shows leads, booked appointments, patients who showed up, and ad spend.

You pay once for the campaign build: the service page, the ad videos, and front desk training. After that, you pay a flat monthly fee for campaign management, and it doesn't start until the day your ads go live. You pay your ad budget separately, straight to Meta. I'll show you the numbers along with a plan for your practice.

Helpify's fee doesn't depend on the size of the practice's ad budget. You don't have to drop your current agency.

Helpify is based in Poland. We work remotely and take on dental practices in Poland and the United States.

Read more on the Helpify System page and on the page about the implant campaign. To talk, book a free 30-minute call. It's online, with Maciej Odrobina, the founder of Helpify. Book a call.

Questions and answers

What do you do when a patient doesn't show up for a visit?

Mark in the schedule that the visit didn't take place, and send the patient one neutral message offering a new time. Don't ask whether they came in, and don't write about lost time. If they answer, book them again and send a confirmation.

How do you write a reminder text for a dental appointment?

Give the practice's name, the date, the time, the address, and the dentist's name. Add one sentence on how to change the appointment: a phone number or a request to reply. Don't write about treatment results or prices. A sample is above, in the section on the reminder.

How many times should you contact a person who left a number and didn't pick a time?

We won't give a number, because we don't know of a solid study that settles it. Set a limit ahead of time, write it down, and stick to it with every person. Stop sooner if the person asks you to.

Is online booking enough for a dental practice?

Online booking lets a patient book when your front desk is closed. It doesn't cover the people who left a number and didn't pick a time, and it doesn't cover reminders before the consultation. Check those two stages separately, with the questions in the table.