Recalls
6,800 active patients · two entirely different cycles running side by side
Overdue a check-up
2,410
35% of the patient base
Overdue by more than a year
846
Effectively lapsed
Aesthetics past their cycle
318
Of 940 aesthetics patients
Value of the overdue book
£486k
At average annual spend
A dental recall and an aesthetics rebooking are not the same thing and should never be run the same way. A check-up recall is a clinical reminder to a patient who has consented to receive one. An aesthetics top-up is a commercial approach about an elective treatment, and it needs marketing consent. Running the second under the rules of the first is how a practice ends up with a complaint it cannot defend.
How overdue, and how recoverable
2,410 patients past their recall interval
| Overdue by | Patients | Return rate | Contacted | Value if recovered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3–6 months | 412 | 64% | 198 | £79,000 |
| 6–12 months | 696 | 38% | 204 | £79,300 |
| 12–24 months | 456 | 17% | 61 | £23,300 |
| Over 24 months | 846 | 6% | 32 | £15,200 |
The 3–6 month group returns at 64% and fewer than half of them have been contacted. It is the smallest bar and by far the most valuable, and it is the one a practice under pressure always leaves.
Aesthetics is a different rhythm
940 patients on a 3–4 month cycle rather than a 6–12 month one
Rebooked before leaving41%
Rebooked after a reminder18%
Past cycle, no contact34%
No marketing consent held7%
Rebooking at the chair is worth more than any reminder. Forty-one per cent book the next appointment before they leave the room. Everything else is trying to recover a habit that was easiest to set while the patient was still sitting there.
Sixty-six aesthetics patients have no marketing consent on file. They cannot be sent a top-up reminder at all, and the system has to know that rather than leaving it to whoever runs the list.
Recall sequence
Clinical reminders, which is what most of these are
| Step | Channel | Wording | Timing | Books | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — Due now | SMS | Your check-up is due · book online | On the interval | 28% | Clinical reminder |
| 2 — Two weeks on | Same message, longer form | +14 days | 11% | Clinical reminder | |
| 3 — Six weeks on | Phone | A real conversation | +42 days | 34% | Clinical reminder |
| 4 — Stop | — | Nothing for 12 months | +43 days | — | Rested |
| Appointment confirmation | SMS | Time, clinician, place — and nothing else | 24h before | n/a | Transactional |
| Lapsed patient offer | Anything with an offer in it | Separate | 4% | Needs marketing consent |
The phone call at week six books a third of the people it reaches — three times the text. It is also the step a busy practice never gets to, which is why it has to be a task with a name on it rather than a good intention. Note the confirmation sitting above it: it is administrative and goes to everybody. Add one line about a treatment offer and it stops being administrative, which is why the wording is held in the system rather than typed by whoever is sending it.