Software Advice IndustryView: Dental Scheduling Software ReportTrends and best practices from the industry

To find out how dentists can reduce missed appointments, Software Advice surveyed patients on their preferences for dental scheduling software. This report is intended to help dental practices optimize the use of their current software system, or help guide an upcoming software purchase. Our key findings included the following:

• The greatest percentage of dental patients surveyed (30 percent) prefer receiving appointment reminders via text message.

• When segmented by age, most patients over 34 years old (65 percent, combined) prefer receiving appointment reminders via email.

• A combined 40 percent of respondents would rather schedule dental appointments via phone call, the Web or text message than in person.

• The age group with the highest preference for scheduling appointments online and through text message is 35 to 54 (a combined 16 percent).

• The most popular time frame for patients to receive reminders for upcoming dental appointments is one to three days prior (chosen by 53 percent).

Abstract

Among respondents with a preference, 30 percent say text messages are their preferred method of receiving reminders for an upcoming appointment.

Preferred Communication Channel for Appointment Reminders

Text message30%

Email28%

Phone call25%

Direct mail17%

Unsurprisingly, older respondents in our sample are less eager to embrace text reminders: Those age 35 to 54 years old actually prefer email over text.

Preferred Communication Channel for Reminders, by Age

18 - 34

35 - 54

55+

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Text message Email Phone call Direct mail

N = 66

N = 74

N = 78

41% 29% 15% 15%

32% 34% 18% 16%

22% 31% 29% 18%

A majority of the patients we surveyed prefer to schedule their next appointment right after a current one, while they’re still at the dentist’s office.

Preferred Channel for Appointment Scheduling

At dentist’s office60%

Phone30%

Online7%

Text message3%

Breaking down our data on appointment scheduling preferences by age, we find that 35-to 54-year-olds are most receptive to online and text message scheduling.

Preferred Channel for Appointment Scheduling, by Age

18 - 34

35 - 54

55+

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

In person Phone Online Text message

N = 69

N = 79

N = 98

52%

56%

67%

35%

28%

29%

10%

11%

3%

5%

3%

The highest percentage of respondents say they want to receive appointment reminders from their practice one to three days before the appointment.

Preferred Time Frame for Receiving Appointment Reminder

1 - 3 days prior

4 - 6 days prior

7 - 9 days prior

10+ days prior

None of the above

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

22%

6%

8%

18%

53%

Percent of sampleN = 387

We analyzed data from interactions with prospective dental software buyers. Automated recall/appointment reminder systems are the top-requested modules.

Top-Requested Modules, 2014 BuyerView Report

Recall system/reminders

Reporting

Coding

Staff scheduling

0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

5%

5%

5%

17%

Percent of sample

N = 387

The dentists in our 2014 survey say patient scheduling is the most necessary application for a system to have when looking for new dental software.

Top Required Applications, 2014 BuyerView Report

Patient scheduling

Billing

EHR

Digital imaging

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

7%

89%

92%

94%

Percent of sample

N = 387

The demographics in our sample reveals that the highest percentage of respondents in the patient survey part of this report are 55 to 64 years old.

Respondents by Age

18 - 2413%

25 - 3419%

35 - 4413%

45 - 5417%

55 - 6422%

65+16%N = 908

The majority of respondents are male.

Respondents by Gender

Male59%

Female41%

N = 1,002

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