What a year-end patient reactivation campaign costs, and the number of visits that pays it back
A cost breakdown for a dental practice texting overdue patients before insurance benefits reset: what it costs, how to run it, and the visits that pay it back.
Somewhere in your practice software there are hundreds of patients who have not been in for 12 months or more. Many of them have dental benefits that reset on January 1, and they will lose what they did not use. Most practices know this and still let November and December slip by without a single reminder.
A year-end reactivation campaign is one of the cheapest marketing projects a practice can run. Here is what it costs and how many visits it takes to pay for itself.
What the campaign is
Pull a list of patients who are overdue for a cleaning or who have unscheduled treatment. Send them a short series of texts and emails between now and mid-December. Make it easy to book. That is it. No new ads, no new website, no new patients to win from scratch.
These people already know you. They already trust you. They just forgot, or put it off.
What it costs
Prices below are typical ranges, not quotes.
Using what you already have. Most practice management systems and patient communication tools can send bulk texts and emails. If you already pay for one, the added cost may be zero. Check before you buy anything.
Adding a patient texting tool. If you do not have one, expect roughly $150 to $400 a month for a platform built for dental offices, sometimes with a setup fee.
Staff time. This is the real cost. Plan on 3 to 5 hours to pull and clean the list, write the messages and set up the schedule. Then 30 minutes a day during the campaign for the front desk to answer replies and book. At a hypothetical $25 an hour, that is around $300 to $500 of time over six weeks.
Optional mailer. A postcard to patients who do not respond to texts runs roughly $1 to $2 each, printed and mailed.
So a practice using its existing software spends a few hundred dollars of staff time. A practice adding a tool spends perhaps $600 to $1,200 all in for the season.
The payback math
Here is a hypothetical. You have 600 patients overdue by a year or more. You reach 450 with a working cell number or email. If 8% book, that is 36 visits.
Say an average recall visit, with exam, cleaning and x-rays, produces $250. Thirty-six visits is $9,000 in production. Even at half that response rate, the campaign covers a $1,200 cost several times over.
That leaves out treatment found at those visits, which is often where the bigger numbers come from. It also leaves out the reviews you can ask for from patients who come back and have a good visit.
How to run it
Late October: pull and clean the list. Overdue hygiene patients first. Then patients with treatment planned but not scheduled. Remove anyone who has opted out, moved or been dismissed.
Early November: first message. Keep it short and leave out treatment details. Privacy matters more in a text than anywhere else.
"Hi Maria, this is Lakeside Dental. It has been a while since your last cleaning. If your dental plan resets in January, now is a good time to use your benefits. Reply here or call to book."
Mid-November: second message to those who did not reply. Offer specific times. "We have openings on Tuesday the 17th and Thursday the 19th. Want one of them?"
Early December: last call. "Our December schedule is nearly full. If you would like to use your benefits before they reset, reply today."
Through December: answer fast. A reply that sits for a day is often a lost booking. Assign one person to check messages every hour. The front desk and missed calls guide covers how to handle the replies.
Make room for the bookings
Reactivation only pays if there are chairs to fill. Look at your hygiene schedule for late November and December now. Add a few extra hygiene hours if you can.
Saturday availability helps here. Only 14.1% of dental listings show Saturday hours, so a practice that opens a few Saturdays in December stands out to busy patients. Update your Google profile hours if you do.
Turn returning patients into reviews
Patients who come back after a long gap and have a good visit are good candidates for a review request. The median dental listing has 39 reviews, while the top tenth has 586 or more. The benchmark report shows the full spread. A steady trickle of reviews from December visits helps all year. The Google reviews guide has wording that stays clear of patient privacy problems.
The short version
If you already have texting through your practice software, this campaign costs a few hours of staff time and usually pays back with a handful of visits. Pull the list this week. Send the first message in early November. Keep chairs open in December.
If you would like someone to run this or any one service for your practice, the free 14-day trial needs no card. See the free trial page or text or call (385) 217-4728.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, dental practices among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor