A form comes in at 7:40 on a Tuesday evening. Someone wants to know about replacing a missing front tooth. Your office opens at 8:00 the next morning, the front desk works through the voicemails first, and the form gets a call around 11. By then the person has slept on it, may have sent the same request to two other practices, and doesn't recognize your number when it rings.
Every step in that sequence is reasonable on its own. Added together, they put more than 15 hours between the moment that person asked for help and the moment you offered it.
What the research says about response time
A widely cited study on this ran in Harvard Business Review. In 2011, James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington wrote "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads," based on an audit of 2,241 US companies. Firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even an hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited 24 hours or more.
The same audit found that among companies that responded within 30 days, the average response time was 42 hours. And 23 percent never responded at all.
Nearly
7×
as likely to qualify a lead when the first contact attempt came within an hour, compared with trying even an hour later
More than
60×
as likely to qualify it within an hour, compared with waiting 24 hours or more
That research covered businesses in general, not dental practices, so we wouldn't lean on the exact multiples. The direction is hard to argue with, though. Someone who just asked for help is paying attention right now. Tomorrow they'll be paying attention to something else.
Why dental inquiries cool off
A few things happen on the patient's side after they press submit.
- They may have contacted more than one practice. If so, the first one to reach them answers their questions first, and the others may end up calling someone who has already booked.
- Dental decisions come with nerves and cost worries, and the motivation that got them to fill out the form can fade into "I'll deal with it next month."
- They forget. A day later, a call from an unknown number doesn't connect in their mind to a form they filled out on their phone.
Decide who owns new inquiries
Slow responses usually trace back to one thing. New inquiries belong to the whole front desk, so nobody in particular is watching for them.
During office hours
Name one person per shift who owns new inquiries, plus a backup for when that person is busy with a patient or at lunch. Send form submissions to a shared inbox and also to an alert that person will actually notice.
We'd suggest a target of a first call attempt within five minutes during office hours. Most of the delay is in noticing the inquiry, and the call itself takes a couple of minutes.
After hours and weekends
Look at the timestamps on last month's inquiries. If a real share arrived in the evening or on weekends, you need a plan for those too. Realistic options:
- An automatic text from your practice's number within a minute or two, saying you got the request and when you'll call.
- A team member on an evening rotation who replies by text that night and calls first thing in the morning.
- An answering service, if it's trained to handle new patient questions and can book, or at least take a preferred time. One that only takes messages adds a step without saving one.
- At the very least, after-hours inquiries go to the top of the list when the office opens, ahead of voicemail.
Whatever you choose, tell people on the website what will happen. "We'll call you within 15 minutes during office hours, or by 9 a.m. the next business day" sets an expectation. Then you have to meet it.
Automated texting comes with rules that vary by state, and a reply to someone's own request is treated differently from marketing. Check with counsel before you switch on any automated texts. Our 30-day follow-up plan goes into this in more detail.
Call first, then text right away
A phone call is still the fastest way from inquiry to appointment, because you can answer questions and offer times in one conversation. If they don't pick up, leave a short voicemail and send a text within a minute, so your number has a name attached the next time it rings.
The voicemail can be this simple:
Hi [first name], this is [your name] at [practice name]. You asked about replacing a tooth on our website a few minutes ago. I'll text you so you have our number. Call or text back whenever works for you.
And the text:
Hi [first name], it's [your name] at [practice name]. Thanks for asking about replacing a tooth. I just tried calling. Is there a good time today for a five-minute call? You can also reply here with any questions.
If you don't hear back, try once more later that day at a different time.
What to say on the first call
The first call has one job: book a consultation, and leave the person glad they asked. A simple order works:
- Refer to their request right away. "You sent us a message about implants about ten minutes ago. Is now an OK time?"
- Ask what prompted it, then listen. "What's been going on with that tooth?"
- Answer what you honestly can, and say plainly what needs the dentist to see. Price questions need care, and our front desk playbook has wording for them.
- Offer two specific times. "I have Thursday at 10:30 or Monday at 4:00. Which is better for you?"
- Before you hang up, send the confirmation and ask how they'd like reminders. Insurance details and medical history can wait for the new patient paperwork.
Measure your response time
For every inquiry, log when it arrived and when someone first tried to reach the person. A shared spreadsheet is enough.
Look at it weekly. Use the median response time rather than the average, so one weekend form doesn't swamp everything else. Count any inquiry that never got a call, and look at after-hours inquiries separately.
Once a month, have a friend of the practice fill out your form and call your new patient line at different times, and note how long it takes to hear back. That also catches a form that has quietly stopped sending. Our article on why contact forms don't convert covers what else to check.
Over a few months, compare booking rates for inquiries you reached quickly against the ones you didn't. That's your own version of the HBR finding.
Where to start this week
Add two columns to whatever you use to track new patients: time received and time of first call attempt. Fill them in for every inquiry for the next two weeks, and don't change anything else yet. When you look at the numbers, you'll see whether the gap is during office hours or after them, and that tells you which of the fixes above to make first.
