SMS automation · in pilot

Every text, logged.

dentdial handles the three SMS jobs your front desk never has time for: refilling cancelled slots from the waitlist, asking patients for a Google review after their visit, and triaging every inbound reply. Every message logged with a written reason.

Decision log · pilot practice · 09:14 Mon Live
In Mrs Whitehead — composite filling completed 09:00 with Dr Metias.
Draft Treatment-aware review request drafted. Personalised to the visit and the clinician.
Delay Held back 2 hours so it lands while the visit is still fresh, inside your contact hours.
Send 11:00 — “Hi Sarah, thanks for coming in this morning. If you’ve got a moment, a quick Google review would mean the world to the team ↗”
✓ Review SMS sent 2h post-appt delay Treatment-aware copy Logged

Three jobs your front desk can’t do at scale.

Each one is a judgment call. Each one fails badly when handled by an indiscriminate broadcaster. dentdial runs all three quietly in the background, with a written audit trail you can defend to a CQC inspector or an unhappy patient.

01 / Cancellation filler

Empty slots, refilled before lunch.

When a patient cancels in Dentally, dentdial pulls your live waitlist within seconds. AI scores every candidate by likelihood-to-accept — looking at preferred clinician, slot type, distance, history of taking short-notice offers — and texts the top match a personal offer. Twenty-minute reply window. No reply, no problem: it rolls down the list automatically. The first YES books straight into Dentally and the chase stops. Average fill time during business hours: under 12 minutes.

02 / Review asker

Google reviews, asked at the right moment.

After every completed appointment, dentdial sends the patient a personalised, treatment-aware SMS asking for a Google review — on a short post-appointment delay so it lands while the visit is fresh, and only inside the contact hours you set. Every request is logged with a timestamp, and patients who’ve opted out are never texted.

03 / Reply classifier

Knows a complaint from a thank-you.

Every inbound SMS is classified in seconds. Regex catches the deterministic stuff — STOP, START, YES, NO — and the AI re-classifies the rest into confirm, reschedule, question or complaint. Complaints are escalated to a named team member the same day with full context. Ambiguous messages get a drafted reply your staff can send in one tap.

A cancellation, refilled in real time.

This is what happens between a patient hanging up at 09:03 on a Tuesday and someone else sitting in that chair at 11:00 the same day.

Cancellation event · 11:00 implant consult · £600 Live
09:03 Webhook from Dentally: appointment cancelled. Slot released back to diary.
09:03 Waitlist pulled: 47 patients tagged for implant consult. AI scores each one.
09:04 Top match: Mr Patel. Already enquired about implants three weeks ago. Prefers Tuesday mornings. SMS sent.
09:11 Inbound reply: “YES please.” Classified: confirm.
09:11 Appointment created in Dentally. Confirmation SMS sent. Chase stopped for remaining waitlist.
11:00 Mr Patel arrives. £600 slot saved. The reception team did nothing.
✓ Slot filled in 8 minutes £600 recovered 46 patients not contacted Audit log written

What it’s worth, in plain numbers.

Two metrics that move on the very first week — and two that move slowly but matter more.

Immediate

£3k–£18k / month recovered.

A typical two-clinician practice runs 15–30 cancellations a month. At an average slot value of £180 across routine and complex, that’s £2,700–£5,400 of pure recovery on routine alone. For a busy implant or cosmetic list, the upper bound stretches well into five figures.

Immediate

2–4 hours / day saved.

Hours your reception team spent chasing the waitlist, drafting review-ask texts and triaging inbound replies — handed back. Used by most practices to focus on the patients in front of them.

Slow burn

More reviews, steadily.

Asking every patient automatically — instead of relying on the front desk to remember — means a steady stream of fresh Google reviews. Review volume and recency are what reassure the next caller and feed your visibility in local search. No clipboard at the desk, no chasing.

Slow burn

Complaints handled in hours, not weeks.

Patient frustration caught at the first SMS reply is patient frustration that doesn’t become a one-star review, a GDC referral or a refund. dentdial routes it to the right human before it grows.

A pure Twilio reseller can’t differentiate. A system that reads complaints in real time, drafts the reply, and logs a written reason for every message it sends — can.

— Internal product note · April 2026

SMS automation is a commodity. Judgment isn’t. Every message dentdial sends carries a written record of why — the trigger, the timestamp, the patient context — and patients who’ve opted out are never contacted. That’s the audit trail that turns automation from a liability into a defensible asset.

Security & audit →

Plug it in. Watch the diary fill itself.