Hi @Anne-Maree Siderides,
Thanks for sharing this! I love how your team tested the “golden hour” theory! It makes total sense that scheduling SMS or emails to go out later in the day could improve response rates and help the team manage time more efficiently.
This piece of feedback has come up a few times recently, and I can see it could make a difference for lots of practices. Tagging @Hansa Rastogi from our Product team here so she’s looped in. I know it’s something the team is already aware of and your detailed use case and the behavioural insights you’ve shared add great context.
I’ll keep you updated on any progress from our side! 😊
@Saymon thank you, I’m really glad to hear this is on the radar. Its a pretty simple concept and from what we have experienced, we definitely would get a better response rate.
This goes beyond even appointment confirmations, which we have tested it successfully with. It can also help with other aspects of practice management- I tested it last week following up 2 patients who we asked to leave us a Google review, and got 2/2 success rate after sending a message circa 7-7.30pm.
Now that relied on me logging on after business hours and whilst juggling kids’ bed time routine in order to send the SMS’s - it was effective, but I know there can be a better way!
We have an iMOS referral contract for oral surgery and whilst we make a lot of calls during the day to referral patients to get booked in, I often find that as I work through the spreadsheet and trying to call those patients marked as yellow (did not answer phone or Voice Mail message left), to fill the diary the next day I call patients beween 7-9pm ( yeah yeah I know….) 80% of those calls are answered.
There is definitely some truth to the fact that patients are more inclined to answer calls in the evening when not working.
Hi Saymon, checking in to see if there has been any update on this feature?
Hi Anne-Marie! Thanks for this feedback, I agree with you that a ‘schedule send’ functionality would be helpful to drive adoption. The clerical team are currently planning 2026, focusing on how we can automate getting your appointments booked in e.g. Dentally leads the follow up, etc. As part of that, we will also be looking at being able to schedule messages to go at a certain time period as part of the settings for that automation, so we can maximise driving the patient to action.
Hi Anne-Marie! Thanks for this feedback, I agree with you that a ‘schedule send’ functionality would be helpful to drive adoption. The clerical team are currently planning 2026, focusing on how we can automate getting your appointments booked in e.g. Dentally leads the follow up, etc. As part of that, we will also be looking at being able to schedule messages to go at a certain time period as part of the settings for that automation, so we can maximise driving the patient to action.
So glad to hear this, Hansa. I wholeheartedly agree with @Anne-Maree Siderides suggestion to automate messages to capture the ‘Golden Hour’ of client engagement.
Interestingly, Gartner have noted that well-timed messages receive a 23% higher conversion rate.
Specifically, SMS notifications have been shown to achieve a 98% opening rate within 3 minutes of receipt. That is a great statistic, but is rendered redundant if patients don’t have the time and attention to respond immediately to a Call to Action. Some specific instances in which this is relevant: 48 hour confirmation txts, requesting reviews, sending promotional offers.
It seems Dentally users stand to receive significant gains once timed communication is integrated into your messaging systems. I look forward to your updates in 2026!
