Guide to finding the best dental appointment reminder software | Top 8 Software to Consider

Introduction 

Having a dental practice is no easy feat. It involves juggling a plethora of things – from managing patients to scheduling appointments and ensuring high patient satisfaction. It becomes inevitable to lose focus on the task at hand and get lost in the sea of no-shows and missed appointments. So why not empower your dental business and your patients with dental appointment reminder software? With technology surging through all aspects of healthcare, manual calling and scheduling appointments is a thing of the past. The advent of a new era is paved by the power of automation through dental appointment reminder software that has eliminated the tedium to increase response rates and conversions. In this article, we will share how automating appointment reminders can revolutionize your dental practice. 

What is Dental Reminder Software and How Does it Work?

A dental reminder software lets you automate appointment scheduling and share the communication with your patients via SMS, email, and phone calls. You can set alerts and send reminders and customized messages to your patients via different communication channels. It can handle cancellations, no-shows, or rescheduling while you can focus solely on your dental practice. According to a research study, no-shows and missed appointments cost up to $150 billion per year to the US healthcare system. Another study says that these missed appointments lead to 70% attrition rates in patients. It goes without saying that the best way to reduce missed appointments is to predict them. A dental appointment reminder software is the best solution to ensure a seamless service while reducing no-shows by up to 90%. 

Top 8 Dental Appointment Reminder Software for Your Business

Emitrr

Emitrr Logo

Emitrr is a complete patient communication and engagement software that is used by 1000+ healthcare practices for communication with patients at every point in their patient journey. To make patient communication easier and effective, Emitrr offers features such as manual and automated appointment reminders, surveys, digital intake forms, secure and encrypted 2-way text messaging, review requests, and recall. 

Emitrr can integrate seamlessly with your EHR to send automated appointment reminders as well as recall reminders. You can also include digital intake forms in the reminder texts so that patients can pre-fill necessary forms before they visit your practice.  To send automated reminders through Emitrr all you need to do is, follow these steps: 

  1. Go to the “Campaigns >> Automated” on the left navigation panel. 
  2. From the list of automations, select ‘Reviews’. 
  3. Turn the automation on. 

There you have it, your automated appointment reminders are now set! 

You can also send manual reminders by going to “Campaigns>>Manual” and following the steps shown on the screen. 

Reviews: 

Emitrr scores an overall rating of 4.8 on Capterra. Here is what some of Emitrr customers have to say about the product: 

“Emitrr was a fabulous addition to our business as it sent customers appointment reminders and followed up on the service. It used traditional text messages instead of any social media service for all its task completions, which helped us penetrate even those customers who have not yet adopted the smartphone culture.” (Capterra)

Support: 

Emitrr offers 24*7 Support through text, email, tickets and calls. Emitrr has a stellar rating of 5/5 for Customer Service on Capterra. This is what Emitrr customers have to say about the support: 

“The biggest advantage of working with Emitrr is support and they really listen to feedback from customers very seriously.” (Capterra)

“The technical support has been superb. Our ideas for system upgrades have been heard and most have been implemented.” (Capterra)

“The platform is easy to use and the support is amazing. I highly recommend using Emitrr for any business that uses texting as one of your main ways to communicate. (Capterra)

Emitrr scores really well in others area such as Ease of Use and and Value for Money with rating of 4.8 and 4.9 respectively. 

One of Emitrr customers was able to reduce No-shows by 90% with the help of automated reminders. Read about it here.

Weave

weave

Weave, is is a complete customer communication tool. Weave also serves the healthcare industry through its appointment reminder feature. Like Emitrr, Weave also integrates with your existing EHR to send automated text reminders. Apart from sending reminders for immediate appointments you can also send reminders to patients who are due for an appointment. Using Weave’s quickfill feature you can send texts to patients whenever an appointment slot opens up. 

Review: 

Weave has an overall rating of 4.1 on Capterra. Here is what some of Emitrr customers have to say about the product: 

 “I like the fact that I do not have to make very many phone calls to confirm patient appointments. The patients also love the text reminders” (Capterra)

Support: 

Weave on call support is  available Monday thru Thursday, 6am – 6pm MST and Friday 6am – 5pm MST. Weave has a 3.6 customer service rating on Capterra. Here is what Weave users have to say about its support: 

“Weave has been great (well their customer support has really declined over the years) in their attempts to continually add features that eliminate the need to work with an array of companies. They are forward-thinking and understand what we will need before we know we need it. Customer support loves to NOT solve problems. We often find we are passed around to another person or that they are quick to point the finger in a different direction rather than fully looking to understand the issue and find solutions.”(Capterra)

“ Just so aware if you are thinking about purchasing this software, the technical support won’t get back to you for weeks or they just don’t respond.” (Capterra)

Weave is rated 4.3 for its Ease of Use and 3.9 for Value for Money on Capterra. Weave is a particularly expensive product as compared to its other competitors.

Thryv

thryv

Thryv is a all-in-one software for small businesses. Healthcare practices have also been using Thryv for appointment reminders and appointment schedulings. Thryv offers automated appointment reminders so practices can ensure patients turn up for their appointments. You will also be able to send re-booking prompts to patients who cancelled their appointment or didn’t show up for the appoinment. 

Reviews

Thryv has an overall rating of 4.2 on Capterra. Here is what customers have to say about Thryv. 

“ ! Great client appointment reminders, you set the schedule you want and the client can set their own appointments or call to make the appointment.” (Capterra

Support 

Thryv customer care is available 24*7. Thryv has a rating of 4.1 on Capterra for its Customer Service. Here is what customers have to say about its support.

Thryv support is not very organized and too many people reach out to attempt to fix things and not having nay information available to them, so things have to be repeated multiple times. Can get very frustrating. “ (Capterra

“Customer support has not always been favorable, meaning, I have to heavily depend on my rep.” (Capterra)

Thryv score 4.1 on both Ease of Use and Value for Money.

SolutionReach

SolutionReach is a patient communication and retention platform made specially for the healthcare industry. Solutionreach is built for medical practices and healthcare enterprises seeking to connect with their patients, with simpler scheduling, reminders, intake, surveys and more. You can send automated appointment reminders to patients to reduce no-shows at your practice. SolutionReach is one of the oldest players in the patient communication area. 

Reviews: 

SolutionReach has an overall rating of 3.9 on Capterra. Here is what SolutionReach customers have to say about the product. 

“Solutionreach is great for appointment reminders. It can call or text the patient for you and patients love the timely reminders. “(Capterra)

Support:

SolutionReach support is is available Monday – Friday from 6 am – 5 pm Mountain Time. SolutionReach scores 3.6 on Capterra for Customer Service. 

“the customer service is horrible. We cancelled our contract with ample notice and they refuse to give us a refund on an over charge and refused to accept a written cancellation AND renewed our contract automatically.” (Capterra

SolutionReach scores 4.0 for Ease of Use and 3.5 for Value for Money on Capterra.

Nexhealth

Nexhealth logo

Nexhealth is a patient experience created for the healthcare industry. With Nexhealth you can send appointment reminders automatically once its synced with EHR. You can build a custom reminder sequence according to appointment types to include procedure instructions and consent forms as well. This way when the patients turn up for the appointment, the required forms will already have been filled. 

Reviews: 

NexHealth has an overall rating of 4.9 on Capterra. Here are some reviews: 

“ They say setup takes a week- if you don’t have any questions – took our solo practitioner office a month and we don’t use all the functionality. They changed how the ipad workflow works and made it more cumbersome, slower, and inaccurate – with no NOTICE. They told us one thing during sales and setup and turns out it is wrong and not how it works. NEVER try to get support before the patients arrive, they have no hours before the day starts, unless you are on the west coast.” (Capterra

Support: 

Nexhealth scores 4.8 on Customer Service on Capterra. You can reach out to Nexhealth support via email, call and their help center. Here are some reviews about the support: 

“Their support is very responsive.” (Capterra)

“LIMITED support hours. WEST coast centric mentality – east coast starts at 8am, but west coast support starts at 5am so they can fix issues before they impact the day.” (Capterra

Nexhealth scores 4.8 on both Ease of Use and Value for Money.

RevenueWell

RevenueWell

RevenueWell offers a suite of dental-specific solutions and services that help drive patient acquisition and retention. One of these features is the appointment reminder feature. With RevenueWell you can use automated phone calls, text messages, emails, and direct mail to confirm appointments and reduce no-shows. You can also remind patients to set up an appointment if they havent done so in a long period. 

Reviews:

RevenueWell has an overall rating of 4.7 on Capterra. Here are some customer reviews: 

“ I appreciate the automated appointment reminders as it cuts out a lot of wasted phone time.” (Capterra)

Support:

RevenueWell offers support in the form of phone and email support. It has a ranking of 4.7 on Capterra for its Customer Service. Here is what customers have to say about support. 

“We struggled during this process of integration and technical support was not that great, and the process was not explained to us properly.” (Capterra)

User reviews also state that RevenueWell is not as user friendly. It scores 4.4 for Value for Money and 4.7 for Ease of Use.

Lighthouse 360

Lighthouse 360 is practice management software built specially for dental practices. Designed specifically for dentistry, this software automates your most repetitive daily tasks including appointment confirmations, recall reminders, patient reviews and more. 

Reviews:

LightHouse 360 has an overall score of 4.1 on Capterra. Here is what users have to say about LightHouse: 

“Overall it does a good job with patient appointment tracking, recare/recall and confirmation which has made our lives a bit easy.” (Capterra)

“ I feel like the customer service is a little lacking, and there have been odd glitches with Lighthouse not syncing up to my actual schedule, which has led to reminders being sent out to patients who have moved their appointments. “ (Capterra)

Support:

You can reach out to LightHouse support via phone or email. LightHouse 360 has 4.1 rating for customer service on Capterra. 

“ Support isn’t what it once was. Sometimes, patients will get reminders for the incorrect appointment time! Once you do get support onboard, they do a good job. It just takes a while sometimes to get in touch. See alternatives before jumping onto Lighthouse.” (Capterra)

LightHouse 360 scores 3.7 for Value for Money and 4.3 for Ease of Use.

Birdeye

Birdeye Logo

Birdeye is a complete customer communication platform. Healthcare practices use Birdeye for various features such as review generation, appointment reminders and booking, mass texting etc. Birdeye provides automated reminders to help reduce no shows at your practice. It also helps you schedule appointments in general as well as if there are any cancellations. 

Reviews:

Birdeye has a overall rating of 4.8 on Capterra. Here are some customer reviews:

“ I LOVE simply texting our clients appointment reminders and allowing them to text our office since texting is the preferred method of communication these days!” (Capterra)

“ Birdeye lured us in with promises, but they didn’t deliver. They are the master of the hard pitch but in the end they get you to pay a lot of money for almost no value added.” (Capterra)

Support:

Birdeye has a rating of 4.7 for Customer Service on Capterra. Here are reviews about support: 

“ Their people are not trust worthy and their support is very bad. They blame internal mismanagement for their problems and I’m sure that’s correct. Just making people aware to avoid making the same mistakes as me and others.” (Capterra)

Birdeye score 4.7 for Ease of Use and 4.5 for Value For Money

Overall Comparison: Top 8 Dental Appointment Reminder Software

Software

Overall

Support

Ease of Use

Value for Money

Emitrr

4.8

5

4.8

4.9

Weave

4.1

3.6

4.3

3.9

Thryv

4.2

4.3

4.1

4.1

SolutionReach

3.9

3.6

4.0

3.5

Nexhealth 

4.9

4.8

4.8

4.8

RevenueWell

4.7

4.7

4.7

4.4

Lighthouse 360

4.1

4.1

4.3

3.7

Birdeye

4.8

4.7

4.7

4.5

Key Highlights:

  • Emitrr scores the highest in 3 out of 4 categories, support , ease of use and Value for Money and is the second highest Overall scorer. 
  • Nexhealth scores the highest in two categories Overall and Ease of Use (along with Emitrr) 
  • Solutionreach is the lowest scorer in all the categories. 
  • Weave scores the lowest in Support along with SolutionReach and is the second lowest scorer in Overall category. 

HIPAA Compliance With Dental Appointment Reminder Software

Privacy is a crucial factor for any dental practitioner to forge trusted and long-term relations with the patients. If you are wondering that all kinds of automated communication through various channels is allowed in a dental appointment reminder software under the Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the answer is yes. The United States government passed HIPAA to ensure the security of patient data under federal law. This applies to all phone calls, messages, and emails to manage patient appointments through the appointment reminder software. It is recommended to choose a HIPAA-compliant software or app for hassle-free and productive communication with your patients. 

Need for a Dental Appointment Reminder Software 

Having a dental appointment reminder software benefits healthcare professionals and patients equally. Below are some ways it can help you grow your business by automating patient appointments –

Reduce no-shows  

Everyone loves to text these days. It has been found that millennials and GenZs prefer text messages over calls. Additionally, a phone call may take 15 minutes or so to convey four lines of information that could have been a text. Text reminders using dental appointment reminder software give more autonomy to younger patients. Additionally, reminders sent on the day of your patient’s appointment will encourage them to not miss it and reduce no-shows

Reduced waiting queues 

Using automated reminders will help manage the no-shows and optimize appointment schedules. This offers a seamless experience to your patients as they do not have to wait up in long lines for the available appointment. 

Improved efficiency 

If you and your staff are manually calling your patients or following up on their appointments, it can waste a lot of time and energy. Automation of reminders allows your staff to focus on important tasks and spend more time tending to patients. 

Boost revenue

Missed and mismanaged appointments directly contribute to the loss of revenue in dental practices. With the reduction in no-shows, you can ensure that patients show up for their appointments which further improves your practice’s revenue.

Improved patient loyalty and satisfaction 

A successful dental practice relies on a loyal patient base. About 38% of patients forgot their appointment and nearly 7% said they didn’t know how to get to their appointment, as per a 2016 study. A good dental appointment reminder software helps streamline communication across various channels. You can customize reminders depending on your patient’s preference. Additionally, patients can also swiftly get in touch with you via text, email, or call. Keeping the line of communication open with your patients leads to satisfied clients. 

Optimize cancellations

If a patient wants to cancel an appointment, the appointment reminder software can quickly fill that slot with another appointment.

Keep your schedule full

As a dental practitioner, you can ensure that your calendar is duly filled up with the help of the appointment reminder software. It will handle scheduling, re-scheduling, or cancellations so that you spend less time on mundane tasks and focus on improving the productivity of your practice. 

How Automated Dental Appointment Reminders Work? How do They Benefit Your Practice?

Automated dental appointment reminders send a customized message or email to the patient at any time or day. Calling the patients and confirming or re-confirming every appointment is inefficient. To reduce the legwork, the dental appointment reminder software comes with straightforward and professional templates. It is easy to send or edit these templates to suit your needs without wasting any time. These templates are easy to understand and allow patients to respond quickly to them. If a patient responds – “I won’t be available for a week,” then the dental scheduling software will recognize it as a follow-up and the system will reschedule the appointment.   

Automated dental reminders help to proactively engage patients in the process and reduce the risk of missed appointments. Additionally, it improves the overall patient experience. Delayed appointments are another productivity killer. With automated dental reminder templates, you can give heads up to your patients to reach early so that your workflow is not disrupted along with their treatment. You can filter the type of messages from the template list and simply customize the patient’s name before you send them. Overall, the automated aspects of appointment reminders make your front desk efficient.  

Quick Tips to Reduce No-Shows and Appointment Cancellations at Your Dental Practice 

A successful dental practice can’t afford to be stood up by the patients. Of course, there will be a possibility of no-shows and cancellations from time to time. But what if they can be eliminated? A great dental appointment reminder software ensures that your practice is not getting hampered by no-shows and your chair is rarely empty. 

Here are some quick tips to reduce no-shows at your dental practice –

Create a sense of value and safety for your patients 

With the COVID-19 pandemic still evolving, it is a good dental practice to establish a safe spot for your patients with better communication. Using customized emails and text messages, you can help alleviate the fears of patients prior to their appointments and also add a sense of value to them.

Send reminders beforehand

Sending reminders is the surest way to reduce no-shows and cancellations. With an appointment reminder software, you can send text and phone reminders prior to the appointments. You can send a same-day reminder if the patient has not confirmed the appointment yet. 

Digitize patient registrations

Replace your clipboard with electronic forms to facilitate contactless check-ins using the right dental appointment reminder software. This helps your patients save time during their appointment and set expectations for a hassle-free and relaxing visit.

Prepaid appointments

Another great way to reduce no-shows and cancellations is to offer the option of prepaid appointments. Patients are more committed to showing up when they have to pay in advance. As a dental practitioner, you will have one less thing to think about. Alternatively, you can also set ramifications for no-shows or last-minute cancellations by charging them a certain fee. 

 

How does Emitrr’s Appointment Reminder Software Help Streamline Your Dental Practice?

Emittr’s appointment reminder software helps to proactively inform your patients of their upcoming appointments through the preferred channel of communication. You do not need to keep physical records of appointments or manually call up your patients. Emitrr is HIPAA-compliant scheduling software that automates reminders via text messages, email, and phone calls. Our software allows you to customize messages and reminders as per your practice requirements. The two-way text feature allows patients to interact with you in a safe and effective manner. With Emitrr, you can send automated alerts or messages to the patients at regular intervals to remind them of weekly or monthly appointments. This allows dental businesses to retain more clients and build a solid patient base for consistent revenue. You can use Emitrr’s dental appointment reminder software to –

  • Reduce no-shows and manage cancellations.
  • Personalize communication depending on your practice and patients’ needs.
  • Get your schedule up and running by automatically filling up the slots for any missed appointments.
  • Recall patients with whom you haven’t been in touch for a while.
  • Schedule appointments and send appointment reminders to follow up with patients.
  • Get access to templates to quickly respond to patients.
  • Facilitate two-way communication for ease of access.
  • Access schedule-based text feature for last-minute cancellations.
  • Schedule group texts or messages in bulk. 
  • Generate reviews effortlessly with our ‘review request’ feature. 
  • Improve profits and customer satisfaction. 
  • Add value to your patients and build loyalty. 

Conclusion 

Communication between the dental practitioner and patient is of paramount importance. Using robust dental appointment reminder software, you can create rewarding interactions across various touch points. Emitrr is a comprehensive customer interaction solution that offers a one-stop solution to engage with your patients across different channels of communication. The entire process is automated and seamless. It can easily integrate with your existing CRM/EHR to send out appointment reminders, and schedule and manage appointments without the need for human intervention. You can leverage the features of Emitrr to drive growth for your dental business to keep your profitability high. If you are looking to have a thriving dental business where your focus is not only to acquire new patients but to build lasting relationships, then a complete patient engagement software solution like Emitrr is what you need. So book a demo right away and make your operations seamless. 

 

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