The Patient Recall System That Reactivated 60% of Lapsed Patients for a Florida Dental Practice

Most medical and dental practices are sitting on a gold mine they've never touched: their existing patient database. Patients who came in once or twice, had a good experience, and then simply… drifted. Life happened. They got busy. They forgot to book a follow-up. They're not unhappy with your practice — they just need a reason to come back.

A patient recall system gives them that reason. Done right, it's the highest-ROI marketing activity available to most practices — because you're marketing to people who already trust you.

The Problem We Were Solving

A general dentistry practice in South Florida came to us with a specific problem: they had 2,400 patients in their system who hadn't been in for over 18 months. Their front desk was making recall calls — slowly, inconsistently, about 15–20 per week when time allowed. At that rate, it would take 2–3 years to work through the list once, by which point the oldest contacts would be 5 years cold.

They were also spending $4,500/month on Google Ads to attract new patients while leaving thousands of warm relationships untouched.

The Recall Sequence We Built

We built a 5-touch automated sequence in GoHighLevel, triggered for any patient who hit the 18-month mark without a completed appointment. The sequence ran over 30 days:

1. 1.Day 1 — SMS: Personalized, casual, low-pressure. "Hi [Name], it's [Practice Name] — it's been a while and we wanted to check in. We have some openings this week if you've been meaning to come in. Reply BOOK and we'll send a link."
2. 2.Day 3 — Email: Slightly more detailed. Highlights any new services, mentions the hygienist by name if they had a consistent provider, includes direct booking link.
3. 3.Day 7 — SMS #2: Simple follow-up if no response. "Still have a few spots open this month — would love to see you back. Book here: [link]"
4. 4.Day 14 — Email #2: "We haven't heard from you — no worries at all. Just wanted to make sure you have our info if you need us." Includes phone number and booking link.
5. 5.Day 30 — Final SMS: "Last note from us for a while — if you've found a new provider we completely understand. If not, we'd love to have you back." Then removed from the sequence.

The Results After 90 Days

At an average appointment value of $280, those 412 reactivated appointments represented roughly $115,000 in recovered revenue — against a setup cost that was a fraction of that. The practice has since reduced their Google Ads spend by $1,500/month and redirected it to a new patient acquisition campaign, since they no longer need ads to compensate for lapsed-patient attrition.

What Made It Work

• ·Personalization: messages referenced the patient's name, previous provider, and last visit context where available
• ·Low pressure tone: no urgency manufacturing, no "limited time offer" — just a genuine check-in
• ·Direct booking link: every touchpoint made it frictionless to respond. No phone tag required.
• ·Correct timing: 18 months is the sweet spot for dental. Shorter sequences work better for higher-frequency practices (chiro, physio). Longer for lower-frequency (specialty medical).
• ·Suppression list: patients with open billing disputes or who had explicitly left the practice were excluded from the sequence automatically

How to Set This Up for Your Practice

The core components you need: a CRM with automation capability (GHL is what we use, but HubSpot or even a capable EHR works), a texting-enabled phone number, and a clean patient list with last-visit dates and contact info.

The sequence itself is straightforward to build once you have those pieces in place. The harder part is segmenting correctly — patients who are 18 months lapsed need a different message than patients who are 6 months lapsed, and patients who had a bad experience (even if they never said so) need to be identified and handled differently.