Important: This feature is currently in beta and available to selected practices. Contact Dentally Support to register your interest in early access.
What is changing in online booking?
We are in the process of rolling out a series of improvements to online booking - including the patient experience and the practice settings.
This upgrade is happening in three phases:
New recall online booking patient experience
New online booking patient experience (for all appointment types)
Improved practice online booking settings, managed within Dentally itself (now in beta)
Why are we making changes to online booking?
The improvements we are bringing to the patient and practice experience with online booking aim to solve a number of pain points practices were experiencing, and to make workflows smoother, quicker and more beneficial to your business objectives.
Simplified patient login, and easier account creation - Fewer steps, so patients are less likely to abandon online booking and call instead.
Smart appointment suggestions - Patients will see suggested slots, which our smart automation pushes based on filling your calendar efficiently. Slots which fill gaps in your diary will be recommended first.
Patients can filter slots - When choosing an appointment time, patients can filter by day (eg. only Mondays and Tuesdays) and time (eg. only afternoons).
Improved, streamlined Portal settings - You can now manage appointment setup from within Dentally itself, instead of accessing through the separate Manage App. Additional settings (task reminders, notifications) will follow in future releases.
Enhanced reporting and analytics - Understand your patients' habits with more detailed insight.
What phase are we at now?
We are currently rolling out Phase 3 to a select group of practices. Phase 2 (the new patient booking experience) continues to roll out alongside it. If your practice is part of the Phase 3 beta, you will have been notified by email to receive both the new patient and practice experience.
If you are in this closed group you will have been notified via email and/or via in-app notifications:
If setup, new patients will be able to book online using the new experience.
Your existing patients logging into Portal not via a recall booking link recall, will see this new experience.
Your existing patients with recall appointments, who receive a recall booking link via SMS or email, will see this new experience (see video example below).
These patients can filter slots more easily to find what they need, while your practice will benefit from smarter slot suggestions which aim to reduce gaps in your calendar.
We'd like to hear any feedback you or your patients have about this new workflow. If you hear anything, positive or negative, please reply to your email, or book a call using the link provided in the email.
Make sure your reception team are aware of this change so they can pass on any feedback.
Practice appointment settings in Dentally
If your practice is part of the Phase 3 beta, you can now manage your appointment reasons and online booking setup directly in Dentally under 'Settings' > 'Appointments', instead of switching to the Portal admin dashboard on the Patient Portal.
This means:
Appointment reasons, online booking toggles, practitioner assignments, prices, durations, and deposits are all configured in one place inside Dentally.
Your existing Portal admin dashboard configuration has been migrated automatically. You do not need to set anything up again.
Payment plans, notification settings, and some other portal settings remain in the Portal admin dashboard for now and will move into Dentally in a future release.
For more details:
How to set up your appointments for online booking - a step-by-step guide to creating and configuring appointment reasons in the new settings page.
What has changed in your appointment settings - what was migrated from the Portal admin dashboard and what to check.