How much is your clinic losing to the lack of a proper inquiry-handling system?

The calculator shows the difference in patients and revenue per month and per year, with and without an optimised inquiry-handling system. See the bottom of this page for how the model was built and the research it rests on.

Annual revenue gap: 527 069 €

Your effective yield is 10.2% versus an optimized funnel of 24.9%. The modeled gap is about 50 197 € per month (~527 069 € per year).

What the optimised system actually is

The optimised column is not a better clinic. It is the same clinic with the leaks closed — and across the four stages this calculator models, the difference between an average practice and a top one is almost entirely operational: who picks up the phone, how fast someone calls back, how many times they try, and whether the treatment plan is presented with the price already in hand.

The front of the funnel is decided by pickup and speed. Peerlogic recorded 38% of calls unanswered across 4,280 calls at 26 practices, and TrueLark’s 8M-conversation dataset puts 33% missed during business hours — 65% of them from prospective new patients. Response time does the rest: 17% of leads book inside the first minute and 55% inside five, MIT/InsideSales found a five-minute callback 21× more likely to qualify than one made at thirty minutes, and roughly 95% of leads that eventually convert are reached by the sixth attempt — though 44% of teams stop after the first.

The back half moves on process rather than speed. A Cochrane meta-analysis puts SMS reminders at RR 1.10 for attendance and finds them as effective as phone calls at 55–65% lower cost, while Henry Schein One’s 2026 Catalyst Index separates a 45% average case acceptance from 75% in the top decile — that gap driven by standardised treatment presentation and verified out-of-pocket figures placed in the clinician’s hands before the plan is discussed. Every one of those is a change to how the day runs, not to how much you spend on ads.

• Every inbound call is answered live during opening hours, or auto-texted back within a minute38% of calls go unanswered on average (Peerlogic, 4,280 calls across 26 practices).
• New leads are called back in under two minutes17% of leads book within the first minute, 55% within five (TrueLark, 8M+ conversations).
• A lead is attempted at least six times before it is written offAbout 95% of converting leads are reached by the sixth attempt; 44% of teams stop after one.
• Follow-up mixes channels — call, then SMS, then email80% of patients prefer digital communication channels (Peerlogic, 3,000+ practices).
• Calls arriving outside opening hours are captured and returned the next morningAround 30% of dental calls arrive after hours, and roughly half of bookings happen then.
• New-patient calls follow their own script, separate from existing-patient callsNew patients convert at 25.2% against 55.8% for existing ones — a 30-point gap (Peerlogic).
• Whoever answers can see the live schedule and book on the spotCalls disconnecting before a booking is the biggest stated reason patients don’t book.
• Every booked appointment gets an SMS reminder sequenceCochrane meta-analysis: RR 1.10 for attendance, matching phone calls at 55–65% lower cost.
• Insurance is verified and an out-of-pocket estimate is ready before the consult startsHenry Schein One names pre-appointment financial clarity a top-decile behaviour.
• Treatment is presented the same way by every clinician, with the same visual aidsStandardised presentation is what separates 75% case acceptance from a 45% average.
• Declined and unscheduled treatment sits on a worked list, not buried in the notesTop performers track declined care by location, provider and treatment type.
• Front-desk and conversion numbers are reviewed weeklyOnly 36% of practices review front-office performance weekly (Peerlogic, 3,000+ practices).

How this calculator was built

The calculator is built on averaged data for the selected market — real price lists and industry studies we have collected and summarised. Call volume and the new-patient share are conservative estimates drawn from our work with clinics; the figures for missed calls, booking, show-up and treatment acceptance rest on the sources listed below. The optimised values are based on our own experience running these systems and on world-leading medical-market practice. Every field is editable so the numbers can reflect your clinic.

• Peerlogic — analysis of 4,280 calls across 26 practices: 38% unanswered, 25% new-patient booking rate (vendor data)
• Peerlogic — Dental Operating Standards 2026, benchmarks from 3,000+ practices (vendor data)
• Henry Schein One — 2026 Catalyst Index: 45% average case acceptance, top 10% ≈ 75% (vendor data, named report)
• International Journal of Dentistry (Wiley) — 14.3% no-show rate across N=7,379 visits (peer-reviewed)
• PeerJ — Predicting no-shows for dental appointments (peer-reviewed)
• TrueLark via Group Dentistry Now — 33% of calls missed, analysis of 8M conversations (vendor data)
• Our own analysis: how much revenue missed calls cost a clinic

Sources from call-tracking platforms are marked vendor data; academic sources are marked peer-reviewed.