Open Dental stays your practice management system and your schedule. This feature reads appointments and their status through Open Dental's documented API and sends the review request from our messaging system. The request doesn't change anything in Open Dental, and you don't have to migrate anything to use it.
We issue an API key and you add it in Open Dental (Setup > Advanced Setup > API). "Open Dental's Remote API needs the eConnector running on your server. If you use Open Dental eServices, it's already installed.", so there is no database login, no VPN and nothing to install on operatory machines. Add: "If no review link is saved, patients still get the thank-you text, just without the link, so add the link before you turn the automation on." It starts off, and nothing sends until you turn it on.
We pull your Open Dental schedule about every 15 minutes, including each appointment's status. A visit counts once its status is set to Complete. Scheduled, Broken and deleted appointments never trigger a request, so a patient who cancelled won't get thanked for a visit that didn't happen.
At 6 PM in your office's time zone, every patient with a visit set to Complete today gets a text (one per completed appointment). It thanks them for coming in, tells them to reply or call if they have questions about their visit, and includes your Google review link. Patients who opted out of texts are skipped.
This is the part that decides whether it works. "We read your schedule about every 15 minutes, so a visit has to be set to Complete by about 5:45 PM to make that evening's 6 PM text. One set to Complete later, or the next morning, won't get one." Change the habit advice to: "set it to Complete at checkout, and have one person scan for anything still Scheduled by 5:30 PM." Here's what works in our office: set the appointment to Complete at checkout as part of the walkout, and before close have one person scan the day's schedule for anything still Scheduled.
Setup takes four things: an API key added in Open Dental, a running eConnector, your Google review link, and switching on the Post-Visit Feedback & Review automation. It's included in Reviews & Messaging at $199.99/mo, month-to-month, with a BAA. "Review requests don't go out during the 14-day free trial. They start the evening your paid subscription begins, so plan your first check for the next morning." No data migration, no conversion and no software on workstations. On that first check, confirm the previous evening's texts went to the patients you set to Complete. That's the quickest way to see whether the front desk habit is in place.
Connect Open Dental through its API, add your Google review link, and turn on the Post-Visit Feedback & Review automation (it starts off). After that, every patient whose visit is set to Complete that day gets a text at 6 PM your time with the link. You don't send anything by hand. The front desk just sets visits to Complete the way Open Dental expects.
The appointment's status. Only Complete triggers it. Scheduled, Broken, Unscheduled List and deleted appointments don't. Marking a patient arrived or confirmed in Open Dental is not enough. If Open Dental shows a visit as Scheduled at 6 PM, that patient gets no text that day, and setting it to Complete the next morning won't send one late.
The review request itself writes nothing. It reads appointments and status and changes nothing in Open Dental: no status changes, no appointment notes, no chart entries. If a patient replies to the text, "If a patient replies and their number matches a chart, two-way texting logs the reply to that patient's Open Dental Comm Log. It's on by default; ask us and we'll turn it off for your office.".
Every patient with a completed visit and a phone number on file who hasn't opted out of texts. Leave the page wording as is. Separately, correct automationCatalog.js 'what'/default_messages and help.js 'impact' to describe the real behavior (sent to everyone, 6 PM SMS / 6:30 PM email, direct Google link), and hide the unwired review_requests options, so the product doesn't contradict the page. The text also invites patients to reply or call with questions, so a concern can come to your office before it ends up on Google.
Say what actually happens: "Each patient whose visit is set to Complete gets a text at 6 PM and, if they have an email on file, an email at 6:30 PM. Both include your Google review link. You can limit the automation to text only in its channel settings." Make the same change in heroDescription, step 3, FAQ 1 and bottomLine. In the voice FAQ, answer: "No. The request goes out by text and email; it doesn't place a call." If you want a phone follow-up after certain visits, your team still makes that call.
Those tools also send review requests from Open Dental data. The difference here is mostly what's bundled with it: Reviews & Messaging at $199.99/mo also includes two-way texting and appointment reminders, and it's month-to-month. If you switch, turn off review requests in your current tool before you turn this one on, so the same patient doesn't get two requests.
No. Whether your office breaks a cancelled appointment, sends it to the Unscheduled List or deletes it, it never shows as Complete in Open Dental, and Complete is the only status that triggers a review text.
This page covers one thing: getting more Google reviews by asking at the right moment. It doesn't post or reply to reviews on Google for you. For the rest of the playbook (timing, wording, private feedback paths and the Google and HIPAA rules for replies), see our guide on getting more Google reviews.
If you're on Open Dental and want more Google reviews, you don't need another system to reconcile. Turn on the automation, and each patient whose visit is set to Complete gets a text that evening with your review link. The request itself writes nothing back to Open Dental. The only thing it relies on is the front desk setting visits to Complete the same day. If your office keeps that habit, the requests go out on their own.
Open Dental is a trademark of Open Dental Software, Inc. Intake.Dental is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Open Dental Software, Inc.
You keep Open Dental. Once you turn on the Post-Visit Feedback & Review automation, Add to step 3: "Visits completed after 6 PM, such as evening appointments, don't get a request.". It thanks them for coming in, tells them how to reach the office with questions, and links to your Google review page. The request only reads your Open Dental schedule and writes nothing back. It also depends on one habit: visits have to be set to Complete on the day they happen.
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