Retention and recall
Acquiring a new patient costs five to eight times more than retaining one. A systematic email and recall programme keeps your existing patients booking their next appointment, returning for follow-up treatments, and referring people they know.
Book the free triagePatient journey
Email recall works at the retention stage of the patient lifecycle. Retention is where most practices lose money without knowing it. A patient who had a hygiene appointment and then moved to a competitor usually did not make a deliberate choice. They were never asked to return. A systematic recall programme means every patient in your database receives a timely message tied to their treatment history. This is not bulk marketing. It is scheduled communication that patients expect, that costs a fraction of what paid advertising costs, and that your competitors are most likely not running consistently. The infrastructure is a one-time setup that then runs automatically.
Common challenges
A recall email sequence runs automatically. Six weeks before a patient's next check-up window, they receive an email. If they do not respond, a follow-up goes out two weeks later. No manual chasing.
A dormant database is money sitting on a hard drive. We build a reactivation campaign that reaches patients who have not booked in 12 or more months with a specific reason to come back.
Subject line and send time are the two biggest open rate variables. We test both in every campaign and improve on the previous send.
Healthcare recall emails are not marketing emails. They are service communications with a clinical framing. Patients expect them and respond to them. The compliance risk sits with generic promotional email, not appointment recall.
What changes
Patient recall email is the highest-ROI activity in healthcare marketing. The infrastructure costs a fraction of paid advertising and the patients being targeted have already chosen you.
We include referral ask sequences in the annual calendar. A well-timed message asking if someone they know might benefit consistently generates new patient referrals from a trusted practice.
Ready to start
No commitment. We review your current position and tell you what we would change first.
Why OneConsult
We connect the recall sequence to your existing practice management system where possible. Patient data flows automatically without manual exports.
Healthcare recall communications are service messages, not promotional emails. We template them correctly for POPIA compliance and HPCSA advertising guidelines from the start.
We track which patients returned after a recall email and what they booked. You see the direct revenue the programme generates each quarter, not just email open rates.