Send a short survey the day after a routine visit, wait until after the follow up for an extraction or surgery, and never send it while the patient is numb or in pain. In GoHighLevel a survey, a Wait step, and an If/Else on the score do it. The bottom line: keep the survey separate from the review request, because dental practices are the ones OCR has penalized for the way they answered reviews.
When to send, by visit type
| Visit | Send | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning or exam | The next day | Fresh memory, and nothing clinical pending |
| Filling or crown | 2 days later | After numbness and sensitivity have passed |
| Extraction, implant, or surgery | After the follow up call or visit | Avoids contacting a patient in pain |
| Emergency visit | After the follow up | Same reason |
| Child visit | The next day, to the parent | The parent answers |
Three questions
| Question | Type |
|---|---|
| How would you rate your visit? (1 to 5) | Rating |
| Was it easy to book, check in, and understand the cost? | Yes or no, with a comment line |
| Is there anything we should fix? | Short text, optional |
Keep it generic. It should not ask about the procedure or condition, and the link and text should carry no health information. A low score creates a task for the practice manager the same business day, which gives the practice a chance to fix a billing mistake or a long wait before it appears in a public review.
Survey and review are different
A survey that sends happy patients to a review site and others to a private form is review gating. Google's policy, as quoted by review vendors, prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews, and the FTC's 2024 reviews rule targets suppression. Send review requests to every patient, separately. The larger risk for dental practices is the reply: a dental practice paid $10,000 in 2019 after replying to a Yelp review with a patient's treatment and cost details, New Vision Dental paid $23,000 in 2022, and another dental practice received a $50,000 civil money penalty for disclosing patient information in response to a review. A compliance firm advises that the only permissible replies are a thank you or an invitation to contact the office.
Build it in GoHighLevel
A third party guide describes GoHighLevel surveys as embeddable multi step questionnaires, and the help page on conditional logic in forms and surveys describes actions that respond to answers.
- Create the survey with the three questions and a thank you message.
- Build a workflow with the Appointment Status trigger set to Showed Up that branches on a Visit type tag.
- For cleanings and exams, wait one day. For fillings, wait two days. For surgical visits, start from the follow up visit instead.
- Send the link by text or email according to the patient's preference, with generic wording.
- Add an If/Else on the rating. A rating of 1 to 3 creates a task for the practice manager.
- Tag the contact Survey completed and stop the workflow.
- Build the review request as a separate workflow that goes to every patient, as in our review guide.
Survey, review request, and phone call compared
| Method | Purpose | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | Find problems the practice can fix privately | Low, if generic |
| Review request | Help future patients find the practice | Gating and incentive rules apply |
| Phone call from the manager | Repair a specific problem | Staff time |
The three do different jobs. A survey asks the practice's own question and keeps the answer private. A review request asks for a public opinion, and its rules come from Google and the FTC. A call fixes one patient's problem. Mixing them, for example by sending only happy survey respondents to a review site, turns a service tool into a gating mechanism.
Worked example
For example, a practice that sees 800 visits a month and gets a 15 percent response has 120 answers (800 times 0.15). If 10 percent are low scores, that is 12 patients (120 times 0.1) the manager can call, which is 12 chances to fix a problem privately.
Mistakes to avoid
- Sending while the patient is numb or in pain. Wait.
- Using the survey to filter review requests. That is gating.
- Replying to reviews with details. OCR has penalized this.
- Ignoring low scores. Assign a task.
How this was handled before
Practices left comment cards at the front desk and read them at the end of the month. Online surveys sped that up. The new risk is the public review, where privacy rules limit what a practice can say back.
What to measure after launch
Track surveys sent by visit type, responses, low scores followed up the same day, and review replies approved. Audit every public reply against the policy each quarter.
Check before you switch it on
US text messages sent from a standard 10 digit number need A2P 10DLC registration. The HighLevel support portal says registration is required for texts to US recipients from 10 digit long code numbers and that toll free numbers do not require it. HighLevel's opt in guidelines also say a person cannot be forced to agree to text messages in order to submit a form, so keep the consent box optional. One compliance guide separates informational texts, which need documented consent, from marketing texts, which need prior express written consent. Ask your attorney which category your reminders fall into. Have the privacy officer approve the survey wording and the review reply policy. This is general information, not legal advice.
Questions people ask
When should a dental survey be sent?
The next day for routine visits, two days after a filling, and after the follow up for surgery.
Should the survey decide who gets a review request?
No. Selective solicitation is review gating. Send review requests to every patient.
What have dental practices paid OCR over review replies?
$10,000 in 2019, $23,000 in 2022, and a $50,000 penalty against another practice.
Ready to try it yourself? Start a GoHighLevel account here.
You can also see this in action in our GoHighLevel capabilities demo.