Camille SuttonLVL 6

@camille-sutton · Jul 10

Eleven hours a week, off one front desk

The full write-up: what we found in the interviews, what we scored highest, and the two weeks the reminders went out twice.

Northwind Dental runs three practices in central Texas. Every recall reminder, every new-patient intake form and every insurance chase went through one front desk.

We spent week one sitting with them. Six interviews, two days on site. The scoring sheet came back with recall reminders at the top by a wide margin — highest volume, lowest judgement required, clearest failure mode.

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The build took four weeks. Reminders pull from the practice system nightly, go out on a schedule the office manager controls, and log back so nobody chases twice.

Week two of the rollout, a timezone bug sent the whole Tuesday batch twice. Forty-one patients got two texts. We caught it because a patient rang to complain, not because we were monitoring — which is its own lesson and the reason every build now ships with a send-volume alarm.

Show rate went up nine points in the quarter after. The front desk got about eleven hours a week back. Renee redeployed it into treatment-plan follow-up, which is the part that actually makes money.