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ScaleEngine
The Research

PROJECT_01

Have you ever wondered what a patient actually experiences when they reach out to your practice?

The State of Patient Enquiry Performance in UK Dental Practices 2026

Nationwide coverage — UK study mapA map of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Around two dozen study practices are marked as hollow rings, scattered across every region from Scotland and Northern Ireland down through the north of England, the Midlands, Wales, the South West and the South East including a cluster around London. The study covers all regions, all practice types, to one standard.

Over the next 90 days members of the ScaleEngine team will be making patient enquiries to dental practices all over the UK.

We are working through a list of over 2,000 practices, each assessed against a framework covering every stage of the enquiry.

The result is a dataset the industry has never had. A definitive benchmark of what exceptional looks like, what critical looks like, and exactly where the gap is between the two.

What we are measuring.

Every practice is assessed against exactly the same standard using a controlled anonymous patient methodology.

A standardised patient persona contacts every practice in exactly the same way. Same enquiry. Same channel. Same timing. This is not a survey or a self reported assessment. It is a firsthand experience of what a real patient goes through when they first reach out to a practice.

Response times. Personalisation. Information clarity. Follow up cadence. Every touchpoint documented, scored, and benchmarked. Every practice treated the same. No variable except the practice itself.

That standardisation is what makes the data meaningful.

Why this matters.

We are not just studying how practices handle enquiries. We are testing a hypothesis we deeply believe in.

Does a great enquiry process directly correlate with great clinic performance.

We want to know whether the way a practice handles its enquiries has a measurable impact on the metrics that matter most to a practice owner. Because if it does, and we believe it does, the enquiry process stops being an administrative function and becomes one of the most important performance levers in the business.

The only way to prove that is to study it at scale. With standardised methodology. Real data. No assumptions. That is what this study is built to do.

By connecting enquiry experience to real business outcomes, we uncover what actually drives growth.

OUR HYPOTHESIS

Great enquiry experience
Higher patient confidence
More consults booked
More treatments completed
Stronger clinic performance

THIS IMPACTS WHAT MATTERS MOST

Consultation rateMore show up from qualified enquiries
Treatment valueHigher value cases booked & accepted
Patient retentionStronger long term relationships
Clinic growthSustainable and predictable growth

THE RESULT

We move from opinion to evidence.

From assumptions to a national benchmark.

For clinic owners.

With a list this size, there is a good chance your practice has already been assessed without you knowing.

If you would like to understand what a patient really experiences when they contact your clinic, how your enquiry is handled, how you communicate, how your follow up feels from the other side, this is how you find out.

Request your results below. If your practice has already been assessed, we will send them straight over with a short personalised video breakdown from a member of the ScaleEngine team.

If we already have your data, it is yours. If we do not, a request puts you next in line.

Without the report

  • You assume your process is working.
  • You don't see where patients disengage.
  • You have no benchmark to measure against.
  • You guess what needs improving.

With the report

  • You see the full patient experience.
  • You know exactly where opportunities are being lost.
  • You compare against 2,000+ practices nationally.
  • You get a clear roadmap to improve performance.

OPT IN

If you would like to find out whether your practice is on the list, has already been assessed, or would like to request it to be added, simply fill out the form below and we will be in touch directly.

Your information is secure and will only be used to send your report.