Show rate
Show rate is the share of booked consultations where the patient physically attends.
Benchmark full arch show rates sit near 60 percent. A refundable consult deposit of 50 to 100 dollars moves that toward 78 percent, which is the highest return single operational change available in this funnel and costs nothing to put in place.
The trade is real and worth stating. A deposit lowers top of funnel volume, because some patients will not commit even a refundable amount. It raises the quality of everybody who does, and it lowers cost per seated arch while making lead volume look worse.
The formula
Divide the number of consultations the patient attended by the number of consultations booked, over the same cohort.
show rate = consultations showed / consultations booked
What is included and what is excluded
Counts
- Attended consultations, in person or virtual
- Late arrivals who were still seen
- The full booked cohort as the denominator
Does not count
- Rescheduled appointments, which move to their new date
- Consultations cancelled by the practice
- Leads that never booked, which are not part of this ratio
A worked example
A practice adds a refundable 75 dollar deposit and compares two months.
- 01Month one booked: 25, showed: 15, 15 / 25 = 60 percent
- 02Month two booked: 20, showed: 15.6, 15.6 / 20 = 78 percent
- 03Bookings fell by 5, attended consultations rose by 0.6
Fewer bookings and slightly more attended consultations, on the same media spend.
How this differs from
- Booked
Booked is the denominator of this rate.
- Showed
Showed is the numerator of this rate.
- Consult to start rate
Show rate ends at the door. Consult to start rate begins there.
These definitions come from our published measurement standard. Read The Arch Standard for the reporting rules they sit inside, or see every term.
Want this measured in your practice? A consult walks through how we track it, if that is useful.
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