VISUAL PIPELINE · HOW IT IS BUILT
What the pipeline stages should be, by practice type
A pipeline is only as useful as its stages, and the right stages for a dental practice are wrong for a therapy practice. Here are the four default sets we ship, the reasoning behind each, and the one setting that matters more than any stage name.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Why one set of stages does not fit
Generic CRM templates ship lead, qualified, proposal, won. Those are sales stages, and a practice that adopts them ends up with every patient in “qualified” and no idea what that means. The stages that matter are the ones where people actually wait: for a consult, for records, for a decision about a treatment plan, for a slot to open. A stage exists so that a person waiting there is visible and so that the wait can be measured.
Therapy
New inquiry, consult scheduled, first session, active caseload. The consult is a free fifteen minutes and it is where the first no-show happens, so it is its own stage with its own reminders. First session is separate from active because a person who attended once and did not rebook is a different situation from one who is in ongoing care. Waitlist is a separate pipeline entirely, because at a full practice it can hold more people than the intake pipeline and it moves on a different clock.
Med spa
Consult booked, treatment plan proposed, treatment scheduled, package or membership follow-up. The middle stage is the one most practices skip and the one where most revenue waits. Package follow-up is a stage rather than a task because a series has a next date, and a card with a date can age.
Dental
New patient, treatment plan presented, case accepted, recall scheduled. Presented and accepted are separate on purpose: the gap between them is the practice’s unscheduled treatment, and a stage is the only way to see it as a total rather than as individual charts. Recall is a stage so that the hygiene list is a pipeline with dates rather than a report someone runs in a slow week.
Medical
Referral received, records requested, visit scheduled, ongoing care. Records requested exists because a card waiting on an outside office should not look like a card waiting on the practice. Referring-provider attribution stays on the card through every stage, which is what makes the referral report possible.
The setting that matters more than the names
Every stage has an aging threshold, and a card past it turns red. New inquiry turns red at 24 hours. That single rule does more for a practice than any other configuration, because it makes the unanswered inquiry impossible to not see. An owner opening the board on Tuesday morning sees three red cards and knows, without asking anyone, that three people wrote in and nobody wrote back. The rest of the thresholds are practice-specific: records requested might be allowed two weeks; treatment plan proposed might be allowed ten days. New inquiry is a day, everywhere.
The thresholds are the practice’s standards written down. Setting them is a fifteen-minute conversation at onboarding, and it is usually the first time the practice has stated how long a person should wait at each step.
What every card carries regardless of stage
- The language tag, ES or EN, from the form.
- The source: referral, search, directory, missed call, walk-in.
- The assigned clinician or coordinator, with each person’s load visible.
- An estimated case value, so stalls can be seen in dollars.
- The full activity history: every message, call, and stage change, timestamped and attributed.
Adjusting the defaults
The four sets are starting points. A practice that runs both a therapy service and a psychiatric medication service has two pipelines. A dental group with an orthodontic wing adds a stage for the records appointment. The defaults are there so the first week is not spent naming columns, and they are changed on the consultation call whenever the practice’s reality is different.
Questions we get asked about this
Why not use the same stages for every practice?
Generic templates ship sales stages, and every patient ends up in 'qualified.' The stages that matter are where people actually wait: for a consult, for records, for a treatment decision, for a slot.
What is an aging threshold?
The number of hours or days a card may sit in a stage before it turns red. New inquiry is 24 hours everywhere; the others are set per practice at onboarding.
What does every card carry regardless of stage?
The language tag, the source, the assigned person, an estimated case value, and the full timestamped activity history.
Can we change the defaults?
Yes. They are starting points so the first week is not spent naming columns, and they are adjusted on the consultation call whenever your practice is different.
Related
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