How We Unified Data Using CDP to Skyrocket Growth for a Dental Clinic

"We have patient data everywhere… but somehow we don’t really know our patients."

That was the exact line my client...the Head of Marketing at CitySmile Dental Clinics, told me when we first sat down.

CitySmile was growing fast. Multiple clinics, new locations, heavy digital ad budgets, and thousands of patients interacting daily across their website, call centers, email newsletters, and in-clinic appointments. And yet, despite this mountain of data, they were flying blind.

• Who were their most loyal patients?

• Which digital campaigns were driving real appointments and not just clicks?

• How many patients were dropping off after first consultations?

• Were their marketing budget being spent smartly?

  
  

The data was there....but completely fragmented.

Their data lived in silos: Google Analytics for web traffic, Salesforce CRM for appointments, Facebook Ads Manager for paid campaigns, call center logs buried in spreadsheets, and survey feedback scattered across email inboxes.

This is a problem I’ve seen over and over again, especially in healthcare. And that’s exactly where Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) become game-changers.

So, What is a CDP?

At its core, a Customer Data Platform (CDP) is like building your customer's brain.

It brings together every touchpoint.....website visits, mobile app activity, email opens, ad clicks, appointment bookings, call logs.....and stitches them into a single, unified customer profile.

Unlike CRMs (which are often sales-focused) or DMPs (which deal with anonymous 3rd-party audiences), a CDP focuses on known, first-party data that you fully own, a crucial advantage as 3rd-party cookies disappear.

In other words:

A CDP doesn’t just collect data — it connects the dots.

Image Credit : Redirect notice. (n.d) https://profisee.com/blog/how-mdm-can-maximize-the-impact-of-your-cdp/

The Mission: Turn Fragmented Patient Data into Actionable Insights

For CitySmile, our mission was clear:

• Unify their patient data across channels.

• Build real-time, always-updated patient profiles.

• Drive smarter, personalized healthcare marketing.

  
  

After carefully evaluating multiple platforms, we chose Twilio Segment — a flexible, HIPAA & DHA-compliant CDP well-suited for healthcare.

The Build: Connecting the Dots

🔌 Step 1 — Connecting All Data Sources

We started by integrating every source where patients were interacting:

• Website: Deployed Segment’s JavaScript SDK to track page views, service interests (implants, braces, whitening), and appointment intent signals.

• Mobile App: Integrated SDK for mobile appointment management.

• Salesforce CRM: Integrated appointment records via API.

• Call Center: Ingested booking call outcomes and missed calls.

• Email Marketing: Synced patient email engagement (Mailchimp integration).

• Digital Ads: Connected Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram via native CDP connectors.

Now, every patient behavior....from exploring "Invisalign" pages to canceling follow-up visits was tracked in real-time.

🔑 Step 2 — Identity Resolution: The Heart of CDP

One person might visit from multiple devices. Another might call the clinic but never register online. We needed to reconcile these identities into a single, persistent profile.

Using deterministic matching (emails, phone numbers, device IDs), we built what we called:

Unified Patient Profiles (UPPs)

Now, when Sarah browsed teeth-whitening offers, requested an online consultation, rescheduled via app, and later visited the clinic.... every touchpoint was connected to Sarah as a single, living profile.

🔒 Step 3 — Data Governance & Privacy

Dealing with personal health data meant privacy was critical:

• Sensitive fields were encrypted and pseudonymized.

• Access controls restricted who could view PHI.

• Audit trails ensured full compliance for regulators.

  
  

Thanks to Segment’s HIPAA & DHA compliance features, we achieved this without sacrificing marketing agility.

The Transformation: From Data to Precision Marketing

Once data was unified inside the CDP, new levels of marketing intelligence became possible:

1️⃣ Predictive Segmentation

We trained machine learning models (Python + Scikit-learn) to segment patients into:

• High-Lifetime-Value (HLTV) patients

• Drop-Off Risk patients

• Upsell Candidates for cosmetic procedures

• High-Retention Family Accounts

  
  

Insight Example:

39% of patients who booked regular cleaning twice in 6 months were 3.1x more likely to convert into full smile makeover package buyers.

This directly informed our upsell campaigns.

2️⃣ Churn Prediction

We modeled which patients were at risk of canceling future appointments or switching to competitors:

• Missed cleanings

• Declining appointment frequency

• Decreasing content engagement

Automated re-engagement sequences were triggered through:

• Personalized email reminders

• SMS offers for flexible rescheduling

• App notifications offering last-minute discounts

  
  

3️⃣ Real-Time Audience Activation

With live-updating segments, we pushed audiences into:

• Google Ads (Customer Match)

• Facebook Custom Audiences

• Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journeys

  
  

No more manual list uploads. Audience activation became dynamic, responding to patient behavior instantly.

4️⃣ Next-Best-Action (NBA) Personalization

We built NBA logic like:

"If a patient completes teeth-whitening but hasn’t yet booked orthodontics, offer an Invisalign assessment at discounted rates."

This targeted personalization dramatically increased service cross-sells.

The Business Impact: Real Results

After 6 months of full CDP deployment, CitySmile achieved:

Metric	Before CDP	After CDP
Patient Engagement	28%	45%
Appointment No-Shows	18%	9%
Campaign ROAS	3.1x	4.7x
Patient LTV	620	895
Content Interactions	Flat	+41%

The entire marketing operation shifted from spray-and-pray to precision-driven growth.

Key Takeaways for Marketers & Agencies

• CDP is a competitive edge. In industries like dental healthcare where patient retention is crucial, unifying data gives you a powerful advantage.

  
  

• Personalization drives revenue. Real-time data enables highly relevant, timely offers that boost both engagement and revenue.

  
  

• Agencies who master CDPs dominate. Delivering this level of marketing intelligence gives agencies a huge edge when pitching sophisticated, data-driven clients.

Final Reflection: The CDP Mindset Shift

Looking back, deploying a CDP for CitySmile wasn’t just a technical exercise, it was a mindset change.

We moved the clinic from reactive marketing to predictive patient engagement.

Because in today’s world, data-rich is meaningless if you remain insight-poor. True marketing growth happens when you build your customer brain.

If you're an agency, dental clinic operator, or healthcare marketer reading this:

The question isn’t whether you need a CDP.... The only question is: “When will you start building your own patient brain?”

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References:

• Twilio Segment - Customer Data platform. (n.d.). Segment. https://segment.com/?ref=nav

• Team, A. E. C. (n.d.). What is a customer data platform (CDP)? https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-a-customer-data-platform

Author:

Moiz Deshmukh

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