Does HotDoc have a loyalty program? (What GP clinics need instead)

No. HotDoc is a patient booking platform for Australian medical practices. It has no loyalty program, membership tiers, treatment wallet or branded client app. HotDoc handles appointment scheduling and reminders for GPs and specialists. Retaining cosmetic patients between visits is a separate job that HotDoc was never built to do. In short: HotDoc books patients; it does not bring them back.

Here is an honest breakdown of what HotDoc actually does, where the retention gap opens for GP-run and doctor-led aesthetic clinics, and how to close it without replacing HotDoc. If your clinic runs on HotDoc and Best Practice, the fix is a retention layer alongside them, not a new booking system.

What is HotDoc?

HotDoc is an Australian-built patient booking platform used by thousands of medical practices across Australia. Patients use it to search for and book appointments with GPs, specialists, skin-cancer doctors and allied health providers. For clinics, HotDoc provides online booking, automated appointment reminders, digital pre-appointment check-in forms, telehealth links and waitlist management.

HotDoc integrates with leading Australian practice management software, including Best Practice and Medical Director, which makes it the most common booking front-end for GP-run and doctor-led aesthetic clinics. If your clinic combines a general or skin-cancer practice with a cosmetic arm, there is a strong chance HotDoc is handling your patient bookings on the medical side.

What HotDoc was not built to do is give cosmetic patients a reason to return. That is a retention job, and the HotDoc feature set stops at the appointment itself.

Does HotDoc have a loyalty or rewards program?

No. HotDoc does not include a loyalty program, points system, membership tiers or any form of patient rewards. There is no HotDoc feature that earns a patient points for attending, creates a membership that gives them a structural reason to keep coming back, or sends a push notification from your clinic when they are overdue for their next cosmetic appointment.

This is not a design failure. HotDoc was built for general practice, where Medicare-funded consults drive attendance and appointment volume is not the core retention challenge. For a doctor-led aesthetic or skin clinic that wants to convert one-off cosmetic visitors into loyal, high-value returning patients, HotDoc simply does not have the tools for that job.

The HotDoc loyalty program gap is particularly acute for clinics that have built a database of thousands of patients through the GP or skin-cancer side of the practice. That database exists, but without a retention layer, there is no systematic way to move those patients into the cosmetic program or recognise their loyalty when they do.

What does HotDoc do well for GP aesthetic clinics?

For the booking and appointment management job, HotDoc is genuinely strong. GP-run and doctor-led aesthetic clinics typically use it because it does what practice management software like Best Practice was not designed to do at the patient-facing layer:

• Online self-booking for patients. Patients can find the clinic on HotDoc and book appointments without calling the front desk, across both the medical and cosmetic sides of the practice.
• Automated appointment reminders. SMS and email reminders reduce no-shows without manual effort from reception, which matters for time-poor GP-run clinics.
• Digital check-in forms. Pre-appointment health forms are sent and completed digitally before the patient arrives, reducing front-desk admin and improving clinical preparation.
• Waitlist management. Patients can join a waitlist for a specific practitioner, and HotDoc notifies them when a slot opens.
• Integration with Best Practice and Medical Director. Appointments booked through HotDoc sync with the practice management system, keeping records and billing in one place.

These are real strengths for the medical side of a hybrid practice. The gap is everything that needs to happen after the appointment to bring the cosmetic patient back.

HotDoc only vs HotDoc + Clinic App

HotDoc books the appointment. Clinic App handles everything that needs to happen between appointments to make sure the patient books again. They do different jobs and they sit alongside each other.

How do I add a loyalty program to a HotDoc clinic?

You do not need to replace HotDoc. Clinic App is designed to sit on top of your existing booking and practice management systems as a retention layer. Your HotDoc bookings, Best Practice records, and clinical workflows stay exactly as they are. Clinic App adds the branded client app, loyalty points, membership tiers, treatment wallet and automated rebooking prompts that HotDoc does not include.

For doctor-led and GP-run aesthetic clinics, the setup that works is: HotDoc handles booking and appointment management; Best Practice (or Medical Director) handles clinical records and billing; Clinic App handles cosmetic patient retention, loyalty and membership. Each system does the job it was built for.

One thing worth noting for the doctor-led clinic context is that a well-designed loyalty program for this segment should feel premium, not transactional. The clinics we work with in this space use structures like a "skin membership" with priority booking access and exclusive treatment credit -- not a punch-card scheme. The retention mechanics matter, but so does the way the program is presented. For a deeper look at what a loyalty program for Australian clinics looks like in practice, that guide covers the options and how to choose between them.

Zoe Wogan

Co-founder, Clinic App

Zoe co-founded Clinic App and works hands-on with cosmetic clinics and med spas across Australia on patient retention, memberships and loyalty that keeps clinics on the right side of the TGA.