Data Dictionary: BrightSmile Dental Booking Data
Column Definitions
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| date | DATE (YYYY-MM-DD) | Date of the booking |
| clinic_id | TEXT | Clinic identifier. One of: Jinniu, Wuhou, Chenghua, Qingyang, Shuangliu, Gaoxin |
| patient_type | TEXT | Either "new" (first visit at any BrightSmile clinic) or "returning" (has a prior visit) |
| service_category | TEXT | One of: general, cosmetic, orthodontics, implant |
| booking_source | TEXT | How the patient was acquired. One of: walk-in, online_booking, referral, wechat_ad, kol. May be null for walk-in patients where the source was not recorded |
| revenue | DECIMAL | Revenue from this booking in Chinese Yuan (CNY). Always positive |
Business Terminology
- New patient -- A patient visiting any BrightSmile clinic for the first time. A patient who visits Jinniu first and then Gaoxin later is "returning" at Gaoxin
- Returning patient -- A patient who has visited any BrightSmile clinic before this booking
- Booking source -- The acquisition channel that brought this patient in:
- walk-in -- Patient walked in without a specific referral or ad exposure
- online_booking -- Patient booked through the BrightSmile website
- referral -- Patient was referred by an existing patient. Before the campaign, all referrals were organic. During the campaign, referrals include both organic and bonus-driven (CNY 200 referral bonus program). The data does not distinguish between these before the campaign start date
- wechat_ad -- Patient booked after seeing a WeChat advertisement. Only tagged if the patient booked through the WeChat link. Patients who saw the ad but booked by phone are not tagged (estimated 15-20% uncaptured)
- kol -- Patient booked through a local Key Opinion Leader (KOL) partnership link or code
- Service categories:
- general -- Routine checkups, cleanings, fillings, extractions
- cosmetic -- Teeth whitening, veneers, bonding
- orthodontics -- Braces, aligners, retainers
- implant -- Dental implant procedures
Notes
- The dataset covers two full calendar years of bookings across all six clinics
- The Gaoxin clinic opened on October 15 of the second year. All records for Gaoxin begin on that date. Because it is a new clinic, all patients there are classified as "new" -- this is factually correct but can inflate new-patient metrics if Gaoxin is included in campaign analysis
- Bookings typically increase in Q4 (October-December) due to scheduling before Chinese New Year and school holidays. This seasonal pattern exists in both years, independent of any marketing campaign
- The marketing campaign ran from October 1 to December 31 of the second year
- booking_source has approximately 3% null values, primarily from walk-in patients where the front desk did not record the source