How appointment reminders work
Up to three timed reminders per appointment, each going out by text, voice, email or WhatsApp. When a patient confirms, the reminders still queued for that appointment cancel themselves, so nobody gets nagged after they have already replied.
Setting the schedule
One grid controls when reminders go and which channel carries each one.
- Up to three timed reminders per appointment, each with its own interval
- Text, voice, email and WhatsApp toggle independently on every interval
- A common pattern is email three days out, text two days out, then a voice call the day before
- The screen states the resulting schedule in plain language, so a misconfiguration is visible before saving
- Allow Weekend Delivery: with it off, a weekend reminder goes on the preceding Friday instead
- Skip Weekends in Timing: count only business days, so three days before a Monday appointment means the preceding Wednesday
One schedule does not fit every appointment
A surgical follow-up and a routine cleaning should not get the same reminder, at the same interval, on the same channel. Reminders can be targeted by who, where and what kind of visit, in any combination.
- By provider, so one clinician's patients get different wording or timing from another's
- By location, which matters as soon as a practice runs more than one office
- By appointment type, so a procedure with preparation instructions reads differently from a check-up
- By status, department, resource, visit type, referral source or confirmation status
- By any combination of the above: up to ten conditions on a single rule, all of which must match
- A single condition can hold several values, so one rule covers MRI or CT without being duplicated
- Ten custom fields carried over from your practice management system can also be matched on
What happens around a single appointment
The part that matters is what stops, not just what sends.
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Reminders go out on your schedule
Each active interval sends on its configured channels. The appointment details are merged in, so the patient sees their own date, time and provider.
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The patient replies
You define what counts as a confirmation. Replies like C, 1 or yes can all be accepted, and the wording of the automatic response back to the patient is yours to set.
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Remaining reminders cancel themselves
Once the appointment is confirmed, any reminders still queued for it are cancelled automatically. This is the single biggest reason practices stop getting complaints about too many messages.
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Everything is recorded on the patient
Each message and each reply appears in that patient's history, so a did-they-get-it question is answered by looking rather than guessing.
Questions we get about reminders
How many reminders should we send?
Three to four per appointment is the practical ceiling. A typical pattern is email three days out, text two days out, and a voice call the day before. More than that is where complaints start.
Do patients keep getting reminders after they confirm?
No. When a patient confirms, the reminders still queued for that appointment are cancelled automatically. Nobody has to remember to stop them.
What happens with weekend appointments?
Two settings. Allow Weekend Delivery off sends a weekend reminder on the preceding Friday instead. Skip Weekends in Timing counts only business days, so three days before a Monday appointment lands on the Wednesday.
What reply counts as a confirmation?
You decide. C, 1, yes and similar replies can all be accepted, and the automatic answer the patient receives back is configurable per channel.
Which channels are available?
Text, voice, email and WhatsApp, toggled independently on each reminder interval, so one appointment can use different channels at different times.
Can reminders be paused?
Yes. Outbound messaging can be suspended entirely for a holiday closure or an outage, then switched back on without rebuilding the schedule.
The automated call mispronounces our practice name. Can that be fixed?
Yes. Phonetic settings let you correct how a name is spoken, and a test call lets you hear the result before patients do.
Can we change the wording?
Yes, per channel. Text, voice and email reminders each have their own message content, so a spoken reminder can read differently from a text.
See the schedule built for your appointment types
We will set the intervals with you and show what a patient receives at each step.
Talk to our team