Sending SMS/Text Appointment Reminders to Clients

Sending SMS/Text Appointment Reminders to Clients

Overview 

ICANotes+ enables you to send reminders to your clients about their scheduled appointments via text messages to their mobile phones. This feature helps reduce no-shows and enhances client engagement with your practice. Once a reminder is sent, clients have the option to confirm or cancel their appointments.


This knowledge base article provides a guide on how to enable the SMS/Text Reminder service for your clients, along with additional settings to ensure seamless communication.

 

Prerequisites 

Before you can send SMS/Text appointment reminders to your clients, ensure that the following configurations are completed within the system: 

 

  • Enable the SMS/Text Appointment Reminder Service
  • Configure Additional Settings 
  • Enable SMS/Text Appointment Reminder Service for Clients Individually
  • Enter the Client's Mobile Number

 

 

Enable SMS/Text Appointment Reminder Service

To start using the SMS/Text Appointment Reminder Service, you must first enable it. 

 

  1. Navigate to Settings > Calendar Settings > SMS/Text Appointment Reminders.
  2. Click the Enable Appointment Reminder Service button.

 

 

 

Once you enable the SMS/Text Appointment Reminder Service, a screen will appear informing you about the charges associated with this service. Click I Agree to proceed. 

 

 

 

After this, you will be prompted with another screen where you can choose to enable the service for all clients of your practice by selecting Yes.

If you prefer to enable this feature only for specific clients, select No, I'll enable SMS reminders manually for each client. 

 

 

 

Configure Additional Settings

ICANotes+ provides a variety of settings that allow you to customize how appointment reminders are sent to your clients. The screen below shows all the settings available for configuring SMS/Text reminders. Each setting is detailed beneath the screenshot. 

 

 

  • Clients Can Cancel Appointments: Enable this feature to allow your clients to cancel their appointments when they receive your text message reminder on their mobile phone.

 

  • Cancellation Limit: This setting lets you specify a time frame during which clients are allowed to cancel their appointments. For example, if you set the cancellation limit to 24 hours, clients will not be able to cancel the appointment if there are 24 hours or less remaining. If you choose the 'No Limit' option, clients can cancel their appointments at any time. The available options for the cancellation limit are:
    • No limit
    • 1 hour before
    • 3 hours before
    • 24 hours before
    • 48 hours before

 

 

  • Require Clients to Confirm Your Appointments: Enable this feature to allow your clients to confirm their appointments when they receive your text message on their mobile phones.  

 

  • Automatically Confirm Appointments: Enable this feature to automatically confirm appointments when they are requested by client portal users. If this feature is disabled, you will need to manually confirm appointments from the calendar. 

 

  • Clients Can Confirm or Cancel via Text Message: Enable this feature to allow your clients to confirm or cancel their appointments via text message from their mobile phones. 

 

  • When Should Clients be Reminded via SMS: This option allows you to schedule reminders to be sent at your desired times. For instance, you can schedule a reminder to be sent one hour before the appointment, or four days before. You can send multiple options from the list. The available options are:

    • One Hour Before
    • Two Hours Before
    • One Day Before
    • Two Days Before
    • Three Days Before
    • Four Days Before

 

Manually Setting SMS/Text Reminder Service for Individual Clients  

If you choose not to enable SMS/Text Appointment Reminders for all clients by default, you must enable it individually for each client to send them text reminders. 

 

To enable this feature for an individual client:

  1. Navigate to Chart Room > Communications > Appointment Reminders.
  2. Select the Send SMS/Text Appointment Reminders checkbox.

 

 

 

 

Enter the Client's Mobile Number 

Before sending SMS/Text appointment reminders to your clients, make sure that their mobile number is recorded in the system. 

 

To verify and enter a client’s mobile number, navigate to Chart Room > Demographics > Contact > Phone Numbers and click the Edit button. 

 

 

On the following screen, ensure that the client's mobile number is recorded. 

 

 

FAQs 

You can find the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on our Knowledge Base page.


Click here for quick access to the FAQs.
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Need additional assistance?

Phone: 443-203-5857 

Text: 866-301-0085

Email: ticket@icanotes.com

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Proprietary Notice Information: This article is provided for informational purposes only, and the information herein is subject to change without notice. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained within this article is accurate, ICANotes cannot and does not accept any type of liability for errors in, or omissions arising from the use of this information.

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