3 min readClient communication
Before you switch on a reminder
Five practical questions to ask about any automatic message: what starts it, who receives it, what it says, when it arrives and where a reply goes.
A reminder is a small message with a real effect on someone’s day. Before relying on it, follow the whole journey from your appointment diary to the client’s inbox.
Begin with the message your client will see
Choose a fictional appointment and preview its reminder. Check the date, time, location and contact details. Read it on a small screen if possible. The useful question is simple: would the recipient know what to do next?
Keep the wording suited to your practice and the client’s agreed contact preferences. Consider what appears in a phone notification as well as inside the message. An appointment title or practice name may reveal more than a client expects.
Check five things before using real details
Use the same short checklist for confirmations, reminders and document requests.
- The trigger: does saving, changing or completing an appointment start the message?
- The recipient: which email address or phone number will be used?
- The content: are dates, fees, links and contact instructions correct?
- The timing: how far ahead will it be sent, and are other reminders also active?
- The reply: where does a response arrive, and who will read it?
Check active settings, not just the feature name
In Numa Health, some reminders and form messages are switched on from the start and go out when their conditions are met. Typing appointments in yourself doesn’t switch them off. Check each one before you use real client details.
Scheduled messages follow rules. For each reminder, understand the rule and its exceptions.
Plan for the ordinary exceptions
Decide what you will do if a contact detail is wrong, delivery fails or the appointment changes after a message has been sent. Check the message history before sending another reminder. Stopping a future message is different from retracting one that has already arrived.
Keep the first setup small enough to understand. Once you can explain what starts the message and what the client experiences, you have a clearer basis for deciding whether that rule belongs in your practice.
Next step
What gets sent, and when