What is the difference between appointment reminders and confirmations?
📝 Please note: Only Level 4 permission users can set up appointment reminders and confirmations.
Appointment reminder - An SMS text or email that is sent ahead of a patient's appointment to remind them that their appointment is coming up - and may remind them to complete outstanding actions ahead of their arrival.
Confirmation - An SMS that your patients can reply to confirming their attendance at the practice. Replying 'YES' will set the appointment status to 'Confirmed'. Replying 'NO' will set the appointment status to 'Cancelled'.
These are different from recalls, which you can read more about here.
Once set up, these correspondences will be sent automatically to any patients who meet the rule and have agreed to receive correspondences.
💡 Top tip: Data tags can be added to any of these correspondences, to automatically insert personalised data into the message. Data tags can be seen in the dropdown below each correspondence type in the 'Patient Communication' section of the practice settings. Note that data tags might cause the length of an SMS to vary. Read more about data tags here.
How do I set up SMS appointment reminders?
An SMS appointment reminder can be sent to remind a patient that their appointment is coming up, but without requiring any action from the patient.
To set up automated SMS appointment reminders:
In Dentally, go to 'Settings' > 'Practice' then click on the 'Patient Communication' tab.
Complete the fields as needed.
'SMS Appointment Reminders' - Tick the checkbox next to 'Enable SMS reminders?'
'Send reminders' - Select the interval before the appointment when the reminder will be sent. 1 day will be equivalent to 24 hours exactly.
'SMS reminder message' - Set or edit the wording you would like to appear in the SMS confirmation. This field will be automatically populated by a default message, but can be customised.
Remember that the character limit for SMS messages is 150 characters. SMS messages longer than this will be sent as two separate messages, which may incur additional costs.
Click the dropdown 'Show available data tags' to see which data tags are available to you.
When you have completed all fields, be sure to click 'Save'.
How do I set up email appointment reminders?
An email appointment reminder can be sent to remind a patient that their appointment is coming up, but without requiring any action from the patient.
To set up automated email reminder:
In Dentally, go to 'Settings' > 'Practice' then click on the 'Patient Communication' tab.
Complete the fields as needed.
'Email Appointment Reminders' - Tick the checkbox next to 'Enable email reminders?'. The interval before the appointment when the reminder will be sent is dictated by what has been selected in the SMS section.
'Email reminder message' - Set or edit the wording you would like to appear in the email confirmation. This field will be automatically populated by a default message, but can be customised.
Click the dropdown 'Show available data tags' to see which data tags are available to you.
Tick the 'Include a calendar invitation with email (reminders and automations)' checkbox to send a calendar invite with your email reminder.
When you have completed all fields, be sure to click 'Save'.
How do I set up SMS appointment confirmations?
An appointment can be confirmed by sending a text to the patient, to which they can reply with a 'YES' or 'NO' - this will automatically mark the appointment in the calendar as 'Confirmed' or 'Cancelled' respectively.
To set up automated SMS appointment confirmations:
In Dentally, go to 'Settings' > 'Practice' then click on the 'Patient Communication' tab.
Complete the fields as needed.
'SMS Appointment Confirmations' - Tick the checkbox next to 'Enable SMS confirmations?'
'Send confirmations' - Select the interval before the appointment when the confirmation will be sent. 1 day will be equivalent to 24 hours exactly.
'SMS confirmation message' - Set or edit the wording you would like to appear in the SMS confirmation. This field will be automatically populated by a default message, but can be fully customised.
Remember that the character limit for SMS messages is 150 characters. When you send an SMS longer than this, it will be sent as two separate messages.
Click the dropdown 'Show available data tags' to see which data tags are available to you.
When you have completed all fields, be sure to click 'Save'.
📝 Please note: Practice notification texts sent to patients may incur a charge for your practice. Patients also have the ability to reply to SMS messages they receive from Dentally - currently there is no way to disable replies.