Can I send calendar invites to patients from Dentally?
Calendar invites (sometimes known as iCal) can be sent in patient communications (reminders and confirmations). When a patient receives a calendar invite, they can click to download it from the email, and it will automatically appear in their personal calendar app.
This improves the patient experience and reduces the risk of failure to attend - making it easy for those who use a digital calendar to add their upcoming appointment with minimal effort.
Calendar invites are completely optional, so patients who do not wish to download the calendar invite are not obliged to do so.
📝 Please note: At this time, calendar invites can only be sent in emails.
How do I add a calendar invite to an appointment reminder?
Calendar invites can be included in email appointment reminders. How you do this will depend on your preferred workflow.
To add a calendar invite using 'Practice Communications' settings:
Follow these steps to enable email communications.
When you have set up your email, click the 'Include calendar invitation with email (reminders and automation)' tickbox, before clicking save.
To add a calendar invite using 'Automation' settings:
Create a new automation rule, or edit an existing one.
In the 'Message' section, ensure your automation is set up to send via email, and click the 'Include calendar invitation with email' tickbox.
📝 Please note: If the calendar invitation option is selected, they will be included in all emails sent as a result of automation.
How do I help a patient whose calendar invite is showing the wrong time?
Occasionally patients will encounter this issue - usually because of the settings on their own device.
You can suggest that they check their device settings to ensure that they show time zones accurately. Within the device's settings, the patient has the ability to define their date/time and time zone settings. These can be manually set on the patients device:
Android
Settings > System > Date and time
Set time automatically: Yes
Set time zone automatically: Yes
Use location to set time zone: Yes
iOS
Settings app > General > Date & Time
Set Automatically: Yes
Some calendars also have independent settings available, which should be set to match the device settings for best results.
Google Calendar
Open Calendar > Settings > General
Use device's time zone: Yes
Outlook and Apple calendars should use automatic settings by default.