Sometimes it’s easy to forget appointments we’ve booked weeks, months, and even years in advance. Life happens.
Sometimes our only saving grace is that phone call, email, or text message we may or may not receive a day or two before our scheduled appointments to remind us about them and to confirm that we will be there. Chances are if we’ve forgotten about the appointment, we have already made other plans and need to reschedule – not too big a deal as long as we receive that helpful reminder.
But what happens if we don’t get an appointment reminder? If we’ve forgotten about the appointment, in all likelihood, we just won’t show up, meaning that staff have lost out on filling that particular timeslot that was reserved specifically for us, and we have lost our appointment and may have to pay a no-show fee. Or, perhaps we remember the appointment at the very last minute and arrive 10 minutes late, but this can also create a burden on staff because it now means all subsequent appointments following ours will be running 10 minutes behind – potentially creating a scheduling nightmare.
Rather than staff having to remember to manually send out reminders in the days leading up to client appointments, there is an easy way to reduce the number of no-shows and increase the overall efficiency of the appointment reminder process.
An automated appointment reminder and rescheduling solution can help take the onus off staff for having to manually remember to send out reminders and follow up with those who need to reschedule their appointments. This automated solution can be set up once and left to run on its own with very little human intervention!
You may be wondering how easy it would be to set up an automated appointment rescheduling solution. Well, you will be pleased to hear that with the right software and tools, implementation can occur in as few as five steps.
Let’s go through them now.
Step 1: Build a Reminder Message Template
The first step in the automated appointment reminder and scheduling process is creating the template for the reminder message that will be sent in advance of each client’s appointment. This template will be used by the system to automatically send the message out a pre-specified amount of time prior to a client’s appointment.
The automated solution can leverage personalization tools in order to ensure that each message that gets sent out includes information that is specific to the client, such as their name, the date and time of their appointment, as well as any other personal information that should be included. Instructions for how to reschedule the appointment if needed should also be included in this reminder message template.
Step 2: Send the Automated Reminder
Once the reminder message template has been configured, the automated appointment reminder and rescheduling solution will use it to send out a personalized appointment reminder to each client. This step is completely automatic. As long as you have a record of when each client’s appointment is within the solution, the system will look at this information and know exactly when to send out the reminder.
Step 3: Collect Client Responses
Once the reminder is sent to a client, the next step in the process involves them opening and responding to the message to either confirm their appointment or reschedule. These options can be presented to them in the form of a link or button that they can click on in the reminder message.
If a client simply confirms their appointment, the automated reminder solution will automatically send them a confirmation and a thank you message. However, if they click the link to reschedule their appointment, they will still receive an acknowledgement of their response, but it will also trigger the next step in the process.
Step 4: Notify Staff
Whenever a client chooses to reschedule their appointment through the reminder message, they will trigger an automated task to be generated for a designated member of your staff. This task will indicate that a client needs to rebook their appointment and that the staff member should reach out to them to reschedule.
This task will contain any personal details about the client whose appointment needs rescheduling, such as the client’s name and the date and time of the original appointment. The message can also be personalized with the staff member’s name and other information as well.
Step 5: Follow up with Clients
Once the staff member receives the new rescheduling task, they are able to reach out to the client to reschedule the appointment. This is the only task that cannot be completed by the automated solution since it requires a discussion with the client regarding availability.
After the appointment has been rescheduled, the staff member can then close the automated task, which will send an automatic confirmation to the client with the details of the rescheduled appointment. This will also complete the appointment reminder and rescheduling process!
Interested in an Automated Appointment Reminder and Rescheduling Solution?
If you think that an automated solution would benefit your organization’s appointment reminder and rescheduling process, then SimplyCast has some good news for you!
We have already developed this solution using our suite of all-in-one tools and it is ready for you to implement today! There is no need for you to go searching for different tools you would need to string together to build out this automated process, we’ve already done all the work for you. The solution can be customized and tailored to your organization’s specific needs.
Don’t hesitate to request more information from our knowledgeable team and discover how you can make your appointment reminder and rescheduling process more efficient! Click the button below to request a one-on-one demo of the solution to see how it works first-hand.
