Beyond the Basics: Exploring Innovative Uses of SMS Appointment Reminders

If your business isn't leveraging the power of text message appointment reminders, you're missing out on a versatile tool that can improve customer engagement and reduce no shows. With fewer missed appointments, you'll see less missed revenue and a more efficient scheduling system. But appointment reminders aren't the only thing this powerful software can do. Below, we'll discuss three potential uses for automated text reminders that can improve client communication, fill missed appointments, and help you refine your business practices.

Three Uses That Showcase The Versatility of Text Message Appointment Reminders

Share Important Details for Scheduled Appointments

The primary use for SMS appointment reminders is, no surprise, sharing upcoming appointment details with your clients. Text reminders are easy to access on a client's phone, and they provide key information like place, provider name, and time that can be understood at a glance. Not only do these text message reminders to your customers help them remember the important details of their scheduled services, but they also reduce the administrative tasks associated with client communication.

When sending text message reminders, here's a few key details to keep in mind. First and foremost, make sure the text messages are straightforward and don't include unnecessary information. You want your client to quickly file the relevant information away, without taking too much time out of their busy routine. You should also take advantage of text message reminder templates to add a personable tone to your communications, without adding too much extra work for your administrative staff. Lastly, for those in the medical field, ensure that when you send SMS reminders, you're not including information that could qualify as a HIPAA violation--protecting patient data comes first.

Gather Customer Feedback With Reminder Texts

Pulling in customer feedback can be challenging, whether you're conducting phone surveys or using a comments box. Your reminder service can be used to send follow-up texts as well, asking clients for their feedback on their recent appointment, while their thoughts are still fresh in their mind. These text message follow-ups include a link to fill out a brief survey, asking clients to rank their experience both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Clients who rank their experience 9 or 10 on a scale out of ten are highly engaged with your services, and likely to recommend them to friends, family, and others. These clients are a valuable asset, and using your text message appointment reminders, you can invite them to fill out a positive review for your business' online pages. These positive reviews will help you build a substantial brand and attract new clients over time. Best of all, this whole process can happen rapidly via text message--a client can complete a survey and leave a review in just a few minutes.

For clients who are dissatisfied, and rank their experience a 6 or below, you have quick insight into the factors that made them walk away with a negative impression. Using text reminders, you can immediately address this client, inquiring further about their dissatisfaction and offering them refunds or discounts to show that you take problems seriously. Pay close attention to what these clients have to say about your business. They may be highlighting key shortcomings that are impacting other clients as well, even if no one has complained about it yet. Taking quick action to resolve these problems can help you retain clients and minimize problems that could dissuade new clients from using your services.

Fill Open Appointments With SMS Reminder Software

An advanced reminder service will include extra features that can benefit your business, such as a waitlist functionality. Even with a reduction in no shows and last minute cancellations, it's inevitable that some clients will need to cancel shortly before their appointment, due to the demands of life and unexpected occurrences. When this happens, your business stands to lose money from that open appointment slot--unless you can fill it with another client who's eager to get in. That's where a waitlist functionality comes in.

This option allows you to specify client groups with similar appointments. When a slot opens up in your calendar, you can automatically contact the corresponding list, informing them of the new appointment time and offering it on a first come, first serve basis. All clients have to do for an appointment confirmation is respond to the automated text message reminder. Once someone does, the appointment is spoken for, and other members on the waitlist are automatically notified that the appointment slot is filled.

Using this offering from your text reminder service makes it much easier to remain adaptable and responsive in today's fast-paced environment. You'll benefit by losing less money from appointments left open, and your clients will appreciate the opportunity to move their scheduled service forward. Best of all, the whole process is automated with text reminders. In the past, your administrative staff would have had to call clients one by one until someone took the offered appointment. This new method allows you to send reminders in bulk for greater speed and efficiency.

Templates for Sending Appointment Reminders

Now that you know how many different ways you can use an appointment reminder text service, here's a few text message templates that you can put into action.

For an Upcoming Appointment

For a personal, professional feel:

Hi [Patient Name], your appointment with [Provider Name] is at [Time] on [Date] at [Service Location]. If you have any questions or need to reschedule, please call [Office Phone Number].

For a fun approach:

We're excited to see you on [Date] at [Time]. If you have any questions, let us know at [Phone Number].

Text Messages to Gather Client Feedback

On initial follow-up:

Thanks for your recent visit to [Business Name]. If you could take a moment to fill out a brief survey, we'd appreciate it. [Survey Link]

Once the survey has been completed:

Thank you for your response! We take your suggestions seriously as we look to improve our business.

For positive responses:

We're glad to hear you enjoyed your visit. If you would be willing to leave an online review, it would help us out a lot. [Review Link]

Send Reminders for a Waitlist

On initial appointment opening:

An appointment at [Business Name] has opened for [Date] at [Time]. If you would like to claim this appointment, reply YES to this message.

Once the appointment has been filled:

This opening has been filled. We look forward to serving you soon at [Business Name].

Get the Benefit of Appointment Reminders With Reminderly

Ready to employ all the features discussed above, plus plenty more? Reminderly offers a powerful suite of appointment reminder tools, all at one affordable price. With two-way communication, multi-channel offerings across text, phone, and email reminders, a waitlist function, and integration with all common scheduling tools, it's easy to integrate Reminderly into your workflow. Give it a try with our free two-week trial, or learn about all of our product features.