Easy Ways to Eliminate Client No-shows with Appointment Reminder Services

As people become increasingly busy and active after months and years of covid-related delays, appointments are harder to remember than ever. Doctors, dentists, healthcare providers, accountants and many other professionals face significant revenue losses due to missed appointments. Studies have found that no-show rates vary by industry, but can frequently average between 15%-20%.

Missed appointments also effect clients, not only because they missed a service that they wanted or needed, but they may face cancellation fees and trouble rescheduling. When clients miss an appointment, they often blame you for the long rescheduling times (even though we all know it was their fault for missing the appointment).

Missed appointments are bad for everyone. Reducing no-shows increases revenues and ensures that clients remain loyal and happy!

Missed appointments make patients frustrated with you

Even though it is their fault, patients get angry and frustrated at themselves AND you when they miss appointments. Especially for newer patients, this may result in them not rescheduling with you in the future.

Frustration rescheduling

You have built a successful practice and your time is valuable. When a patient misses their appointment, it frequently takes a while for you to have another opening.  Patients are angry that they already waited a while to see you and now they have to wait even longer.  That frustration is often directed at you even though they were the ones that missed the original appointment.

Anxiety and disappointment

Many patients have anxiety about seeing you.  They know they need your help, but they are nervous about the news they will hear or the ultimate costs they will incur.  Making appointments with doctors or other professionals already cause consumers and patients increased anxiety, but missing the appointment makes them much less likely to reschedule and receive the help and services they need.

Guilt and embarrassment

Most people feel bad when they miss an appointment because they know they wasted someone else’s time. They are ashamed of missing an appointment and feel that their provider may be angry with them. This added pressure sometimes results in consumers being too embarrassed to reschedule.

Cancelation fees

No one likes paying cancelation fees.  Even though cancelation fees are usually well documented, patients still think they are “unfair” when they must pay them.  Some patients get so irritated by them that they may not return to the provider that charged them.

Reasons People Miss Appointments

Forgetfulness

We all get busy and sometimes we misplace information about our appointment or write it down wrong. We’ve all been there – you have a feeling that you are forgetting something but can’t think of what it might be. You look in your calendar but don’t see anything. With no other options, you miss an important appointment with your dentist for a biannual cleaning and the dentist does not have any more openings for several months.

Reminders came in the wrong form

Email, text, and phone calls are all important forms or communications these days.  Generally speaking, younger populations love sms reminders and frequently ignore phone calls, while older populations prefer email or phone calls and frequently ignore texts.  Though with that said, countless people don’t fit into those rules.  Though most people do have a preferred form of communication and other forms of communication that they frequently ignore.  Personally, I check my texts and emails within 1 hour, but my voicemails may go ignored for days.  While my father has no idea how to check text messages on his phone, he will always pick up an incoming call. If you send the wrong type of reminder to your clients they may never get the message, making that reminder useless.

Transportation

Getting to your office can sometimes be too difficult for customers to overcome.  In some cases, their car may need to be in the repair shop; for the elderly, they may need to rely on a friend or family member to take them. Difficulty in finding transportation to their appointment is one of the most cited reasons for missed appointments.

Language barriers

You may be serving many clients whose first language isn’t English.  For these clients it may be difficult for them to understand the instructions that they have received in English.  Misunderstand just one or two words may cause enough confusion for them to inadvertently miss their appointment.

Critical information changed

Businesses change locations, construction causes parking to be a nightmare (could take an extra 30 minutes to find a spot), or in the case of the pandemic, masks were required.  Whatever the reason, sometimes the situation changes temporarily requiring additional preparation for your clients. If they don’t know or simply forgot, they may miss their appointment.  

Work or personal issues

Sometimes life happens. We’ve all been there – a last minute meeting or a family emergency. These are usually last minute and completely unavoidable. To be honest, there isn’t anything that can be done to avoid these.

Simple strategies for eliminate no-shows

Although there are a multitude of reasons why people miss their appointments, the good news is that there are some easy ways to mitigate most of them.

Implement an appointment reminder service

Automated appointment reminders are an easy way to eliminate most no-shows. If you choose the right reminder app for your practice, your reminder service should fit easily in your existing workflow. In most cases, our automation will save your staff hours of work each day while also delivering a service that your customers will appreciate and love.  Solutions like Reminderly are easy to use, increase revenues, and increase patient satisfaction.

Offer customers a choice between text reminders, voice reminders, and email reminders

Offering your clients choice of text reminders, voice reminders, and email appointment reminders will ensure that your messages are not lost in the ether.  We even have clients that proactively send a combination of all three messages to their clients.  You just want to make sure that your appointment reminders and notifications are landing where your clients look most often. Text messages and emails can easily be searched, but for those that don’t use a smart phone, phone calls are still the most effective. Giving your customers choice will ensure that they get the message and don’t miss their appointment with you.

Include additional information besides the date and time of the appointment

Sending appointment reminders are an excellent way to remind patients of an upcoming appointment while also providing the necessary details for locating the office, parking instruction, arriving with the correct PPE per the office’s guidelines, etc. We even have clients that include different transportation options for elderly clients.

Offer reminders in multiple languages

If you have clients who’s first language isn’t English, you may want to offer them reminders in their native language.  Some people understand English in written form better than spoken or vis-a-versa. So combining multilanguage support with your client’s ability to choose sms, voice, or email reminders ensures that everyone gets the information that they need.  At Reminderly, we currently support 10 languages.

Allow customers to respond back to your reminders

For the inevitable “life happens” moments, you want to make sure that your clients can easily and quickly let you know that they can’t make it.  That will give you time to offer the time to another client.  Many of our clients say that the best part of using Reminderly is that they get plenty of advanced notice when a client has to cancel.  With Reminderly, your clients can text or call your Reminderly number back and we will immediately forward you the message or voice call – it makes it completely seamless for your clients to get in touch with you.

How Reminderly can help

Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, Reminderly can help. We integrate with many appointment scheduling software including Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and other EHR solutions. We aim to offer superior functionality at an average price.

• We offer text message reminders, voice call reminders, and email reminders. You can send a combination to all of your clients or you can specify different methods for different clients.
• Our reminders are 100% customizable. You can specify which information to include so that you can create the perfect messages for your clients. You can even vary the message based on the appointment type (e.g., new clients may need a slightly different message).
• We offer reminder messages in 10 different languages.  We want to make sure that you can communicate with your clients in the language that they prefer.
• All communications are two-way.  We get a ten-digit phone number just for your business (and it is in your local area code).  All SMS and voice reminders will come from that number.  If your clients text the number back, we will forward the messages to you in real-time; and if you clients call the number back, we will forward the calls to your main line.  We make it easy for your clients to get in touch with you.

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