What a reminder text should say, and how many to send

What every reminder needs

A reminder has one job: get the patient to say yes, or to ask for a new time while you can still fill the slot. Four parts are enough.

• The patient’s first name, so they know it is for them.
• The office name, so they know who is texting.
• The day and time of the appointment.
• One clear way to reply.

Leave out the provider’s specialty, the reason for the visit, and anything clinical. Leave out offers and news as well. A reminder that reads like an ad gets treated like one.

Wording you can use

This is the reminder SMSWell’s default template sends:

When Dana texts C, an automatic reply confirms it:

When a patient texts R, the thread waits in the shared inbox for someone at the front desk to offer a new time. A person handles reschedules, because the right slot depends on your schedule that day.

Keep it under 160 characters

A text over 160 characters counts as two on every SMSWell plan. The reminder above is 130 characters, so there is room for a longer name or office name, but not much more.

Full street addresses are the usual cause of an overrun. If patients need directions, put them in the confirmation, or answer when they ask. Emoji and curly quotes can also make a message count as longer than it looks, so keep templates to plain letters, numbers, and punctuation.

How many reminders, and when

Two reminders cover most appointments:

• Two days before. Early enough that a patient who cannot come can tell you, and you have time to offer the slot to someone else.
• Two hours before. A nudge on the day, for the patient who confirmed and then forgot.

Some practices add a third, a week out, for long or first visits. Few need more. Each extra text costs a little, and asks a little more of the patient’s patience.

Send times matter as much as the count. Send during office hours, so a patient who texts R gets an answer while someone is at the desk, and avoid early mornings and late evenings. For a Monday 8:00 AM appointment, two days before is a Saturday; send it Friday afternoon instead.

On the Practice and Group plans, the practice sets the number of reminders and their timing, and each scheduled reminder shows its send time and delivery status in the inbox.

Other texts that do the same job

A reminder is one of a small family of texts that keep a visit on track. The same rules apply to each: first name, day and time, office name, and nothing clinical.

• A booking confirmation, sent when the appointment is made.
• An intake link, so the patient can fill in forms for their own visit before arriving.
• A reply to a question the patient asked.

Intake links are on the Practice and Group plans. Keep the forms themselves behind the link, never in the text.

Confirmations and other replies

Single letters work because they are quick to type on a phone. Keep the letters the same in every reminder so patients learn them.

Expect other replies too. Some patients write "yes" or "ok" instead of C. Others say they are running late, or ask about parking. Those land in the shared inbox for a person to read, and the answer comes from the office number like everything else.

Working out what a missed visit costs

Writing down what no-shows cost tells you how much effort reminders are worth to you. Here is the arithmetic with made-up figures; swap in your own.

With the same made-up figures, two reminders for each of 600 appointments is 1,200 texts a month. The Practice plan, which sends scheduled reminders, includes 4,000 texts for $169 a month per location, which leaves room for confirmations and conversations.

How many of those 30 visits reminders would save depends on your patients and your schedule, and nobody can promise you a number. What you can do is count your own no-shows for a month before you start and for a few months after, then compare.