22.22. Confirmations and Reminders

Clinic HQ has a confirmations and reminders section located under settings. Communications has three subsections: confirmations and reminders, email attachments, call and text add-on. See the chapter on communications for detailed instructions on this subsection.

On Confirmations and Reminders, there are several tab sections:

• Appointment Confirmations
• Appointment Reminder
• Item Reminder
• VC Reminder
• Text for Pickup

Setting Up Confirmations

These communications are sent out when an appointment is created/confirmed.
After clicking +Create Appointment Confirmation, a window pops up where you can provide relevant details like a Reminder Name. You can easily separate reminders by animal type and animal age.

Fill in the relevant information:

For Animal Restrictions – if nothing is selected it will go to all animals under the chosen client type(public/volume.)
When creating the email/text/robo call message, utilize the fields within the setup to populate the real information about the client, animal, or date.

When you’re done, click on Save Reminder Data to save it.

!When building messages for Volume Clients, do not use the #AnimalName#. This field will not populate since when scheduling VC appointments, the animal details are not known yet.

Setting Up Reminders

Reminders go out closer to the event date. Determine the delivery method, appointment type, the audience, and sending schedule for your reminders.

When creating appointment reminders designate the recipient and tailor the message appropriately to who the reader will be. By selecting from the dropdown menu the “Send reminder for:” choose the client type, Portal users, or VCO (Volume Client Owner.)

Appointment reminders can be set up to go out however many days before the appointment you think is best. This is the Sending Schedule and the key difference between the communication of the confirmation and the reminders. A Sending Schedule can be 1 day, 3 days, and 14 days before. This is a clinic specific preference.

Understanding the “Send reminder for” options:
Public Clients – the individual person/pet owner the appointment is scheduled under.
Volume Clients – the organization the appointment is scheduled under
VCs that use the VCP – organizations that use the Portal. They may be reminded to enter animal details in their Portal.
VCs that do not use the VCP – organizations that do not use the Portal this may be groups such as your own internal shelter animals or trappers. They would not be reminded to enter animal details through the Portal.
Volume Client Owners – the VCO is the owner listed on an animal’s appointment under the Owner section. A VCO is not the same as the VC.

*Reminders for Volume Client Owners
If you need a reminder to go to the Volume Client Owner, this should be its own reminder setup, separate from the Public Client or Volume Client communications. The VCO’s contact details/profile should have been added to the appointment by the VC via the Portal.

Clinics will often prefer to set up both an email and a text reminder for public clients in the event the client does not have an email on file. Here is a sample text reminder that would accommodate the needed message length.
Example:
REMINDER for #AnimalName#’s appointment tomorrow, #Date#. Check in at 8AM. Review your email for instructions. To reschedule/cancel call 000-000-0000.

When creating the email/text/robo call message, utilize the fields within the setup to populate the real information about the client, animal, or date. Remember that if the reminder is a text, the character length will change based on the actual animal name or date populated. Tip – stay under the 160 count when using the fields in the text setup.

!DO NOT USE the mobile location field in text reminders. The field is coded to produce a link to Google maps. The code is not compatible an SMS format.

Setting Up Vaccine or Item Reminders

Item reminders can be used in many ways to send emails or texts to the clients post visit. Item reminders can be used to send surgery follow up, vaccine booster reminders, preventative purchase refill reminders and more! An item reminder utilizes the services/products on an animal’s appointment. Only if that item was on the checked out appointment will the client receive a communication.
Key elements in the setup:

• Specify a duration. How long it is good for?
• Specify the services/products the duration and communication are for.
• Specify a sending schedule. How many days/weeks before it is “due” should the communication be sent?
• What is the message for the client?
  

You can also set up an item reminder for vaccines or for any item you sell or service you provide like heartworm tests, annual exams, etc.
In this setup, select the line items you would want to remind the client of like vaccines are due. Perhaps 1 year from now – this could include several different line items (Rabies 1 year vaccine, DAPPV 1 year, FVRCP 1 year, etc.)
Using the applied field “#Item Name#” in the message will insert what item of those would be due for that animal. It will only include the items that were previously given to an animal. The item duration would be how long the item is good (such as 1 year) for and the sending schedule would be when you would want to send the reminder/ how many days before its due should the notification go out? (Such as 30 days.)

Read more about vaccine booster reminders HERE or post surgery follow up HERE.

VC Consent Reminders

Here you can add reminders for your volume clients to sign their consent forms. This message reminder will go out for clients that have not yet started signing consent forms. If the client has completed their consent forms, the reminder will not be sent.

When filling out the reminder information, click the button indicating that these reminders will be VCP reminders.

What about Public Clients needing a reminder to sign their consent form?
For public appointments, the consent reminder system is automatic. The client will be sent a consent reminder every two days until they sign. Once signed the consent reminder will cease.

Text for Pickup

Here you can create the message used for when an animal is marked as “Done” in Patient Flow. You will need to coordinate the text message with the setup of the Automation in Patient Flow Setup.
First, create the automation rules for how the text should be sent in Settings > Patient Flow Setup > Automations.

Next, create the text message that will be used with the automation and go out for when animals are done with Spay/Neuter, Wellness, Recheck, or All appointments.

Example Text for Pick up wording:
Public Spay/Neuter:
Hi! #AnimalName# is out of surgery and is waking up. He/She will be ready to be picked up in 2 hours. We will see you then!
Volume All Appointments Types
Hi there! #AnimalName# is done. Please notify your transporter/foster parent that they will be ready for pick up in 2 hours.

As with all text messages, the length of the drafted message should be under 160 characters. Outgoing text message rates apply.

Disabling reminders for one animal in particular

Let’s say an owner calls and lets you know that she received a reminder for an animal that passed away. The client can either opt-out of future emails via an opt-out link or you can mark the animal as deceased in HQ, and they will no longer receive reminders.

To do that, Search Clients/animals to find the owner.

Go to the animal tab and click the edit to mark a particular animal as deceased.

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