The automatic appointment reminder in iSend is an automation of the "Appointment" type, which reads the date and time field of each contact and sends an SMS at a time you define before the appointment, from 15 minutes to 2 days. The message can contain a personal link with which the customer confirms or cancels. Appointments reach the platform in three ways: entry on the contact, import from a file, or sync with Google Calendar.
What you need before you start
- A contact group for the customers with appointments, for example "Patients" or "Salon customers".
- A date and time field in the group, for example "Appointment". You add it from the group's field settings. The next appointment of each contact is written in it.
- An active Sender ID, so that the customer sees the name of the practice or the store.
How you set up the automation
- In the Automations menu press New automation and select the Appointment type.
- Give it a name, for example "Reminder one day before".
- Select the contact group and the date and time field of the appointment.
- Set the time offset: how long before the appointment the message goes out. The options start at 15 minutes and go up to 2 days. The most common setting is 1 day before.
- Write the message. The personalization tags work, and the
{APPOINTMENT_LINK}tag inserts the confirmation link. - Check the time zone, Europe/Athens, and save. The automation is activated immediately and continuously checks which appointments are approaching.
For two reminders, for example one day before and two hours before, you create two automations on the same group with a different offset.
Example message
{FIRST_NAME_VOC}, this is a reminder of your appointment tomorrow at 11:30 at the Papadopoulos Medical Practice. Confirm or cancel: {APPOINTMENT_LINK}
The message is sent in uppercase without accents and without the STOP line, because it is a reminder that the customer themselves requested, not advertising. Keep it under 155 characters including the link, as explained in the article on characters per SMS.
The confirmation link
When the customer taps the link, they see a page with two buttons, Confirm and Cancel. Their answer is recorded on the platform, so that you can see who confirmed and who cancelled. The link is personal for each appointment and requires no login or password.
How appointments get into the platform
By hand. You open the contact and fill in the appointment field. Suitable for a few appointments per day.
From a file. The CSV import updates existing contacts, so a file with phone number and appointment date, which you export from your program every morning, is enough to fill the field.
From Google Calendar. In the Integrations menu, Google option, you connect your account, select a calendar, a contact group and the appointment field, see a preview of the upcoming events and press Sync. Each event is matched to a contact in the group. Events without a matching contact are skipped, and the platform shows how many were added, how many were updated and how many were skipped. The article on connecting Google Calendar has the steps and the matching rules.
After the appointment
In the account settings there is the option Google review request after an appointment. A few hours after each completed appointment, the customer receives an SMS inviting them to leave a review, with the link to your Google profile. You define the text. It is charged as a regular SMS.
Expiries instead of appointments
For vehicle inspections (KTEO), insurance policies and servicing, which recur every year, there is the separate Expiries menu. You enter phone number, name, license plate or reference, type and expiry date, or import them from CSV. The reminder goes out automatically 14 days before each expiry, daily at 09:30. After the renewal you press Renewed and the date moves to the next year.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the appointment time changes?
You change the field on the contact, or the calendar sync changes it. The automation reads the current value at the moment it checks, so the reminder goes out based on the new time. If the change happens after the reminder has been sent, send a message by hand from the contact.
Can the customer reply to the SMS?
With an alphanumeric Sender ID, no, which is why the confirmation link exists. If you want replies by SMS, you need a virtual number as the sender.
Is the reminder charged?
Yes, like every SMS, one credit per message part. A medical practice with 20 appointments per day and one reminder per appointment consumes about 20 credits per day. Packages and prices are listed in the pricing.