You can set SimplePractice to send clients automated appointment reminders by email, text message, or voice message. The content of the messages can be customized, and all messages are included in both the Essential and Plus plans at no additional cost. You can also set up alerts allowing you to send time of scheduling reminders after you create or reschedule an appointment.
Note: Telehealth appointment reminders are included in all plans. To learn more, see Using telehealth appointment reminders.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- Setting up reminders
- Setting up alerts for time of scheduling reminders
- Important details to know
- FAQs
Setting up reminders
You can turn on and customize client reminders at a practice level. However, clients only receive reminders if they're also enabled at the client level, in the client's settings. To learn more, see Enabling appointment reminders for clients.
Appointment reminders are localized to the client’s time zone, if one is set on their profile. If a client doesn’t have a time zone assigned, reminders will default to the practice time zone. To learn more, see Managing time zones.
The lead time to send the reminder before the appointment can be customized for each reminder type. The options are 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours, or 72 hours before the appointment start time, regardless of the day or time. For example, if your email reminders are set to go out 24 hours in advance, a client with a 2 PM Monday appointment will receive the reminder at 2 PM on the Sunday before.
To set up reminders at the practice level:
- Navigate to Settings > Client notifications
- Select Email, Text, or Voice
- For Email reminders, scroll down to the Reminder emails section and toggle them on
- Use the dropdown to customize the number of hours before the appointment start time to send reminders
Note: You can enable all three types of reminders in your settings, but clients can’t receive all three types of reminders. Clients can receive voice or text reminders, and email reminders. They can’t receive both voice and text reminders.
Setting up alerts for time of scheduling reminders
You can choose to receive prompts to send appointment reminders to clients when you create new or reschedule appointments. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Scheduling > Calendar
- Toggle Alerts to on
When you schedule a new appointment or make a scheduling change to an appointment, a pop-up will appear asking if you'd like to send an appointment reminder to the client. You’ll be able to choose the type of reminder(s) to send, based on the reminder types enabled in your settings.
Note: If your client has incomplete documents and they have email reminders set up for completing documents, they'll receive two reminders when an time of scheduling appointment reminder is sent. The second will be a reminder to complete their documents via the Client Portal prior to their appointment. For additional details, see Setting up reminders for clients to complete their intake forms.
Important details to know
- If you don't have time of scheduling reminders set up, make sure to create appointments for the future with enough time for the reminders to be sent.
- For example, if you have email reminders set to send 48 hours in advance but you schedule the appointment one day in advance, the client won't receive a reminder because the window has already passed.
- You can choose to send either a voice or text in addition to an email reminder (not all three). A client can’t receive both voice and text reminders.
- If a client allows an appointment reminder to go to voicemail, the message may be cut off depending on the cell phone provider's settings.
- If a client accidentally unsubscribes from email or text appointment reminders, you can view and override this by switching the appointment reminder back on. Navigate to the client's Overview page > Edit to do so.
- Check with the client to verify whether or not they meant to unsubscribe from the reminders to ensure that you still have their consent.
- Only one message for each reminder type can be saved.
FAQs
- I see clients in multiple time zones. How do I send appointment reminders that show their local time zone?
- Will I be notified if a client replies to my appointment reminder emails?
- What phone number will text reminders be sent from?
I see clients in multiple time zones. How do I send appointment reminders that show their local time zone?
To set a specific time zone for your client, navigate to their Profile and click Edit. Use the Time Zone dropdown to select their time zone, and their appointment reminders will reflect that time zone. For more information, see Working with clients in different time zones.
If your client’s email address is connected to an external calendar, such as Google Calendar, the calendar invite they receive will also reflect their time zone.
Will I be notified if a client replies to my appointment reminder emails?
Our email appointments reminders are one-way only. The emails are sent from yourprovider@simplepractice.com, which is a no-reply email address. If a client replies to that email, you won't be notified.
If clients reply, they’ll receive a reply message stating, "This is an unmonitored email address that is used to deliver automatic notifications and cannot be used to contact your provider. Call or email your provider directly using the contact information they have shared with you."
Note: We recommend customizing your reminder email message to include a note about reaching out to you via phone or email for questions or concerns, including if they need to cancel.
What phone number will text reminders be sent from?
Text reminders are sent from US phone numbers purchased by SimplePractice. There’s no way to customize this phone number, and the phone number may not always be the same for each appointment.