Effective Appointment Reminder Delivery Schedule

Having the most effective reminder schedule is one of the main ingredients in maintaining strong attendance rates. Good reminders also promote good behaviors around rescheduling or cancellation requests. Life happens. We get it. No one can make all their appointments all the time. But when you constantly remind your patients about how they can shift their schedule if they need to, you are going to make your patient happy by being a provider that can cater to them. You will also keep your staff happy by productively creating opportunities to fill open appointments.

What’s the best time to send out an appointment reminder?

So, what is the best delivery schedule? The answer will largely depend on your practice’s way of operating your day and the types of appointments you see. However, over the last 10 plus years, RSI has analyzed the conversion data for over 300,000 appointments. From here, we can give you a pretty good starting point. Practices that have an 80% attendance rate or better generally follow the below delivery structure.

At Time of Booking

• Text Confirmation

Four Days Before

• Text Reminder
• Email Reminder

Three Days Before (stagger the delivery in this order)

• Text Reminder
• Email Reminder
• Voice Reminder

Two Days Before

• Text Reminder
• Voice Reminder

One Day Before (stagger the delivery in this order)

• Text Reminder
• Email Reminder
• Voice Reminder

Same Day

• Text Confirmation

What should I say in my appointment reminders?

Be short and to the point. You want to deliver all the important information a patient might need but it doesn’t all have to live in the reminder. Answer the ago old who, what where when and why in the reminder. Leave out the “how” by using hyperlinks to keep the content in the reminder simple. You can direct them with links in your reminder to places like the procedure page on your website, pre and post-op instructions, patient paperwork, patient portals, etc.

Below are examples of effective reminder language you can use.

Text Reminders:
Patient Name, Please CONFIRM your appt. HERE with Practice Name, on Date & Time at Location Address. If you need to cancel or change your appointment, please give us a call at (000) 000-0000. All appointments must be canceled 48 hours in advance or cancellation fees will apply.

Voice Reminders:
This call is for Patient Name, you appointment with Practice Name is on Date & Time at Location Address. To confirm your appointment press one. If you need to cancel or reschedule, please press two to be connected to our office.

Email Reminders:
Hello Patient Name, your next appointment with Practice Name, is on Date & Time at our City location.

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO CONFIRM YOUR APPOINTMENT

If you need to cancel or change your appointment, please give us a call at (000) 000-0000. All appointments must be canceled 48 hours in advance or cancellation fees will apply.

You can afford to include more information in your email reminders. Insert practice-specific information below the main message:

• Link to map for directions
• Patient portal or paperwork
• Link to before & after gallery
• Link to procedure page
• Link to pre-op instructions & aftercare instructions
• Link to the cancellation policy
• Instructions on what to bring to the appointment
• Suggested arrival time

How should I handle no-shows?

If your attendance rate is still low once these best practices are in place, you can implement a no-show or cancellation fee and collect a credit card at the time of booking. If you already have one, make sure you add it to your reminders. When appointments are missed you should have automated follow-ups in place via text and email that prompt the patient to reschedule.

All of this is meant to run in tandem with human follow-up. You can’t rely solely on automation, but automation is the insurance you need that every patient gets consistent and timely reminders and follow-ups for their appointments.