Question
What do patients see when they receive a reminder for their upcoming appointment, and what does it look like to confirm or cancel it?
Solution
When a patient receives an appointment reminder, they may receive an email, push notification or SMS to remind them of their appointment. They will then have the ability to confirm or cancel their appointment at your practice. This will also depend on the reminder settings you have in place.
- The patient will receive an appointment reminder via email, push notification or SMS where they can open the notification by following the instruction in the message.
(For SMS, encourage them to read the message and click the link however they can alternatively respond Yes/No).
Example of a Email Reminder notification
Example of a Push Notification
Example of a SMS notification
The link in the SMS reminders sent by HotDoc will always include:
- One of these domains: htd.io, hotdoc.com and hotdoc.com.au
- A string of letters and numbers that is unique to the appointment
If you believe a patient received a scam message instead - it doesn't match the above criteria or your chosen wording for reminders - you can ask them to report it (on iOS or Android). For more information on phishing and scam messages, please check thisAustralian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Guide.ⓘ Please Note - Once they've opened the notification, they will be asked to confirm or cancel their upcoming appointment attendance by clicking "Yes, I'm Coming" or "No, I can't make it".
- For SMS : If they click the link in the SMS they will be directed to this screen.
- For email: Once they click the confirm/cancel button they will be directed to this screen:
- For PN: once they patient taps the notification on their mobile, they will be directed to their app where they can click Notifications then "Tap here to confirm or cancel your appointment". They'll then be asked to confirm or cancel. If the patient ignores the push notification, we will send an SMS 2 hours later.
You can add a custom message to this screen with any extra information you want to share with patients. This is optional and can be set up in your dashboard under Reminders > Settings. For more information about how to add this, please see Getting started with Reminders
ⓘ Please note
- If the patient confirms by clicking Yes, I'm coming, they will see a screen informing them of their confirmation:
- If you have an Inform Promotion turned on for Reminders, the patient will view it on this screen:
Example of GP Inform promotion
Example of Dental Inform promotion
For more information regarding Inform campaigns, please see Getting Started with Inform. - The patient may also receive an email confirming their appointment confirmation up to 15 minutes after they confirmed.
- If a patient cancels an appointment, after opening their email, push notification or SMS notification on their mobile device, they will proceed to the following screen:
- After selecting "Yes, cancel appointment" , they will see confirmation of this cancellation and will have the opportunity to reschedule their appointment by clicking Book new appointment:
If the patients would like further information, feel free to send them the following link to our Patient support page: What is a SMS Reminder? |