Automated Recall Reminders with Engagement Online Scheduling send automated messages to patients that are unscheduled for practice-level services, such as hygiene appointments.
In this article, we'll learn how to:
Watch this short video below or follow along with our written step-by-step instructions to learn more!
If you use LocalMed or another third-party online scheduling service and would like to set up recall reminders, please click here.
Review Recall Reminders Verbiage
Before you enable automated Hygiene Recall reminders, review your message verbiage and ensure that your reminder messages include all of the information that your patients need to successfully schedule for their next appointment.
Click on the Settings gear in the upper right corner
Click on the Verbiage tab
Scroll through the list of messages and click on the Hygiene recall section to display all available messages in text, email, and app format
To edit a particular message version verbiage, click on the pencil icon
Add the desired verbiage and placeholders, then click Save
After you've reviewed the message verbiage set up in the Hygiene recall category, click on the Hygiene recall - past due section to display all available past due messages in text, email, and app format and make any desired changes by following the steps outlined above
Click here to learn more about customizing verbiage.
Customize and Activate your Hygiene Recall Automation
By default, Dental Intelligence has set up automated hygiene recall messages with the following automation settings:
Send first recall 4 weeks before appointment due
Repeat recall every 6 weeks if it was not scheduled after the first reminder
Maximum amount of messages sent to a patient who is past due: 4
Ignore patients who are past due over 6 months
Preferred delivery channel: email
Hygiene recalls are added to your TouchPoints dashboard by default when your Engagement account is enabled, but they are inactive and will not be sent to patients until you activate it by clicking on the toggle to turn it green.
You can edit these hygiene recall automation settings and activate them for your practice in just a few clicks in your TouchPoints dashboard.
In the left side menu of Engagement, click on Follow Ups. Then click on TouchPoints
Click on the green Scheduling tile, then click on the 3-dot menu next to Hygiene recall and choose Edit
If you would like to make changes to the default automation settings, update the following touchpoint fields:
Choose the timing: Enter the number of weeks that the first recall should be sent before the appointment due date. Then, enter the number of weeks that a repeat recall should be sent if an appointment is not scheduled
Set rules for past due patients: Enter the amount of messages that a patient who is past due should receive. Choose when to exclude/ignore patients if they are past due by a certain number of months. This will ensure patients that are past due over a number of months do not receive a recall reminder
Select the checkbox to include an online scheduling link with your recall reminder. Choose the service type for adult and child patients
Choose your preferred delivery channel (email or text)
Once you've set your automation preferences, scroll down to preview the message content. Click Show More to preview the message with the online scheduling link included in the body of the message (if you've selected to include a scheduling link with your reminder, this is what your message to patients will look like). Note: If the placeholder :link is not included in the Verbiage content of your message, it will be added at the end of the message automatically
When finished, click Save
Upon clicking save, you'll notice that the hygiene recall TouchPoint toggle will turn green and the status will show as Active. Automated recall reminders will now be sent to your patients
Disable or Delete Hygiene Recall Message Automation
To disable automated hygiene recalls, click on the green toggle to turn it off. The status will show as inactive and the toggle will be greyed out. Once deactivated, automated hygiene recall reminders will no longer be sent to patients.
To completely delete your hygiene recall automation, click on the 3-dot menu next to Hygiene recall and choose Delete.
Please note: Once your automation has been deleted, you will need to re-add the TouchPoint and all of your preferences if you would like to begin sending automated messages to patients once again.
Add an Automated Hygiene Recall TouchPoint
If you've deleted your hygiene recall automation--no worries! You can get it enabled in just a few clicks. To turn on automated recall reminders and start sending them to patients:
In the left side menu of Engagement, click on Follow Ups. Then click on TouchPoints
Click on the green Scheduling tile, then click the blue Add TouchPoint button. Click on Hygiene recall
Next, set your automation preferences:
Choose the timing: Enter the number of weeks that the first recall should be sent before the appointment due date. Then, enter the number of weeks that a repeat recall should be sent if an appointment is not scheduled
Set rules for past due patients: Enter the amount of messages that a patient who is past due should receive. Choose when to exclude/ignore patients if they are past due by a certain number of months. This will ensure patients that are past due over a number of months do not receive a recall reminder
Select the checkbox to include an online scheduling link with your recall reminder. Choose the service type for adult and child patients
Choose your preferred delivery channel (email or text)
Click here to learn how to create service types for Engagement Online Scheduling.
Once you've set your automation preferences, scroll down to preview the message content. Click Show More to preview the message with the online scheduling link included in the body of the message (if you've selected to include a scheduling link with your reminder, this is what your message to patients will look like). Note: If the placeholder :link is not included in the Verbiage content of your message, it will be added at the end of the message automatically
When finished, click Add
Once added, the hygiene recall TouchPoint will show as active. Recall reminder messages will begin being sent to impacted patients within 10 minutes of activation
How Do Recall Reminders Impact Currently Past Due Patients?
Reminders for patients that are past due will send out "X weeks" after the Hygiene Recall touchpoint is enabled. "X weeks" is the number of weeks as entered in the Send first recall X weeks before due field during your set up of the recall reminder touchpoint.
The criteria set in the Hygiene Recall TouchPoint still apply to these past due patients. If a patient receives the maximum amount of recall reminder messages, they will be removed from the recall campaign. If a patient reaches the maximum amount of months past their hygiene due date, they will no longer receive hygiene recall messages.
These settings ensure that your unscheduled hygiene patients that are already past due, still receive a notice to schedule.
We recommend starting your Online Scheduling journey by watching our webinar! We'll show you how to leverage Engagement Online Scheduling in Dental Intelligence to increase the number of visits in your practice.
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