Appointment Reminders

Email And Text Message Reminders

Appointment reminders are automated messages sent to patients shortly before their appointment to remind them of the time and date and ask them to confirm their attendance. Reminders go by email and SMS — both channels work in this stage, unlike Confirmations which are email-only.

The email reminder carries significantly more information than the SMS: the event name, practitioner, office address, an OutSmart Meet link for virtual visits, a note to complete any outstanding intake forms, and a confirm-attendance button. The SMS is the timely, glanceable ping that gets read even when the patient isn’t checking email — “you’re booked tomorrow at 10” with a confirm link. Configure both whenever you can; the email is essential, the SMS catches patients who’d otherwise miss the email.

Why SMS Is Used at the Reminder Stage but Not at Booking

OutSmart sends SMS only for reminders, never for confirmations. At booking time, the email carries the substance — intake forms, custom messages, attachments — that an SMS cannot. Sending a duplicate SMS confirmation alongside the email would risk patients dismissing the email as redundant and missing the forms they need to complete. By the time the reminder fires close to the appointment, the forms have already been sent and the SMS becomes a useful, timely nudge. See Appointment Confirmations for the booking-time flow.

Sample Reminder Email

Sample Reminder Text Message

Purpose and Difference from Confirmation Emails

In contrast to the Appointment Confirmation Email (sent immediately after booking), the Reminder Email’s primary purpose is to serve as a courtesy reminder for an upcoming appointment. It also prompts the patient to confirm their attendance.

The Reminder Email includes certain default information, such as the date and time of the appointment, the practitioner’s name, and the office address. You can customize the message content itself, as well as control when and how many reminders are sent.

Setting Up Auto-Reminders

Appointment reminders are configured within the Event Type Manager, which is part of the Calendar Module. Each event can have its own reminder settings.

Note

Important: Automated Reminders are only sent for events with a “Booked,” “Pending,” or “Left Message” status. If an event has a different status like “Cancelled”, “No Show”, etc., a reminder will not be triggered. All new events default to a “Pending” status, so reminders will automatically be sent unless you change the status.

Accessing the Event Manager

To configure auto-reminders, you first need to access the Event Manager.

1. Open the Calendar Module by clicking the purple calendar icon in the top right toolbar.
2. Once the calendar is loaded, click the “gear” icon located to the right of the calendar.
3. From the calendar settings menu that appears, click Event Manager.

Note

Note for Admin Staff: If you are logged into an Admin account, you will see a Practitioner Selector in the top toolbar of the Event Manager. This allows you to select the practitioner whose events you want to edit. Be sure to select the correct practitioner before configuring their events.

Adding a Reminder to an Existing Event Type

1. Go to the Event Manager screen and find the event type you want to edit. You can use the search bar at the top right to locate it.
2. Click the “edit event” button located in the right-most column. This will open the Event Type Editor.
3. In the editor window, look for the Reminders Configuration section towards the bottom of the list of settings.

Note

We strongly advise that you include a reminder disclaimer in your consent forms. There are many reasons why a client may not receive a reminder, such as the email going to their spam folder or the client having unsubscribed. It’s important to communicate to your clients that these reminders are a courtesy. While we make every effort to ensure delivery of the reminder, they are ultimately responsible for attending their appointments regardless of whether they receive a reminder.

Controlling the confirmation button in reminder emails

When a patient clicks the confirmation button in a reminder email (or the matching link in a reminder SMS), the appointment is marked as confirmed in your calendar — and no further reminders go out for that appointment. That’s the right behavior for the last reminder, but if a patient confirms too early on a far-out reminder, they stop getting any further reminders and may end up missing the appointment.

You have two ways to manage this, both in the same Reminders section of the event type editor:

Option 1: Only show the confirmation button on reminders within X days of the appointment (recommended for most cases). Enter a number of days, and the confirmation button only appears in reminders sent within that many days of the appointment. Far-out reminders go out without the button, so patients still get the heads-up but can’t confirm-and-stop-the-reminders yet. The close-to-appointment reminders include the button so patients can confirm when it actually matters.

For example: set this to 2 if you want only the reminders going out within 2 days of the appointment to include the confirmation button. A 5-day-out reminder still goes to the patient, but without a confirm option — they’ll get another reminder closer to the date that does have the button.

Option 2: Disable the confirmation button entirely. No reminder ever includes the confirmation button or link, so reminders keep going on their schedule right up to the appointment. Use this when you don’t want self-service confirmation at all — for example, if your clinic relies on manual phone-call confirmation by reception and the email/SMS reminder is just a courtesy heads-up.

To set either option:

1. Open the calendar and click the gear button at the top right.
2. Select Event Manager.
3. Find the event type you want to configure and click the edit button on its row.
4. In the event type editor, scroll to the Reminders section near the bottom. The two settings live here — the “days before” field for Option 1 and the disable toggle for Option 2.

Adjusting the confirmation button in reminder emails