This article will show you how you can set your Consultation Forms to be sent to your clients automatically by Email and/or SMS a few days before their appointment.
In this Article
You can automatically send up to 2 messages (1 SMS and/or 1 Email) to your clients before their appointments, with links to complete their Consultation Form.
How to Enable Auto Send
To enable auto-sending Consultation Forms, go to Manager > Consultations > Auto-Send Forms.
Navigate to the Email Notification and SMS Notification areas at the left of the screen, then enable your settings > Choose how many days before an appointment each message should be sent > Click Save to finish.
If you enable both SMS & Email notifications & choose to send them at different times, and the client completes the form before receiving the second notification, the second message will not be sent.
Note: SMS Notifications are charged at your standard SMS rate.
You can use the Preview buttons to see what the message will look like
Note: The messages cannot currently be edited.
Recommended Sending Times
We recommend sending an Email Notification 5 days before the appointment and an SMS Notification 3 days before.
If your client completes their Consultation Form after receiving the first message, the second message will not be sent.
We do not recommend sending both SMS and Email on the same day. Email should be used as the first notification, with SMS being a follow-up if the client has not completed their form.
When is the Message Sent?
The message will be sent 'x' days before their appointment at a random time between 8 am and 10 pm. The client can complete the form up to and including the day of their appointment. The link expires the day after the client's appointment.
We do not recommend sending the form 1 day before the appointment because the message might arrive at 10 pm, which might be too late for your client to complete it.
Appointments Within the 'Days Before' Schedule
If a client's appointment date is sooner than your Days Before conditions, then the Consultation Form will not be sent automatically. However, you can still send the Consultation Form to the client manually.
Rescheduled Appointments
If a client received a Consultation Form message by SMS or Email and then rescheduled their appointment, another message will be sent to the client, provided their new appointment date meets your Days Before sending time (if not, you can send the form manually) and the client has not already completed the form. If they have completed the form, another message will not be sent.
How Can I Check if the Message Was Sent?
Go to Clients > Search for and click on a client to open their profile > Communication > Filter the Message type to Consultation Form.
What Does the Message Look Like?
See the screenshots below for the Email message (left) and the SMS message (right).
The wording in these messages cannot currently be edited.
Once clients tap the link in the message, they'll be brought to a page to complete their form. If they have multiple forms to complete, they will see each form listed here to be completed individually.
The client can complete the form up to and including the day of their appointment. The link expires the day after the client's appointment.
Client personal information will be auto-populated on the form, provided the information exists on their Client Card. However, the consultation form questions will not auto-populate and will need to be answered by the client each time they receive a form, regardless of whether they've received the form before. If the client updates any of their personal details (name, contact information, address, etc.), these will be updated on their client profile after the form review has been completed.