Support Center

When creating and editing automations it is good to keep a few things in mind.

Be mindful of the quantity of automated messages a patient receives. If there are too many automations for a practice or enterprise, a patient could end up receiving many text messages because their appointment info meets the logic of multiple automations. We suggest the less automations, the better. If you only need to send a handful of automated messages infrequently, we suggest utilizing broadcasting or campaigns instead.

Consider what the patient sees. It is best to keep your messages short, sweet, and to the point. If a message is too long, it can show up in multiple messages to a patient.

Ensure the delivery of the message. Sometimes text messages will fail due to the content of the text message appearing as spam to the phone carrier. The delivery of automations are most successful when they meet the following:

1. Less than 160 characters.
2. Includes at least 2 smart phrases, preferably 3. One of which should be unique to the patient, like {clientFirstName} or {eventDateAtTimeShort}
3. Duplicates of the same message are not sent in one day.
4. Include long links at the beginning or middle of the message; even though they will automatically be shortened if the link is at the end of the message it could be split to a second text message. Put the link in the beginning or middle of the message where possible.
   1. Note: If the message is broken into multiple messages, there is a risk that the portion of the text message with the hyperlink will be blocked by the phone carrier and then delivered via the fallback number. This will seem odd to a patient.
5. Sending the appropriate messages securely. 

Don't accidentally send messages too early. Be careful about marking 24 hour thank you messages (or another post-appointment text messages) to only send on business days.

• If you do this, automations sent for Friday appointments will be sent before the weekend occurs (which will end up being at or around the patient's appointment time on that Friday).

Verify resource names display appropriately. If  you will be including a location name, practice name, or provider name in your automations (in other words, if you will use any Smart Phrases that pull these in dynamically), you need to ensure that:

Below are examples of automations that meet our best practices guidelines.