ℹ️ Who this tutorial is for
Do you want to send special instructions, aftercare advice, or a personalised follow-up to a patient after they receive a particular treatment? Now you can automate it.
Follow-up emails can be used in many ways. Here are some popular use cases:
Surgery or injection aftercare information
Asking a patient how their new Orthotics (or any other product you’ve dispensed) are
Checking in on whether a patient is feeling good after their treatment
Asking if their prescribed treatment is working well for them
Letting a patient know what to expect following a treatment
You can completely customise your follow-ups based on the specific treatment type received, or even the invoice item billed.
✋ Looking to follow up with clients who have no upcoming bookings? Check out Reactivations instead.
📋 What you'll need to do
💌 Create a Transactional email
⚡️ Connect an Email trigger to it
💌 Transactional Emails | ⚡ Email Triggers |
Automated emails sent in relation to specific Cliniko appointments or invoices. Can be marketing OR non-marketing content. | Specify the who, what, and when of your transactional email, giving you complete control over patient targeting. Only used for Transactional email. |
📱 Wanting to send this as an SMS? Just skip ahead to Step Two - these instructions are applicable to both email and SMS.
🎨 The email template
Peptalkr provides several pre-built appointment templates, including follow-ups. When you create a transactional email, you can use one of these as a starting point for your follow up email, customising the subject line, sender details, email content and design to suit your needs - or create your own from scratch or any other template.
⏱️ The timing
The timing of your follow-up is flexible. It can be sent:
✔️ Immediately after the appointment
✔️ A few days later
✔️ Even weeks or months later for long-term follow-up
Example 1: For a surgery or invasive procedure:
Immediately after surgery – Send an aftercare advice sheet
One week later – Follow up to check how the patient is recovering
Example 1: For new Orthotics:
Same day – Send instructions on using and caring for them
Six months later – Check how the Orthotics are working
🚨 Important: Each interval requires its own 💌 Transactional Email and ⚡ Trigger.
💌 Step One: Create a transactional email
Go to the Email manager tab > Transactional Emails to create your follow-up email.
🔗 Check out our guide to creating a transactional email if you have never done this before, or need a refresher on this this process.
→ Follow-up subject line examples
Here are some subject line ideas a Podiatrist might use:
Subject Line | |
Email #1 | Important information following your Nail Surgery |
Email #2 | How are you feeling after your surgery? |
Email #3 | How are your Orthotics going? |
Once you have created and pressed Finish on your Transactional Email and you see the Ready to start triggering message - it’s time to connect a trigger.
→ Sender name and email
You can choose the Name and Email address that sends each email.
Follow ups are often best sent from the specific practitioner who treated them, but it's fine to send as the business or even Reception/Admin.
🔗 Check out our guide to setting a sender name and email here.
⚡️ Step Two: Connect a trigger
Go to the Email triggers tab to complete this step (or the Send SMS tab if doing as an SMS).
🔗 Check out our guide to creating an email trigger if you have never done this before, or need a refresher on this this process.
→ Trigger settings
When you create a trigger, you'll be walked through the steps to configure your trigger to your specific needs.
To demonstrate, here are some examples of settings:
Example 1: Surgery Aftercare
Setting | Value |
Trigger Name | Follow-Up – Surgery Aftercare |
Trigger Type | Automated Recurring |
Marketing Type | Non-marketing |
Triggering Event & Timing | After an appointment; 1 hour later |
Filters | Select relevant appointment types |
Frequency | Every time the conditions are met |
Template | Select the email you created in Step One |
Example 2: Orthotic Dispense
Setting | Value |
Trigger Name | 6-Month Follow-Up – Orthotic Dispense |
Trigger Type | Automated Recurring |
Marketing Type | Non-marketing |
Triggering Event & Timing | After an invoice is marked paid; 180 days later |
Filters | Select relevant invoice items |
Frequency | Every time the conditions are met |
Template | Select the email you created in Step One |
✅ Ready to turn on
💡 Helpful Tips:
Keep things simple by creating one email for each product or billable item, or appointment type that requires individualised follow up.
Start with just one interval - the most useful one. Add more intervals only as needed.
Use [variables] to personalise the content inside your emails to the receiving patient.
🎯 Final Checks:
✔️ Test your email before enabling automation
✔️ Ensure your trigger is correctly targeting the right patients
✔️ Check delivery reports to monitor email success
🚀 That’s it! Repeat this process as many times as needed until you cover all scenarios where you wish to send a follow up.