🧠 What you'll learn:

How to design a reactivation strategy that automatically reminds patients to rebook — at the right interval, with the right message, targeting the right people. You'll also learn how to build a series of reactivations and get more sophisticated with targeting over time.

Introduction to reactivations

Most patients don't disappear on purpose. Life gets busy, the pain goes away, or they simply forget to book. Reactivation emails and SMS do the following-up for you — automatically, while you're busy treating the patients who are already in the door.

Done well, reactivations feel helpful, not pushy. A well-timed message from their treating practitioner asking "How are you going?" is something patients genuinely appreciate.

This guide walks you through planning your reactivation strategy from scratch, so you can set it up once and let it run.

💡 Already set up the basics? The quick start tutorial walks you through a simple 30-day reactivation in 10 minutes. This article is for when you want to go further.

How to set up reactivations

Read through the planning steps below to design your strategy
Follow the quick start tutorial to build and turn on your first reactivation
Duplicate and expand your setup once the first one is running

Step 1: Choose your timing intervals

The timing of your reactivations depends on your treatment type and how regularly your patients typically visit. There's no single right answer — but here are the most common patterns:

Interval	Best for
Same day / next day	A thank-you after the appointment, prompting them to book their next visit while they're feeling great
2–4 weeks	High-frequency treatments (e.g. physio, chiro, remedial massage) where rebooking soon is medically recommended
2–3 months	Maintenance-based services, or a catch-all for anyone who hasn't rebooked yet
6 months	Annual or seasonal treatments, or a mid-year check-in for lapsed patients
12 months	The final push — annual reviews, orthotics, or a "it's been a year" nudge

💡 Tip: Start simple. Set up one catch-all reactivation at 30 or 60 days that applies to every patient. Once that's running, layer in more specific intervals and targeting as needed.

🚨 Important: Each interval requires its own Transactional Email and Trigger. You can't cover multiple intervals with a single setup.

Example: A reactivation series for a general health clinic

30 minutes after appointment — Thank-you email; prompt to book next visit (recall box ticked)
30 days — Friendly SMS from the treating practitioner
60 days — Email with a different subject line and tone
6 months — "It's been a while" email from the business
12 months — Final push by SMS + follow-up email

See The Blueprint for Patient Recalls for the complete recommended sequence with exact wording and settings for each step.

Step 2: Decide who to target

By default, a reactivation with no filters will apply to every patient after every appointment. That's a perfectly valid starting point — but as you grow your setup, you'll want more control.

Option A: General catch-all (no filters)

Leave filters blank. Every patient who attends an appointment and doesn't rebook within your chosen interval will receive the email. This works well for most clinics as a baseline.

Option B: Target new patients specifically

Use the Appointment count filter set to Exactly 1 to target patients who have only attended once. This is ideal for a post-first-visit follow-up that's different in tone to your general reactivations.

Example: "It was so great to meet you last week — we'd love to see you again soon." feels very different from a standard reactivation, and performs better for first-timers.

Option C: Target a specific appointment type or category

Use the Appointment type or Appointment category filter to send reactivations that are specific to a treatment. This is especially useful for multi-modality clinics — for example, recalling orthotics patients independently from your general physio recall.

Option D: Target by practitioner

Use the Practitioner filter to send reactivations that appear to come directly from the treating practitioner. Pair this with a personalised subject line using [practitionerfirstname] for a highly effective personal touch.

💡 Building a series? As you add more targeted reactivations (e.g. one for orthotics patients, one for new patients), make sure you exclude those groups from your general catch-all using filters. Otherwise patients may receive both.

Step 3: Craft your messages

The most effective reactivation messages feel personal and helpful — not like a marketing blast. Here are some guidelines:

Change the tone and sender at each interval. A 30-day message from the practitioner, a 60-day message from reception, and a 6-month message from the business all feel different — and that's the point.
Use [variables] to personalise subject lines and content. [patientfirstname], [practitionerfirstname] and [business] go a long way.
Keep it short. Reactivations perform best when they're a few sentences and a clear booking button — not a newsletter.
Alternate between email and SMS across your series. SMS is harder to ignore; email gives you more room to personalise.

Subject line examples by interval

Interval / Sender	Subject line idea
Same day — Practitioner	It was great seeing you today, [patientfirstname]!
30 days — Practitioner	How are you going, [patientfirstname]?
60 days — Reception	Can I book you in with [practitionerfirstname]?
6 months — Business	6 months have flown by! See you soon?
12 months — Practitioner	It's been a year — let's get you back on track

Step 4: Configure the recall setting correctly

The most important setting in any reactivation trigger is the "Is this a recall?" checkbox. Always tick this — it tells Peptalkr to only send the message if the patient has not already rebooked or attended another appointment.

When you tick the box, you'll need to choose one of three options:

Option	When to use it
Of any kind	Most common. Only sends if the patient has no upcoming or attended appointments at all. Use this for general reactivations.
Of the same category	Only sends if the patient has no upcoming/attended appointments in the same category. Great for multi-modality clinics where a patient may be seeing different practitioners for different things.
Of the same type	Only sends if there's no upcoming/attended appointment of the exact same type. Best for highly specific recalls like annual reviews or a 12-month orthotics check.

Step 5: Build your series over time

Once your first reactivation is live, expanding into a full series is straightforward:

Duplicate your trigger and change the timing to your next interval
Create a new transactional email with different wording — use a previous email as your starting point to save time
Adjust the sender name and address to mix things up
Update your general catch-all to exclude any specific groups you've now built dedicated reactivations for

💡 Tip: Don't try to build the perfect full series from day one. Start with one or two intervals, let them run for a few weeks, then expand. You'll learn what timing and wording works best for your patients.

FAQs

Should reactivations be marketing or non-marketing?

It depends on the content. A clinical recall — e.g. "It's been 6 months since your orthotics were fitted, time for a check" — is generally non-marketing. A promotional message — e.g. "Book now and get 10% off" — is marketing and requires an unsubscribe link.

When in doubt, set it to non-marketing for clinical recalls. If your reactivation is more promotional in nature, select marketing and ensure you include an unsubscribe link.

How do I exclude discharged patients from recalls?

Use Cliniko medical alerts to tag patients as discharged, then use the medical alert filter on your trigger to exclude them. This gives you precise control over who stops receiving recalls without having to unsubscribe them entirely.

Can I send reactivations as SMS instead of email?

Yes — and we recommend mixing both across your series. SMS is harder to miss and works well for shorter, punchier messages at the 30 and 90 day marks. Email gives you more space for personalised content at the 60-day and 6-month marks. Head to the Send SMS tab and use the same trigger logic — the recall checkbox works identically for SMS.

Will a patient receive reactivations from multiple triggers in my series?

Only if they still haven't rebooked by the time each subsequent interval is reached — which is the intended behaviour. If they rebook after the 30-day email, the 60-day email won't send. The recall checkbox on each trigger handles this automatically.

Can I target patients who are new vs returning?

Yes. Use the Appointment count filter — set to Exactly 1 to target patients after their first visit only, or Greater than 1 to target returning patients. This lets you send a warmer, more personal message to first-timers, and a different one to patients who have lapsed after multiple visits.

How do I send different reactivations per appointment type?

Create a separate transactional email and trigger for each appointment type you want to recall specifically. Use the Appointment type filter on each trigger to target only patients who attended that type. Then update your general catch-all trigger to exclude those appointment types using the same filter — so patients don't receive both.

📚 Need help with filters? Learn about all trigger filter options

What to set up next?

✅ Reactivations running? Nice work. Here are some ideas for what to tackle next:

Reactivate patients your way (deep dive)