Introduction to sending SMS

The two types of SMS you can send and how it works

Updated over a week ago

Contacting your patients has never been easier. Our super-duper user-friendly interface means sending important text messages to any group of your patients can be done in minutes.

There are two main types of SMS you can send:

One-off blasts πŸš€

These are SMS messages that you send in one big hit - such as an important announcement, special offer or bulk recall.

You select who receives it (filter by things such as last or next appointment date range, last practitioner seen, appointment type booked and more), and when they receive it - schedule it to send in the future, or send it now.

Automated Recurring πŸ•’

These are SMS messages that send themselves when certain things happen in Cliniko. For example, recalls that are automatically sent 7 days after a patient's last appointment (when no future appointment has been booked), or an SMS that sends a survey link to patients 1 day after their last appointment.

There are countless SMS you can send using this feature. For more ideas click here.

How much does SMS cost?

At most you'll pay 10c per SMS, and if you buy SMS credits in bulk you can pay as little as 8c. Buy credits as you need them.

Doesn't Cliniko already have one-off blast capabilities?

Yep, but you can only filter by:

  • Last Business Visited (if you have multiple clinics)

  • Last Practitioner Seen

  • Last Appointment Date Range

Whereas Peptalkr adds:

  • Before the appointment

  • After the appointment

  • After an appointment is created

  • After an appointment is cancelled

  • After an appointment is marked DNA

  • After an invoice is created

  • After an invoice has been paid

  • After a medical alert is added to a patient file

  • When a patient has a certain number of appointments

Within these categories, you can be VERY specific with what/when and why the SMS is triggered.

And Cliniko sends some automated SMS already, right?

Cliniko can send appointment confirmation and reminders if you set them up. With Peptalkr you can set up many, many, many more kinds of automated SMS.

What phone number will the SMS messages come from?

They won't come from a number! They'll simply come from your clinic name. You can choose any alphanumerical text that the recipient will see at the top of the SMS on their phone where a phone number would typically be.

Some examples could be:

  • JDCLINICNSW

  • AS-PHYSIO

  • DEANOSTEO

Can people reply to the messages?

No, Peptalkr SMS come from your business name instead of from a phone number, as mentioned above. Replies are disabled because SMS is set up more like a notification service than a 2-way channel of communication. We do this for security purposes as well as to avoid confusion. If they receive SMS from Cliniko as well as Peptalkr it could be confusing getting SMS from 2 different phone numbers to then reply to.

Then how can the patient communicate with us?

In your SMS you have the capabilities to insert personalised variations. We highly recommend using these to include your business contact information, like email and phone number so that the patient can contact you directly. Click here to learn more about Personalisation in SMS.


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