A reactivation (or follow up / lapsed patient recall) is an automated communication sent to patients who have not had an appointment in a while.
These recalls can be configured to be sent either as an email or SMS.
Implementing reactivations helps to keep patients on their treatment journey and if used correctly, can improve patient retention, visit average and satisfaction.
Here's how to set up a reactivation in Peptalkr, noting that the steps described here are for the email version, but the process is very similar for SMS recalls.
Skip to step 3 if you want to go straight to the SMS instructions.
1. Create a Transactional email template:
Begin by crafting a dedicated email template for your reactivation recalls. In Peptalkr, navigate to the 'Send Email' tab and choose 'Transactional'.
Design your email to be a friendly, personalised reminder to encourage communication or appointment scheduling.
You can create different templates for each 'type' of reactivation you want to send, for example:
Your reactivations for patients who just had their first appointment might differ from repeat visits.
You might have different reactivations depending on the treatment modality.
You might have unique reactivation messaging for each practitioner written in their tone of voice.
Peptalkr provides a pre-built recall template for reactivations in the 'My Templates' section of the email builder if you want a head start.
2. Create your trigger
For email recalls, head to the 'Triggers' tab within Peptalkr.
If setting up an SMS, you would go to the Send SMS tab and follow the same steps
Create a New Trigger:
Click on the purple + button in the top right of the screen and proceed with the following steps, tailoring each part to suit your reactivation.
Step One: Name & Kind:
Give your trigger a descriptive name, e.g., '30 day new patient reactivation'
Select 'Automated recurring' as reactivations send them selves.
Step Two: Marketing or non-marketing:
Reactivation recalls may be considered non-marketing in some cases, but please use your discretion to ensure you are following the applicable privacy laws in your region. If you prefer only those opted in for marketing receive it, you can select 'marketing'.
Step Three: When should it send?:
From the available triggering events, select 'After an appointment' - this means the trigger will fire after an appointment has been attended.
Decide how long after the appointment is attended the reactivation should be sent. You might do 30 days, 90 day, 180 days, 365 days - or any other timing of your choosing!
You should choose to tick the 'is this a recall?' box - this will ensure we only send the reminder if they have not got an upcoming appointment (or attended one - if they attend one, the reactivation timing will be reset from the date of most recent visit - assuming you have a reactivation targeting the subsequent appointment type they have since had).
You can also set some rules around what kind of upcoming appointment they should have since attended/have upcoming:
Of any kind - as long as they have attended/have upcoming any appointment, do not send the recall.
Of the same category - as long as they have attended/have upcoming an appointment in the same category as the appointment that triggered this message, do not send the recall (great for multi-modality clinics).
Of the same type - as long as they have attended/have upcoming an appointment of the same exact type as the appointment that triggered this message, do not send the recall (great for highly specific appointment types that need recalling - such as an 'Annual review' or a surgery).
💡 Want to send multiple reactivations across a longer period of time? E.g perhaps you want to send a reactivation after 30 days, then another one after 3 months if they don't schedule an appointment, then another one at 6 months. Easy! Just duplicate your trigger and change the timing. For each email to have different wording/subject lines - just create another email template.
Step Four: Filters to apply:
You can now also filter down which appointment types, categories or even practitioners this recall trigger is specific to. Just leave the filters blank to target everyone.
Step Five: Frequency:
Select 'every time the conditions are met' to ensure the reactivations will reset next time they attend an appointment matching the conditions.
Step Six: Select your template:
Select the transactional email template you created in step 1.
If sending an SMS you'd simply write in what you want the SMS to say. Use the personalisation dropdown to insert data specific to the patient.
👉 If you can't see your template in your dropdown you may not have pressed the 'Finish' button in the email builder. f this happens, just select any available template and continue, you can edit it and set the correct template before you turn it on. Then navigate back to the email builder and ensuring you hit the 'Finish' button on your draft template.
Step Seven: Summary:
Review all details of your trigger. Once satisfied, press finish to create the trigger. It will be turned off by default.
Step Eight: Summary and Activation:
Test your reactivate email by pressing the email icon.
If everything looks good, press the switch to turn it on.
3. Monitor and improve
Over time, monitor the performance of your reactivation emails (open rates, click rates and even online booking rates if you have integrated Cliniko bookings with GA4). Then adjust as necessary to improve your rebooking rate.
💡 Remember, the key to a successful reactivation is to not 'pester' the patient, and instead create carefully timed prompts that help the patient to feel like they have a personal assistant in you 🧑🏻💻