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📙 Glossary - All SMS triggers explained
📙 Glossary - All SMS triggers explained

A quick reference of all triggers and what they are used for

Monique Clark avatar
Written by Monique Clark
Updated over 3 months ago

What is an SMS trigger?

A trigger tells Peptalkr when to send an SMS email, and defines who should receive it - with a high degree of specificity.

Triggers will only send an SMS to a patient when all conditions are met. This means that you can fully customise who, when, why and how frequently these SMS are sent.

How do I make one?

We have a super easy-to-follow tutorial on how to create an SMS trigger.

🕒 Automated SMS trigger tutorial
🚀 One-off-blast SMS tutorial

Quick reference to all triggers

Trigger name

Description

Good for

Before appointment

Sends before an appointment commences.

  • Reminders

  • Sending intake forms

After appointment (incl. recalls)

Sends after an appointment ends.

  • Requesting feedback

  • Reactivations/recalls

  • Follow ups

  • Post-appointment care/education

Appointment created

Sends after an appointment is created.

  • Confirmations

  • New patient welcome packs

  • Sending intake forms

Appointment cancelled (incl. recalls)

Sends after an appointment is marked cancelled.

  • Cancellation recalls

  • Cancellation confirmations

Appointment marked DNA (incl. recalls)

Sends after an appointment is marked DNA.

  • DNA recalls

  • DNA notices

Invoice created

Sends after an invoice is created.

  • Confirmation of purchase (not a receipt - just details/instructions relating to their purchase)

Invoice paid

Sends after an invoice is marked paid.

  • Post-appointment care/education in relation to a specific invoice item

Medical alert added to a patient

Sends after a medical alert is added to the patient file.

  • On the fly information sent from within Cliniko

After a certain number of appointments

Sends 1 hour after a patient reaches a certain total number of appointments.

  • Requesting feedback

Detailed explanation of each trigger

If you need more details about the specifics of each trigger's function, limitations and use cases, here's all you need.

Before appointment

Commonly used for:

  1. Appointment reminders

  2. Appointment preparation details

  3. Intake form link

  4. Parking/directions instructions

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days before the appointment it should send.

Is this a reminder?

Select this if you only want this to send to people who are opted in for reminders in their Cliniko communication preferences.

Include last minute bookings

Select this if the email should still send, even if the appointment was created after the scheduled send time.

For example, if your trigger is set to send 2 days before an appointment, but an appointment is booked 1 day out - it will send the email immediately.

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we recommend you apply them based on your needs.

Please note: If you have appointment reminders enabled in Cliniko, you should disable them before turning them on in Peptalkr.

After appointment

Commonly used for:

  1. Requesting feedback

  2. Prompting them to book another appointment if they have not done so already

  3. Following up/checking in with a patient

  4. Sending aftercare instructions

  5. Reactivations - e.g. 30 days, 180 days, 1 year etc.

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the appointment it should send.

Is this a recall?

Select this if you want to only send this email if the patient has not booked another/got an upcoming appointment.

Recall type

You can select to send this if the patient has not booked an appointment of:

  1. Any kind

  2. Of the same type (as the appointment which triggered this email)

  3. Of the same category (as the appointment which triggered this email)

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we generally recommend you apply appointment filters (type, category, count etc.) depending on your needs.
​

Appointment created

Commonly used for:

  1. Appointment confirmations

  2. Welcoming new patients

  3. Sending an intake form link

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the appointment was created it should send.

Is this a confirmation?

Select this if you only want this to send to people who are opted in for confirmations in their Cliniko communication preferences.

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we recommend you apply them based on your needs.

Please note that this trigger type will not send emails to appointments created in the past. For example, if you create an appointment for yesterday - an appointment created trigger will not fire. It must be a future appointment.

After appointment marked DNA

Commonly used for:

  1. Notifying a patient they didn't arrive to their appointment

  2. Recalling DNA appointments

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the appointment was marked DNA it should send.

Is this a recall?

Select this if you want to only send this email if the patient has not booked another/got an upcoming appointment.

*Generally not recommended if sending a DNA notice immediately after they have DNA'd.

Recall type

You can select to send this if the patient has not booked an appointment of:

  1. Any kind

  2. Of the same type (as the appointment which triggered this email)

  3. Of the same category (as the appointment which triggered this email)

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we recommend you apply them based on your needs.

Please note: If you want to send different email variations based on how many DNAs a patient has had (e.g 2nd DNA, 3rd DNA etc.) use the After a certain number of appointments trigger instead.

After an appointment is cancelled

Commonly used for:

  1. Notifying a patient they cancelled their appointment

  2. Recalling cancelled appointments

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the appointment was cancelled it should send.

Is this a recall?

Select this if you want to only send this email if the patient has not booked another/got an upcoming appointment.

*Generally not recommended if sending a cancellation notice immediately after they have cancelled.

Include last minute bookings

ou can select to send this if the patient has not booked an appointment of:

  1. Any kind

  2. Of the same type (as the appointment which triggered this email)

  3. Of the same category (as the appointment which triggered this email)

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we recommend you exclude patients who said they were 'Feeling better'.

Please note: If you have cancellation notices enabled in Cliniko, you should disable them before turning them on in Peptalkr.

After an invoice is created

Commonly used for:

  1. Instructions/details related to a product or billable item added to a patient's invoice

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the invoice was created it should send.

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we recommend you select the specific Product(s) OR Billable item(s) this trigger should target.

Please note: If you want to target both products AND billable items, create separate triggers for each - as selecting both a product and billable item in the same trigger will require the patient to have both items appear on the same invoice. Refer to this article for details.

After an invoice is paid

Commonly used for:

  1. Instructions/details related to a product or billable item added to a patient's invoice

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the invoice was paid it should send.

Filters

There are no mandatory filters for this trigger type, but we recommend you select the specific Product(s) OR Billable item(s) this trigger should target.

Please note: If you want to target both products AND billable items, create separate triggers for each - as selecting both a product and billable item in the same trigger will require the patient to have both items appear on the same invoice. Refer to this article for details.

After a medical alert is added to a patient file

Commonly used for:

  1. Manually sending a transactional email to a patient by adding a medical alert to their file - e.g. resending an intake form, requesting a Google review, sending a discharge notice etc.

Settings

Timing

Select how many minutes, hours or days after the medical alert has been added it should send.

Filters

You must select which medical alert this trigger is targeting. Refer to our guide on creating Medical Alerts which connect with Peptalkr here.
​

After a certain number of appointments

Commonly used for:

  1. Requesting feedback after a specific count of appointments

  2. Sending details relating to the count of appointments a patient has had within a particular appointment category

  3. Sending unique emails depending on the count of DNA or cancelled appointments a patient has had

Settings

Timing

These will always send an hour after the scheduled end time of the appointment that triggered this email/SMS.

Appointment count range

Select whether the count of appointments should be:

  1. Over all time

  2. Over a set period (e.g the last 90 days)

Filters

You must select the numbers of appointments to target - e.g. exactly 1, 2, 3 appointments etc. You must also select which appointment status to target - e.g arrived, cancelled or DNA.
​

Tutorials

Head here for some handy tutorials on making some of the most popular automated SMS that our users love!

💡 SMS automation ideas
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