{"id":1163,"date":"2022-07-20T15:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T15:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2024-04-24T10:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T10:30:16","slug":"sms-appointment-reminders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/sms-appointment-reminders\/","title":{"rendered":"Use SMS appointment reminders and reduce ‘no-shows’"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Reduce appointment ‘no-shows’ using SMS appointment reminders<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n

SMS Appointment reminders are one of the most common uses of an SMS API<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

With an\u00a0open rate of over 90%<\/a>, nearly all messages are read within the first 5 minutes. (source Mobilesquared).<\/p>\n\n

When an important appointment reminder needs to be sent, it\u2019s no wonder that SMS is often the communication method of choice.<\/p>\n\n

Despite being over 25 years old, SMS is still the only messaging channel that every phone ever made can use without having to download an app.<\/p>\n\n

Benefits of using SMS for appointment reminders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

SMS\u00a0is universal<\/strong>\u00a0– every phone can send and receive SMS appointment reminders
Open rates of over 98%<\/strong>\u00a0ensure that your text reminder will be read
Low cost<\/strong>\u00a0– SMS client reminders cost around 3 pence and save thousands in missed appointments
Low spam rate<\/strong>\u00a0– SMS doesn\u2019t suffer from large amounts of spam, unlike email
Easy and simple integration<\/strong>\u00a0into many CRM and software packages
Trackable<\/strong>\u00a0– All SMS appointment reminders generate a delivery report, allowing you to identify any\u00a0non-delivered reminders<\/p>\n\n

Success stories for SMS client reminders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Missed doctors\u2019 appointments in the UK cost the taxpayer \u00a3162 million every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"NHS<\/figure>\n\n

Missed hospital appointments<\/a> cost the National Health Service an additional \u00a3750 million.
Reducing the DNA rate (did not attend) could save the British taxpayer almost \u00a31 billion.<\/p>\n\n

One NHS clinic\u00a0reduced the number of missed appointments by 35%<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0by introducing a simple text reminder, sent 2 days before the appointment.<\/p>\n\n

\"NHS<\/figure>\n\n

Furthermore, the content of the message itself can impact the response rate. One NHS service\u00a0further reduced no-shows by 23%<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0by including information about the cost to the NHS of missed appointments.<\/p>\n\n

\"NHS<\/figure>\n\n

KwikFit<\/strong>, a UK automotive garage, sent a perfect SMS appointment reminder, using their workshop management software<\/a> <\/strong>that\u2019s almost impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n\n

They managed to\u00a0merge 6 pieces of personal data<\/strong>\u00a0as well as including a friendly sign off and the all important opt out.<\/p>\n\n

The infographic below provides a detailed study of what makes this appointment reminder so good.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Examples SMS appointment reminders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Vet SMS appointment reminder<\/p>\n\n

\n

Cody, just a reminder that your appointment is on the 29-Dec-20 3:00 PM. Should you need to cancel please call 01324 56789<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\"SMS<\/figure>\n
\n

MOT SMS reminder<\/p>\n\n

\n

Hi BETHAN, a confirmation that your RENAULT SBXXXXX is booked in for a MOT 07\/12\/2020 09:00. Mersey Garages 0151 2363758<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\"MOT<\/figure>\n
\n

Garage reminder text<\/p>\n\n

\n

Thank you for choosing AZ Autos. Your Kia Sportage registration LVXXXXX is booked in with us on the 25\/01\/2021. We look forward to seeing you. Please click on this link to find us on google maps and don’t forget to ask about our free loan cars: https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/SaAy5YK5bQ62<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\"MOT<\/figure>\n
\n

Restaurant table booking reminder<\/p>\n\n

\n

Embers look forward to seeing you on Friday, 15 January, 2021 at 5:15 pm for 5 guests. Your table is all yours for 90 minutes. Please call if you feel you may need more time to enjoy your meal. 01234 567890<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\"Table<\/figure>\n\n

How much does it cost to use an SMS appointment reminder service?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

There are dozens of SMS appointment providers. Most offer a reliable service at a sensible cost.<\/p>\n\n

There is typically no cost for integrating SMS into a CRM system, you simply pay for the SMS credits that you use to send the texts.<\/p>\n\n

The typical appointment reminder service cost is between about 3 pence and 6 pence + VAT per text.<\/p>\n\n

Here at The SMS Works\u00a0we charge 2.99 pence<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0per SMS appointment reminders sent.<\/p>\n\n

The table below shows the cost of some of the most popular SMS reminder providers.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
SMS Reminder\u00a0Provider<\/th>\nCost per reminder text\u00a0<\/th>\nRefund failed texts<\/th>\nBased in the UK<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
The SMS Works<\/strong><\/td>\n2.99 pence<\/strong><\/td>\nYes<\/strong><\/td>\nYes<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Text Local<\/td>\n4.9 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twilio<\/a><\/td>\n3.2 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Clockwork<\/td>\n4.0 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MessageBird<\/td>\n7.1 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Firetext<\/td>\n4.0 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Text Marketer<\/td>\n3.6 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SendMode<\/td>\n3.4 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Text Magic<\/td>\n4.0 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fast SMS<\/td>\n4.0 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Clickatell<\/td>\n4.4 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bulk SMS<\/td>\n5.4 pence<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n

\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n

6 Tips for getting the best response from an sms appointment confirmation service<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

1 Personalise your SMS reminder<\/strong>
The more relevant information you can include in your text reminder the better. As well as the obvious date, time and location information, remind customers of any documentation that they need to bring.<\/p>\n\n

2 Make use of capitals<\/strong>
Draw attention to important details with capitals. In the inforgraphic example above, all the crucial customer data is easy to spot.<\/p>\n\n

3 Avoid giving a text reply option to rearrange an appointment<\/strong>
If you give people an easy reply option, some will take you up on it simply because they\u2019d rather delay\u00a0their appointment. This can create more work and suck admin time, rebooking appointments. Don\u2019t make it too easy for\u00a0customer to rebook.<\/p>\n\n

4 Send the text 2 days before the appointment is due<\/strong>
If you send the SMS reminder too early, then there\u2019s a danger the customer will forget. Send it too late and the customers may not have enough time to rearrange their diary.<\/p>\n\n

5 Provide contact details<\/strong>
Ideally all your customers will attend their appointments but some are inevitably going to need to rebook. Provide a contact number so people can call if they need to. (As above, avoid a text reply option for rebooking, it makes it too easy for people to cancel.)<\/p>\n\n

6 Don\u2019t cram in too much to one text<\/strong>
A standard SMS has just 160 characters.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s often difficult to get all the points across in such a small character allowance. In order to stick within this tiny limit, it\u2019s tempting to try and abbreviate or cut the text reminder short.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s much more effective to allow the message to run over 2 text credits so that your message remains unambiguous and you can get over all the important appointment details.<\/p>\n\n

It might cost you more than 1 text credits but you\u2019ll avoid any potential confusion.<\/p>\n\n

3 Alternatives to an SMS appointment reminder service<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

1<\/strong>\u00a0Sending reminders by email<\/strong>\u00a0seems the obvious alternative to SMS reminders. Email has the advantage of being free to send but open rates are around 20% compared to SMS at over 90%<\/p>\n\n

2<\/strong>\u00a0WhatsApp,\u00a0RCS messaging<\/a>\u00a0and Apple Business Chat and other\u00a0messaging apps<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>might be viable alternatives to SMS reminders in the future but at the moment they are all just too fragmented and expensive to replace SMS reminders as a viable alternative.<\/p>\n\n

3<\/strong>\u00a0An expensive alternative to SMS would be to\u00a0contact customers by phone using an\u00a0online business phone system<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>. While the appointment dropout rate using this method would be impressively low, the cost for most would be prohibitive.<\/p>\n\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

What causes\u00a0delays to text messages?<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Have you ever noticed that text messages are sometimes delayed? Here we run through the main reasons why that happens.<\/p>\n\n

A guide to using short links in SMS<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Can you use shortened links in SMS\u00a0messages and it is it a good idea? Are there any technical problems to watch out for? This articles give you the answers.<\/p>\n\n

15 ways that you can use business SMS<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>What else can business SMS be used for? This articles runs\u00a0through some obvious and not so obvious ways that you could use SMS in your business.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reduce appointment ‘no-shows’ using SMS appointment reminders SMS Appointment reminders are one of the most common uses of an SMS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}