Recent benchmarks indicate no-show rates of 5%-7%, prompting healthcare providers to miss out on an estimated $150 billion annually. And it’s not just missed revenue that’s a problem, no-show appointments mean more staff time spent rescheduling, clinician frustration at scheduling gaps, and potential missed care for patients.
It’s not just the medical healthcare industry that’s affected by these no-shows – dentists, opticians, hairdressing and beauty salons, and many more appointment-based providers are dealing with this frustration every day. Sending proactive appointment reminders and scheduling messages via SMS can help you save time, money, and resources so you can reallocate towards providing better patient care.
Why use SMS for appointment reminders?
Today’s consumers are inundated with messaging. SMS helps you cut through the noise by leveraging a channel with consistently high open and engagement rates – up to 98% and 45% respectively. By sending scheduled appointment reminders or appointment scheduling requests via text, you can ensure your message is seen and clients will have an easy-to-view digital record with their appointment details.
The majority of the world has access to a mobile phone and SMS messaging doesn’t require WiFi to work, which makes it the most accessible and inclusive communication tool, especially for those who struggle with internet access and/or technical skills.
SMS messaging also allows you to communicate more efficiently with your clients by scheduling these reminders at timed intervals – one week prior or two days prior to appointment for example – and automate responses based on keywords in the client’s response. This allows you to not only remind them of the appointment, but request confirmations of attendance or allow them to reschedule all in one text conversation.
You can also personalize text messages for each patient based on client lists segmented by age group, office location, care needs, and more. This allows you to tailor messaging, responses, and outreach cadences to meet each patient’s needs. And with the ability to upload pre-made text templates, you can save time crafting the message and still allow for small personalizations before sending.
Whether you send automated SMS reminders for a one-off appointment or for regularly scheduled meetings, you can improve engagement, boost patient experience, and keep patients returning to you for excellent care. To help close the loop, you can send SMS surveys after patient appointments and to internal staff requesting feedback and make improvements as needed. All of these efficiencies and benefits allow healthcare providers to improve outcomes, reallocate saved resources, and improve patient and staff satisfaction.
Compliance with SMS reminders
As a healthcare provider, patient privacy and data security is always top of mind – especially with patient communications. A data breach can have serious reputational and financial consequences that are hard to recover from, which is why it’s important to use only verified, secure SMS platforms, preferably with HIPPA compliance. as well.
In addition to maintaining high patient data and security standards in communications, you must also be cognizant of communication standards, especially as it relates to SMS messaging. CTIA and TCPA have specific requirements and guidelines for how you can and can’t use SMS for business communication, so look for an SMS provider who will help guide you through regulations to campaign compliance and continued service.
Tracking SMS campaign success
The final step in any new communication campaign is to measure success. In this case – did the SMS campaign reach your customers and reduce the amount of no-shows? Measuring ROI is also essential to the business, so you can quantify how much the SMS campaign costs the practice and how much money it’s saving in no-shows.
Other meaningful metrics that may help you measure success include delivery rate, open rate, and engagement rate as they relate to your various SMS campaigns.
More messages, less no-shows
Reducing the number of missed appointments is critical for healthcare providers, who already are being asked to do more with fewer resources. Leveraging a smart SMS platform can help you eliminate no-shows and achieve other important business goals such as evaluating customer feedback, offering faster customer support, and proactively offering patient care.
If you’re interested in learning how Esendex can help you, reach out to one of sales experts today!
Julia Applegate
Based in Charleston, SC Julia is a Demand Generation Marketing Manager with 6 years of experience in B2B technology businesses and an emphasis on growth and demand generation marketing. Julia is passionate about balancing data-driven marketing with creative campaigns and bringing agile methodology to new companies.