Aesthetic Record has the ability to send out emails and texts after appointments are booked as well to providers for check in purposes. In this article, we will breakdown each section that would be applied toward and email or sms allotment. You have the ability to turn off a section if you don't wish to send them out!
1. When logged into the Web, click "Appointments" at the top of your browser.
2. Locate and click on the wrench icon to the left of the calendar.
Think of this as the "Appointment Settings" section.
3. Next, click "Smart Configuration".
4. For this article, we will walk through the "Communication" Tab, however, if you have not yet gone through and configured the other tabs, be sure to use the related articles at the bottom to do so!
Special Instructions Tab
5. The first tab you will see is the "Special Instructions" Tab.
The "From Email" will allow the patient to reply via email to the entered email address. For example, if a patient receives their booking confirmation and has a question, they can reply to the confirmation email and it will send to the inbox of the email address listed in "From Email" here.
This is a great way to utilize 2-way emailing in AR.
6. If you would like to include location-specific instructions for patient communications, you can enter the instructions here, and in the next few steps we will see how they pull through at the time of sending.
7. Just be sure to save at the bottom each time you update something!!
In-Person Booking/Virtual Booking Tabs
8. Next, let's look at the "In-Person Booking" Tab.
9. The Snippets (Variables) section over to the right is going to populate in multiple areas of the system, and helps pull specific information based on the patient, appointment, provider, etc., at the time of sending the communication out.
This is a quick and easy way to use the same universal template for your communications, and allow the snippets to populate relevant information each time.
10. To include a snippet properly, be sure you copy and paste the entire bracketed section! Copy both brackets on either side of the verbiage when pasting into the text box on the left.
See photo below for reference.
11. The Clinic Instructions can be pasted into the text box as well; if you have added any special instructions on the first tab be sure to paste the instructions where needed in the subsequent tabs.
Based on the clinic location the appointment is booked through, related instructions will populate in the communication as needed.
12. Every communication comes with a native template set by Aesthetic Record, that you can also use!
If you'd rather start with AR's template, click Use Template at the bottom and you can make any adjustments from there.
13. When you are ready to save the textbox verbiage, you can also click Preview Email Template at the bottom to see an example of what the email will look like when sent to patients, and where the snippets will populate the custom information when sent.
14. Here is where you can view and confirm the preview of the email is good to go.
15. In addition to the email tab, you can click Text Message tab to repeat the same steps for editing snippets and verbiage for the in-person text messages that send out upon appointment booking.
16. Text messages (SMS) that are sent and received through AR are based on segments.
Be sure to view more information on segment charges and reports below: view more information on segment charges and reporting here
17. If you want to check the number of segments your text communication will contain as it sends out, copy and paste the text message verbiage from AR into the segment calculator.
18. After making any changes within each communication tab, be sure to click SAVE so you do not lose your progress!
19. The Virtual Booking tab has the same purpose as In-Person steps above, but for your telehealth meetings that are conducted in AR.
In order for patients to join their virtual meeting at the time of their appointment, the {{MEETINGLINK}} snippet needs to be included in the communication, as shown below. AR's native template auto-populates this section.
Make sure it is included in both the email and text message verbiage before you begin scheduling virtual visits for patients!
Appointment Cancellation & Reschedule Tabs
20. The Cancellation email and text message confirmation will send after an appointment is cancelled by the patient or practice.
21. The Reschedule email and text message confirmation will send after an appointment is rescheduled by the patient or practice.
Survey Tab
22. If you plan on creating and sending out internal surveys or would like to have an automated follow up email/text send with your external review links (Google, Yelp, etc.), you can customize the survey tab and snippets.
Please Note:
You first need to create a survey through settings
You then need to attach the survey to services for booking
Then, you need to make sure in this section as below, the survey related snippets are included in both email and text message verbiage.
This will trigger the survey to send automatically following the patient's appointment, containing the internal survey tied to the related service booked, and any additional review links included.
23. The Survey Thank You Page Content at the bottom is where you can populate a "thank you" message for when the patients complete a survey.
This is a great place to also add your online booking URL as a redirect link for them to consider scheduling their next visit if they have not yet.
Find more information on Surveys below:
24. Reminder, be sure to SAVE after every edit and communication tab before moving forward!
Disabling Email/Text Communications
25. If you do not want email and text message communications sending out for a specific booking type (in-person, virtual, reminders, etc.), in the upper right hand corner of each communication tab you can toggle off and disable the specific communication. You can always toggle back on if needed.
KEEP IN MIND: If you disable the communications from here, emails and text messages will not send to patients regarding their appointments. please ensure you are aware of this setting to prevent confusion/possible dispute situations with patients!
26. When the communications are disabled from within Smart Configuration > Communications, please remember this will not give the option to send the specific confirmation to the patient after booking.
Examples in the step below.
27. When communications are enabled, if you schedule an appointment for a patient internally, after booking the appointment you will see the option to send or bypass the booking confirmation
When communications are disabled, these communications will not send to the patient and you will not have the option to send or bypass like shown in the photo below.
