Automated Appointment Reminders

Automated appointment reminders let Dental Marketing Tool reach out to patients by text and email before their visit, so your front desk spends less time on confirmation calls and fewer chairs sit empty on the day of service.

How Reminders Work

When a patient books an appointment through your calendar, the platform immediately queues a series of reminder messages based on the rules you set. Each message goes out automatically at the scheduled time. No manual sending required. You can configure reminders for any combination of text (SMS) and email, and you control exactly when each one fires relative to the appointment time.

Opening Your Reminder Settings

1. From your dashboard, click Calendars in the left menu.
2. Find the calendar you want to configure and click the gear icon or Edit next to it.
3. Scroll down to the Notifications and Reminders section.

Each calendar has its own reminder settings, which lets you run different reminder schedules for new patient exams versus hygiene recalls, for example.

Adding a Reminder

1. Inside the Notifications and Reminders section, click Add Notification.
2. Choose the Type: select Email, SMS, or add one of each.
3. Set the Timing. Use the dropdown to pick how far before the appointment the message should go out. Common options include 24 hours, 2 hours, and 1 hour, though you can set a custom value in minutes or hours.
4. Write the message body in the text area. Use the personalization tokens (shown as buttons above the field) to pull in the patient's first name, appointment date, appointment time, and your practice name automatically.
5. Click Save when the reminder looks right.

Repeat these steps to stack multiple reminders. A common setup for a dental practice is a 24-hour text, a 24-hour email, and a 2-hour text on the day of the visit.

Confirmation Replies

If you include a prompt for patients to reply (for example, "Reply C to confirm"), those replies land in your Conversations inbox just like any other text message. Your front desk can see them in real time and update the appointment status accordingly. You can also check appointment status directly in the Rescheduling, Canceling, and No-Shows view.

Editing or Removing a Reminder

1. Go back to the Notifications and Reminders section for the calendar.
2. Click the pencil icon next to any existing reminder to edit the timing or message text.
3. To remove a reminder entirely, click the trash icon and confirm the deletion.
4. Click Save to apply any changes.

Changes apply to appointments booked after you save. Reminders that are already queued for existing appointments will follow the previous settings.

Reminder Best Practices for Dental Practices

• Send at least two reminders: one the day before and one the morning of the appointment. Two touchpoints significantly reduce no-shows without feeling intrusive.
• Include your practice phone number in every message so patients can reach the front desk to reschedule without friction.
• For longer procedures (implants, orthodontic consults), consider a three-day-out reminder as well, giving patients more lead time to plan or reschedule.
• Keep email reminders slightly more detailed. You can include parking info, what to bring, or intake form links in the email version while keeping the SMS brief.

Once your reminders are in place, take a look at Rescheduling, Canceling, and No-Shows to learn how to handle last-minute changes that come in after reminders go out. If you want to see how your booking calendar is set up overall, the Calendars Overview is a good starting point.