YAPI's Appointment Reminders send out automatically each day, freeing up time for you to focus on other tasks. Use the overview below to familiarize yourself with the feature; then when you're ready, move on to our Introduction to Appointment Reminder Setup to start configuring your reminders.

Table of Contents What Are Automated Appointment Reminders? Why Set Up Automated Appointment Reminders? How Appointment Reminders Work Confirmations & Patient Responses Pre-Installed Reminder Templates Related Articles

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What Are Automated Appointment Reminders?

YAPI integrates with your practice management software (Dentrix, Open Dental, or Eaglesoft) to send out automated appointment reminders and confirm patient appointments.  Within YAPI, you can manage:

• Which types of appointment reminders (email, text, or postcard) patients receive.
• Reminder frequency.
• The templates used for reminders.
• Which reminders are excluded for selected operatories, procedures, or providers.

 

Why Set Up Automated Appointment Reminders?

Sending reminders to patients increases the likelihood your patients will show up for their appointment - and show up on time. In one sitting, you can set up appointment reminders, letting YAPI do the work for you!  This leaves more time to take care of patients while keeping your daily schedule on track.

 

How Appointment Reminders Work

Once you've set up your appointment reminders, YAPI sends texts and emails and generates postcards based on each patient's appointment date in your practice management software.  Patients can confirm directly from their emails and texts, automatically confirming the appointment in your Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental.

Each day, YAPI sends out reminder emails and generates reminder postcards at YAPI housekeeping time. Reminder texts send at the time you've selected in the Reminders tab. Within YAPI's Appointment Reminder settings, you can also configure YAPI to send any or all of the following for your patients' appointments:

• 2 Save the Dates (one email, one text) sent the day the appointment is made
• 2 Email reminders prior to the appointment date
• 2 Text reminders prior to the appointment date
• 1 Text reminder on the day of the appointment
• 1 Premedicate text reminder the day before the appointment
• 1 Postcard reminder 

Note: YAPI digitally generates postcards to your Mail Queue  so you can print them out and send them when it's most convenient for you.  For more about printing out your postcards to mail to patients, see Printing Postcards from the Mail Queue.

Important! YAPI knows what reminders to send (and when) based on each original appointment booking.  Because of this, if a patient reschedules their appointment, always break the appointment (or delete it) in Dentrix, Open Dental, or Eaglesoft and create a new appointment at the new date and time. 

Emails send with the address mailer@yapi.me but patient responses come directly to the Appointment Confirmation/Request email in your Global Setup.  All texts send from our standard short code text number (714-30) but responses come straight back to your desktop! For more about why YAPI uses short code, see Why Do Some Yapi Texts Send from a 5-Digit Number?

Family Reminders: YAPI also has a "single reminder for all family members" setting.  When selected, reminders for family members with appointments on the same day are grouped together in a single message.  For same-day text reminders, family members with appointments at the same time receive a reminder together; for all other reminders, one reminder is sent for all family members with appointments on the same day.  (This setting doesn't apply to Save the Dates, though.)

 

Confirmations & Patient Responses

When patients confirm via their YAPI reminder, YAPI changes the appointment's status in your practice management software to confirmed.  Depending on your Appointment Reminder setup, selected emails have a confirmation button:

Texts instruct patients to confirm by texting "C."  Text Reminders also have a link to a Mobile Nanosite that shows more information about the patient's appointment and also has a confirmation button:

Either type of text confirmation sends a message directly to your desktop. For more about receiving confirmations on your desktop, see Setting Your Workstation to Receive Patient Texts.

Patients can also respond to your email or text with questions or requests to reschedule.  Email responses go to the Appointment Confirmation/Request email in the Practice Tab of your Global Setup and text responses show on your desktop, just like confirmation messages:

Note: For instructions on changing your Appointment Confirmation/Request email that patients can respond to, see Changing Practice Contact Information Within YAPI.

 

Pre-Installed Reminder Templates

YAPI comes installed with all the email, text, and postcard templates you'll need to start sending reminders. While all templates are customizable, this is what YAPI's standard reminders look like:

Email Reminders

Save the Date Email
Email Reminder with No Confirmation Button	Individual Family
Email Reminder with Confirmation Button	Individual   Family

Text Reminders

Save the Date Text
Appointment Reminder Text	Individual   Family
Text Reminder on Appointment Day	Individual   Family
Premedicate Reminder
Automatic Reply to Text Confirmation

 

Postcard Reminders

 

Ready to start setting up your Appointment Reminders?  We recommend checking out our Introduction to Appointment Reminder Setup next.

 

Related Articles

• Introduction to Appointment Reminder Setup
• Setting Up Appointment Reminders
• Customizing Appointment Reminders