With Flex, patients can confirm their appointments by replying to a text with a specific keyword, key phrase, or emoji. Once they do, their appointment status will automatically update to 'Flex Confirmed' in Open Dental, giving your team immediate visibility and peace of mind.
To set up your 'Text Confirmation event:
- Log in as an 'Administrative' User.
- Navigate to 'Settings'.
- Click the 'Text & Emails' tab.
- Select the 'Timeline' sub-section.
- Choose the 'Text Confirmation' event.
You will be presented with the following settings:
- Enable/Disable toggle.
- How far in advance to send the text confirmation.
- Don't send value based on appointment creation vs. appointment date.
- Time to send.
- Send a second confirmation if the first was ignored.
- Edit Text Templates button.
You can customize different text templates to match the appointment scenario:
- Text for a single patient.
- Text for multiple patients (same phone number) all on the same day.
- Alternate language variants of single/multiple appointments.
- 'Resent' variants of the first four, used if the second confirmation is enabled.
Want to personalize your templates with brackets? You can use handlebars to dynamically insert details. To get the most out of your templates, check out this resource: Handlebars for Pre-Filling Information.↗️
In my example below we have the text confirmation enabled, sending out three days prior to the appointment, not sending if the appointment creation date was within five days of the actual appointment, sending out at 11:35 a.m. , and sending the second text confirmation one day prior if the first was ignored.
✅Notes:
- This event shares many of the same settings as other communication events (like reminders and email confirmations), but includes a unique "Send a second text if the first was ignored" toggle. When enabled, Flex will automatically send a second confirmation text if the first message did not receive a confirmation response from the patient.
- Unlike some reminder events, 'Text Confirmation' does not send or link to forms. Its purpose is to confirm the appointment and update the status in Open Dental.
Looking for more? For guidance on setting up other types of communication, check out these resources:
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If you have questions, please contact Flex Support.
Thank you!
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