Booking confirmation and reminder messages (by SMS and/or email) are linked to Service Categories. Please make sure that when you create a new service, if you would like patients to receive a message for the service, that you create new messages for the service in the Business Setup -> Message Settings! Similarly, if you edit a service, that you make sure that the Service Category is selected, so that messages can be sent for that service!
If you find out that a patient is not receiving a booking confirmation or reminder message, here are some steps to check first!
1) Check that the Service which the client has booked has a Service Category selected.
The service category must not be blank! This is so that booking confirmation or reminder messages can be sent to the patient.
2) A patient may also not receive confirmation or reminder messages if there is no Service Category selected for a message in the Business Setup -> Message Settings.
3) A patient may also not receive confirmation or reminder emails if the Message for the Service Category is blank. A blank message for a correct Service Category will not send a message.
To check that a Service has a valid message, go to the Business Setup -> Message Settings options.
In this example, a Service Category is selected for a Booking SMS Message, but the Message Body is blank or hasn't been configured. If the Message Body is blank, add the message text for that category of service, or copy and paste text from other messages and edit as needed. Make sure to click on the Save button at the top or bottom of the Business Setup screen.
Check all of the booking and reminder messages to confirm none have blank messages.
4) A patient may not get a booking or reminder message if their contact details (phone number or email address) are not completed or correct. Check that the patient's contact phone number and/or email address is valid and correct in SimpleClinic! Phone the patient on the contact number in SimpleClinic to confirm their mobile number and email address is valid. If not, contact the patient another way to get their correct phone number or email details.
5) At this stage, SimpleClinic does not allow for the sending of international SMS messages, due to billing and cost issues. This may change in the future. Hence any international clients with international contact numbers will not receive confirmation or reminder SMS messages. Please use email messages for these patients.
For SMS messages that may not appear to be sending, please see the separate support article in the Messages section on "SMS failure" for more reasons for this and checks to make and correct if required.