Appointment reminders: frequently asked questions

Yes. Reminding people ahead of time, and making it easy to confirm, cancel or move an appointment, can cut the number of people who simply do not turn up, and free up the slots that were never going to be used.

The clinic decides when it wants them sent.

For example, you can set the reminder to go out the day before at a particular time.

The setup can be adapted to how each clinic wants to work.

Whether you use one reminder or several depends on the options available in the settings.

They can use the options in the message, or simply write back.

Wazzy reads the reply and records the confirmation against the appointment.

The action is recorded in Wazzy.

If they confirm, the team can see that. If they cancel, the schedule can free the slot. If they move it, Wazzy can update the schedule with the new time you agreed.

Yes. Reminders are built from the appointments in the schedule, and the patient’s replies are tied back to the right appointment.

Silence on its own is not a confirmation, and it is not a cancellation either.

The appointment keeps whatever status fits the way the clinic has set things up.

Yes. The message can be adapted to how the clinic works and how it sounds, within the options available.

Yes. WhatsApp Business Platform messaging costs depend on Meta’s rates and terms, and Meta bills the clinic for them directly.

To cut the number of people who forget, make it easy to confirm, and let the patient move or cancel before the appointment.

They also help reception keep the schedule up to date.

Yes. Once they are set up, Wazzy sends them by itself, from the appointments in the schedule.

Yes. The clinic decides when it wants Wazzy to send the reminder.

Yes. Reminders go out on WhatsApp, from the clinic’s official channel.

No. The reminder arrives straight in WhatsApp.

Yes. It can carry whatever the patient needs to recognise the appointment, depending on how the clinic sets it up.

Yes. The patient can cancel from WhatsApp and Wazzy updates the schedule.

Yes. The patient can start the change from the reminder, and Wazzy carries the conversation on over WhatsApp, checks new availability and sorts out a new date or time.

Not without the patient.

Wazzy talks it through, checks availability, and makes the change once a new option is agreed.

Yes. The patient can reply to the message and carry on talking to Wazzy.

Wazzy can read the reply in ordinary language and carry on, depending on what the patient needs and which features are switched on.

No. Buttons make some things quicker, but the patient can also just write back in their own words.

No. Silence on its own does not cancel anything.

No. Reminders can cut them down, but they cannot promise that everyone will turn up.

Appointments created by the assistant, added by reception or imported can all go into the reminder automation, as long as they meet the conditions you set.

Wazzy works from whatever is in the schedule at the time.

If the appointment changes, Wazzy uses the new details. If it is cancelled, it stops treating it as something to remind anyone about.

It depends on the sending rules you set and when the appointment was created.

The automation works on the appointments that meet the conditions.

They can, as long as the appointment meets the sending conditions.

When an appointment is created very close to its time, what happens depends on the reminder rule you set.

Whatever helps the patient recognise the appointment: date, time, clinic, practitioner, or anything else you set up.

The setup can be built around the way the clinic works, and decide which appointments or situations use the automation, within the options available.

Yes. The clinic decides whether it wants to use this automation at all.

Yes. The messages go out at the time you set, with nobody from reception logged in.

Wazzy can carry the conversation on by itself, following the clinic’s setup.

If it needs a person, it can be handled under the handover rules you set.

Yes. Conversations that come out of reminders are ordinary WhatsApp activity, there for the team to see.

Yes. The team can take over whenever it wants to look after the patient personally.

The reminder is tied to a particular appointment, which is how Wazzy knows what to do with the reply in the schedule.

Yes. The state of each reply is recorded in Wazzy, so reception knows which appointments are confirmed, which are cancelled and which are still open.

Wazzy ties each reminder and each reply to the right appointment, so nothing gets confused.

Exactly how it is presented depends on the information available and the flow you set up.

Yes. If a patient has more than one appointment that meets the reminder conditions, each one is handled on its own.

No. They work for any appointment in Wazzy that the automation covers, first visit or follow-up.

Yes. They can be used in all the specialities Wazzy works with: dental clinics, physiotherapy and osteopathy, aesthetic medicine and dermatology.

It depends on the clinic’s approach and on the reminder setup available.

It can, if the clinic has more than one reminder set up for that kind of appointment. Without that, nothing is sent again automatically.

Wazzy can carry the conversation on in ordinary language and deal with the new question if it falls within what it can do.

If it needs a person, it can hand it to the team.

Reminders are a Wazzy extra feature, switched on depending on your setup and the commercial terms that apply to your clinic.

No. Meta bills the clinic directly for what it uses on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Yes. Wazzy works through the official WhatsApp Business Platform infrastructure.

When a message the clinic starts has to go through the WhatsApp Business Platform template system, Wazzy follows Meta’s rules for it.

Whether it does depends on the state of the conversation and on the terms that apply at the time.

Templates that go through Meta’s system have to follow Meta’s approval and usage rules.

Wazzy can help you set up the templates your clinic needs.

The terms of WhatsApp Business Platform are Meta’s, and they can change over time.

Wazzy works within whatever terms apply on the official platform.

No. The whole point of the automation is that reception does not have to go through the schedule, write and send each reminder.

Once it is set up, it runs on its own.

Yes. Wazzy is built to send the reminders for whatever appointments meet the conditions you set.

The volume of messaging is subject to the technical and WhatsApp Business Platform terms that apply.

Nobody has to go through the schedule and ring round patient by patient.

And the patient’s reply can turn straight into a confirmation, a cancellation or a change, wired into the schedule.

No. Reminders are an automation attached to appointments that already exist.

Creating, changing and cancelling appointments is handled by the assistant and the Wazzy schedule.

The cancellation can free that slot in the schedule.

What happens to it afterwards depends on which features are switched on in Wazzy.

No. Reminders are tied to particular appointments.

Messaging is for writing to groups of patients with something else in mind: notices, offers or campaigns.