SMS Messaging & Appointment Reminders

> When does Gentu send out SMS appointment reminders?

Gentu sends out SMS appointment reminders 3 days prior to a patient's booked appointment date.

> What kinds of bookings will Gentu send automated SMS reminders for? 

Gentu will only send SMS reminders for appointment bookings. It will not send SMS reminders for procedures. Gentu doesn't support SMS for recalls at the present time. 

> Can I print a report showing all SMS reminders sent to my patients? 

Yes, you can do so by selecting Print > SMS Report from the Appointment Book. For more information, see this article. Please note that you will need to have enabled Automated SMS Reminders in order to view the SMS Report.

> What if a patient doesn't have a mobile phone number recorded? 

If the patient has no mobile phone number recorded, Gentu will not send them an automated SMS reminder message for their appointment. Nor will it be possible to send an ad hoc message to a patient.

> How can I change the content of the SMS appointment reminder message that patients receive/how can I change the SMS appointment reminder message template? 

The automated SMS appointment reminder message is fixed and cannot be changed at this time. You can view an example of how the SMS message will appear to patients of your practice by checking in Settings > SMS Reminders. The template includes the patient's appointment date and time, the practitioner they are booked in to see, and the name and contact phone number of your practice.

Note that the details here pull from the Settings and User/Practice Preferences of Gentu; so if you wish to change (for example) the phone number which is sent in the SMS message, you will need to update Settings > Practice Details with the correct information.

> What if I don't have enough credits to send automated SMS appointment reminders to every patient with an appointment booked?

If you do not have enough credits to send a message to every patient for a particular day, no SMS reminders will be sent out until you have purchased additional credits. 

> How do I know if I have run out of credits?

In the future you will be able to see how many credits you have remaining from within Gentu, but in the meantime our support team will contact your practice in the event that you have run out of SMS credits. From there they will put you in touch with the Accounts team so you can top up your account and get your reminders out with minimal interruption. 

> Gentu is telling me "The phone number you have entered is not valid". What do I do?

Gentu will present you with this error message if the patient's phone number was entered incorrectly. In this case, please check the phone number and ensure it has been entered correctly: Gentu expects the phone number to be 10 digits only, with no alphabetic characters. It is not necessary to add the country code - for this reason it is also not possible to send an SMS message to a non-Australian mobile phone number.

> My patient(s) did not receive their automated SMS appointment reminder message. Why not?

There are a few reasons that could explain why a patient might not receive their SMS appointment reminder message:

• The patient's mobile number isn't recorded correctly or contains invalid characters.
• The patient has the "Do not SMS" checkbox ticked within Patient Details.
• The patient is booked in for a Procedure (rather than an Appointment).
• The patient's appointment was booked in after the reminder cut-off date (which is 3 days prior to the date of the appointment).
• The patient's appointment has a status of "Cancelled".
• The patient's mobile phone service provider is experiencing outages. 

A good thing to do is to check if you can see the patient's name in the SMS Report. If you cannot see the patient's name in the SMS Report, it means that Gentu has not sent a message out to that patient.

If you are unsure, please contact Gentu Support for further assistance.