In this article:
Gentu's SMS messaging system not only allows you to send SMS messages directly to patients, but can also send automatic SMS appointment reminders to your patients to remind them of upcoming appointments.
- In this page, ad hoc SMS messages is the term used to describe sending a once-off message directly to an individual patient.
- Automated SMS appointment reminders is the term used to describe Gentu's automatic sending of messages to remind patients of an upcoming appointment.
SMS Settings
Please see our dedicated SMS Settings & Message Template article for information on enabling and configuring SMS messages in Gentu.
Automated SMS Appointment Reminders
Once you have enabled Automated SMS Appointment Reminders in Settings, Gentu will automatically send an SMS appointment reminder to patients who have a valid mobile phone number recorded in Patient Details.
The SMS reminder message will be sent as scheduled in your SMS Settings - from 1 to 7 days prior to the patient's appointment.
Gentu will begin trying to send messages at 9:00 AM, and will continue to check for new appointments that require a message to be sent every 15 minutes until 5:00 PM.
Please note: All text messages are sent unencrypted. Genie Solutions does not recommend sending sensitive or identifiable information via SMS mesaging.
SMS Display in the Appointment Book
From the Day view of the Appointment Book, you will be able to see an indication that a patient had an automated SMS appointment reminder sent.
The appointment will display Awaiting Reply when the message is first sent.
When the patient responds, the message will update. (Note: this behaviour does not apply to ad hoc SMS messaging. )
Note: You will need to refresh the appointment book for new responses to be retrieved and displayed against the appointment.
| Reminder Sent |  |
| Confirmation Response |  |
| Negative Response |  |
| Other Responses |  |
| Message Failed |  |
|
Message Failed |
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Appointments which have had an automatic SMS reminder sent will also display a status icon in the top right corner.
Appointment reminder sent and awaiting response.
Appointment confirmed.
- This will occur if the patient responds with Yes or Y.
- This is based on first reply received, and will not change if patient later responds with a different reply.
- If the patient's response is a confirmation but includes additional words or emojis, this will not automatically confirm the appointment.
Any response that is not a confirmation, including No or N.
Message failed to send.
- Opening the SMS History will elaborate on why this may have occurred.
- Messages will attempt to resend every five minutes (up to 5 times) before failing and presenting this icon.
- If the cause of the failure is due to insufficient SMS credits, these messages will be queued to attempt sending again when new credits are purchased, unless the appointment is scheduled for today's date or a date that has since passed.
If you have turned off the Send SMS Appointment Reminders option in your settings, you will not be able to see the SMS appointment reminders in your appointment book.
This will remove all past and future reminders from display, however these will re-appear if you turn the setting back on, and will remain available in the SMS History for the patient.
Once you have enabled SMS Messaging in Settings, you can send an ad hoc SMS message directly to a patient. This can be performed through the Appointment Book or through the patient's Details window.
Appointment Book:
- Select the patient's appointment.
- Click the SMS button.
Note that ad hoc SMS messages sent from an appointment will not appear on the patient's appointment, unlike automated SMS appointment reminders.
Patient Details:
- Open Patient Details
- Click the SMS button to the right of the patient's mobile phone number.
Clicking the SMS button will open the patient's SMS History.
You can type an ad hoc message into the input box at the bottom of this window.
Gentu will also advise how many SMS credits the message will use.
- Ad hoc SMS messages will be sent instantly.
- You may need to close and re-open the SMS History window to refresh it and view newly sent messages.
- If an ad hoc SMS messages fails to send due to insufficient credits, these messages will be entered into a queue and will be sent when credits are available.
Please note: All text messages are sent unencrypted. Genie Solutions does not recommend sending personal information via SMS.
Patient SMS history
If a patient has previously received an ad hoc or reminder SMS, this will be captured in their SMS history.
You can view a patient's SMS history by:
- Opening an appointment for that patient and clicking the SMS button, or
- Clicking the SMS button in Patient Details.
Please note that the SMS history was introduced at the end of August 2019, and will not display SMS messages prior to this.
The SMS history window is displayed in a conversation-style thread, with older messages at the top of the window and more recent ones at the bottom.
- Messages from your practice will appear on the left side of this window in a grey bubble.
- Messages from the patient will appear on the right side of the window in a teal bubble.
Every message in the SMS History will display a timestamp to indicate when it was sent.
If the message was sent today, there will not be a date against the message, only a timestamp.
Messages sent yesterday will show the timestamp and the word Yesterday, and older messages will include a date.
If the message was sent automatically, the message will be marked with the words Appointment Reminder before the date and timestamp.
| Today's SMS | Yesterday's SMS | Older SMS (Automatic) |
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 |
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If you have disabled the Enable SMS option in your settings, you will not see the new message input box in the SMS history.
The window will also have a blue notice at the top of the window to advise that Ad hoc SMS is not enabled, however all SMS history will remain present.
| Ad hoc SMS enabled | Ad hoc SMS disabled |
 |
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Click to see frequently asked questions.
> 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 does not support SMS messages 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 Print SMS Report option.
> 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. It will also not be possible to send an ad hoc message to this 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?
Please see the SMS Settings & Message Template article for more information on changing your SMS reminder message.
> 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, Gentu will send as many SMS messages as it can (in sequential order by appointment time).
Once all credits have been used, Gentu will stop sending SMS messages and will display the error text Insufficient SMS credits within the appointment booking itself.
Gentu will resend any pending messages as soon as SMS credits are available to do so.
> How do I know if I have run out of credits?
You can check your credit balance at any time by navigating to Settings > SMS Credits. This window will display the number of credits remaining as of a certain date and time, and reloading the page will update these details, ensuring you can always remain informed about your credit balance.
If Gentu has failed to send an automated appointment reminder message due to insufficient credits, the error text Insufficient SMS credits will be displayed within the appointment booking itself.
> 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.
Gentu expects the phone number to be 10 digits only.
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.
It may also be that the patient's phone number has been copied in to Gentu from another source. This can cause invisible characters to be saved alongside the phone number and can cause this error. Please carefully re-type the patient's phone number, save, and try again.
> 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 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.
> I booked an appointment after the cut-off date for the reminder to be sent. Will they still receive a reminder?
In short, yes.
Within the 7-day period leading up to a certain date Gentu will retrospectively check to ensure that all eligible appointments have had a reminder sent for them.
If it finds any appointments without an SMS already sent; and the patient is not marked as Do Not SMS, it will send a reminder for that appointment.
> I have moved or changed a patient's appointment. Will they still receive a reminder?
In short, yes.
The patient will receive a reminder for their new appointment as per the scheduled time set in your SMS Reminder Settings.
However, please note that moving an appointment will not change its status. For this reason if you do move an appointment, we recommend changing the status back to None.
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