When was the last time you evaluated the reminder emails your medical practice sends to patients?
While each reminder message type has its benefits, reminder emails, in particular, provide the most real estate, so to speak, for delivering valuable information to your patients.
Let’s take a look at some additional content to consider including in reminder email messages to ensure your patients arrive at their appointments, prepared and on time.
A Key Feature Worth Including In Reminder Emails
If you are anything like me, you live and die with your calendar. If a meeting, an appointment, or an activity doesn’t make it into my Google calendar, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll make it.
And patients are no different. Because of this, we highly recommend including a calendar invite in reminder emails to patients.
In fact, we’ve found that by including invites for the big three calendar services—Apple calendar, Outlook, and Google calendar—within the body of email reminders, patients are far more likely to keep their appointments.
Additional Ways to Optimize Reminder Email Messages
Many calendar services offer other helpful features as well that will benefit both your practice and your patients.
Some vendors, for instance, are capable of providing patients with estimated drive times to your office address. This helps ensure patients not only make it to their appointment but also make it on time.
Moreover, another useful piece of info to include in email reminders is a Google Maps link with a clear address that will be recognized by a variety of smartphones.
This is useful for a variety of situations. Including a Google Maps link makes it easier, for example, for new patients to find your office or even those patients who haven’t had an appointment with your office in a while and have forgotten how exactly to get there. Map links also benefit all patients in the event that your location changes.
Small tweaks like this to your email reminders can lead to big results when it comes to keeping your schedule full and running smoothly.
Ultimately, including a calendar invite in reminder email messages can go a long way toward reducing no-shows, improving patient satisfaction and engagement, and ultimately, improving the bottom line.
If you’re a Vital Interaction™ customer and are unfamiliar with how to include calendar invitations or map links in your reminder emails, reach out to our Support team today. We’ll have your email reminders updated within minutes.
At Vital Interaction™, we’re dedicated to providing the most efficient patient communication tools to help you navigate current trends in patient engagement. Find out how our services could make a difference for your medical practice by calling (512) 487-7625.