Has your medical practice ever needed a quick, easy way to reach a large subset of patients?
Perhaps a natural disaster or inclement weather has affected your region and you need to reschedule hundreds—or even thousands—of patients. Maybe one of your practice’s providers is sick and out of the office and his or her patients need to be informed. Or perhaps your practice simply wants to send out a holiday greeting to patients.
With Vital Interaction™’s new Bulk Messaging tool, you can now connect with thousands of patients within moments, whatever the reason. In fact, this new tool gives you the power to send more than 100,000 text messages or emails in just five easy steps.
Read on to learn more about this new feature and how to get started using it today.
Deploying Mass Text & Email Messages: The Benefits of Bulk Messaging
Those who frequently use the Vital Interaction™ system may be accustomed to using the Group Message tool to send custom messages. The Group Message tool is particularly useful for letting patients (up to 250) know, for instance, that their appointments need to be rescheduled.
But we have found that there are times that practices need to reach far more patients—and sometimes, as quickly as possible.
That’s why we designed a new tool with even more flexibility and greater reach: the Bulk Messaging tool.
Bulk Messaging can be particularly useful when your practice needs to connect with a large volume of patients regarding, for example:
- an upcoming office move
- flu vaccines or any health awareness campaign
- a provider leaving the practice
- a holiday
- a promotion or marketing campaign
What’s more? Bulk Messaging can be used to communicate with more than just your patients—you can use this feature to send messages to providers and staff members, too.
Vital Interaction™ is now holding webinars on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. and Fridays at 11 a.m. CST. To learn more, email support@vitalinteraction.com.
How To Send Mass Text and Email Messages Via the Bulk Messaging Tool
To get started using the Bulk Messaging tool, simply click on Tools and then Bulk Sending.
Next, follow the five simple steps below:
Step 1: Start the Campaign
- Name the campaign—Be sure to choose something descriptive, such as “Office Closing—Flooding.”
- Select the type of message you wish to send—You can choose any message type available in your account.
Step 2: Select Your Message
Only text and email messages are available for bulk sending. You may choose to send both text and email messages, or you can limit the campaign to a single delivery method.*
*Note: If sending text messages, please contact a member of the Vital Interaction™ support team to configure a new phone number.
When sending mass texts, you have the capacity to send up to 2,500 messages per phone number.
So, for example, if you have 5,000 contacts, then two numbers must be configured. However, two files of 2,500 contacts can be uploaded and sent using one phone number. And there is no limit on how many phone numbers are tied to your account.
Before moving onto the next step, you must set the message:
- Existing Message—Any associated message on your account can be selected in the drop-down menu. Select from existing interactive messages (located on the right side of the screen).
- New Message—Create a message by typing the verbiage in the Message section (located on the left side of the screen).
It’s important to note that if you choose to use replacement fields in your message, the fields must be in the CSV file column.
For example, if {first_name} is added in the message, then first_name must be added in the top column of the CSV file for it to render correctly.
Step 3: Upload File
First things first: The file format must be uploaded in CSV format.
Next, fill in the two required fields: person_email and person_cell_phone. The fields do not need to have any data, but the field name must be in the top row of the file.
There are some additional fields to consider as well. As shown above, to include a replacement field in the message, such as the patient’s name, the file must include the corresponding data.
Finally, select the file to be uploaded. You may need to browse to a network or local folder in order to select your CSV file.
The file is automatically validated to ensure it is formatted correctly.
If the file is not formatted properly, the validation process will result in an error. In this example, person_email was missing in row 1 of the Recipient Data File.
Step 4: Schedule the Message Delivery
It’s now time to schedule the delivery of your mass text and/or email messages.
To send your messages immediately, select Today. To schedule a future delivery, select the date and time in the calendar picker.
Step 5: Review & Send
Before sending the message, be sure to review the following fields:
- message selection
- message content
- number of messages to be sent
When you are ready to send, click Submit Campaign > Continue.
Bulk Messaging Campaign Logs
To monitor the progress of your message campaign, select Campaign Logs.
The logs reveal the following statistics and figures:
- total messages sent
- opens
- clicks
- delivery success status
If you’re interested in the new Bulk Messaging tool for your practice and need help getting started, contact our friendly support team.
At Vital Interaction™, we’re dedicated to providing medical practices with advanced tools designed to improve doctor-patient communications and promote patient engagement. See what we can do for your practice by calling (512) 487-7625.