While Cliniko can automatically send SMS appointment reminders to your patients, there may be a time when you need to communicate with someone quickly, and sending an email just won't do the job. Luckily, you can easily send a one-off SMS message to your patients, straight from their details page! 

In this guide, we'll go through:

If you send SMS messages often, it's a good idea to set up templates to save you time. You can create templates for different types of messages you send out like arrival instructions or last-minute changes to appointments.

Firstly, head to Settings, then click SMS message templates:

You'll notice some default templates available which you can click into to edit or archive. To set up your own template, click new SMS message template:

You'll be able to customise the template name and content to your practice's needs, and we recommend making use of placeholders to ensure that the patient's info populates the message correctly:

Once you're done, click create SMS message template.

Head to the patient you wish to send the message to. Click on Send SMS message, under their mobile number:

You can select from your existing templates or simply start typing:

If you select a template, the message will appear , and click the Send SMS message button:

That's all you need to do! You'll be able to view a log of this message (and others!) in your communications log.