While Cliniko can automatically send SMS appointment reminders to your patients or send just a couple of individual messages, there may be a time when you need to send out a bulk message to all of your patients.
This is great if you need to let them know about a change of address or maybe a special offer you have.
This function is only available to administrators.
Send group SMS messages to your patients
First things first, make sure you've got some SMS credits! To purchase credits, head into your SMS settings.
Once you've done that, just head to the Communications tab in Cliniko, and hit that Send message patients button:
On the next page, you'll want to select SMS as the message type. You'll see the field for your message, as well as the different types of filters and options:
Message recipient filters
The last or next business they visited: filter recipients by the business location the patient had their previous or future appointment booked at.
Who their last or next practitioner was: filter recipients by the past or future practitioner the patient had booked with.
When their last or next appointment was: filter recipients by the date range the patient's previous or future appointment was booked in.
Patients who don't have any upcoming appointments: filter patients who've had at least one previous appointment, but nothing in the future booked.
Message summary
Once you've customised your choices, you will see a final count of patients who will receive the message, as well as:
How many credits will be used per message.
The total amount of credits that will be used.
The current balance of credits you have before sending your group message.
Marketing message
You'll also see the option to select whether or not this is a marketing message:
If you tick that box, the message you send will not go out to people who have unsubscribed from SMS marketing (more on that below).
Hit that Send SMS Message button, and your group of patients will get the message!
SMS Credits
If you don't have enough credits on file, you won't be able to send the message. Cliniko will alert you if this is the case:
But what if some patients don't want to be included?
If a patient has expressly requested not to receive marketing-related SMS messages, you can unsubscribe them. Select the patient in question and edit their details. Under Marketing messages, be sure that the box next to SMS is not ticked:
Save the patient's settings, and voilà! Now they won't get any marketing SMS messages as long as you tick the "This is a marketing message" box when sending the group text:
Unsubscribing someone will not affect their reminder preferences. It only means that they won't be included in any group SMS messages.
You can do a lot with SMS messages in Cliniko! Find out how to send automated SMS reminders or send a one-time message to a patient.