The Ultimate Appointment Reminder Buyer s Guide. Make an Educated Decision in a Fraction of the Time

Transcription

1 The Ultimate Appointment Reminder Buyer s Guide Make an Educated Decision in a Fraction of the Time

2 Need a little help? Reminder Reviews has thoroughly researched over 30+ reminder software companies. We ve setup shop to help buyer s make the most educated decision on which vendor is right for their business. A short phone conversation will give us all of the information we need to hand-pick the vendors that are best matched with your organization. We know which companies can integrate with your current scheduler provide the custom messaging your organization needs fit within your price range and we are full of valuable tips & tricks to help you along the way Talking to a Reminder Expert saves you weeks of solo research; not to mention avoid potential costly mistakes along the way. It s also 100% Free. No pressure or sales pitches just friendly, expert advice. We know which vendor is best for you Call us at:

3 Reminder 101 Appointment cancellations and noshows can be a business killer. It s also the number one reason that practices and businesses seek out the help of software to streamline their appointment confirmations. This type of software offers several great benefits: Allow your patrons to reschedule their appointment instead of just no-showing or cancelling altogether Save money on labor and increase work load efficiency of your staff Re-engage patrons who haven t been in for X amount of time, generating additional revenue Patrons notice and appreciate the extra mile in reminding them of their visit, building customer loyalty Generate new patients / customers via integrated marketing efforts through the software Reminder software typically lays on top of your practice management / scheduling system through a data integration. Throughout the day, your reminder software will pull data from your scheduling system through the cloud and then send out the appropriate reminders. Some reminder systems even push data back into your practice management platform to help stay up to date on confirmations, cancellations and more. These kinds of two-way integrations can save you time from manually logging each confirmation within your scheduler, but not all reminder software programs have this type of two-way connection.

4 Appointment Confirmations and messages can be sent out in a variety of ways. Phone, & text messaging are the most common in today s world, but some companies can still do the traditional methods of mailed letters. In this regard, it is important to consider the data you have in your current practice management or scheduling system; how many patients have you collected s from? What about home phone versus mobile phones? Many systems can now automatically detect if a patient s phone is a home phone or a cell phone that can receive text messages. Many vendors offer sample s, texts and phone calls of their messaging for you to evaluate. Be sure to take note of the personalization of the message. Features to Evaluate Each vendor will offer some unique features, while many will offer similar overall capabilities. It s important that you know some of the basic and advanced functions of reminder software to consider in your evaluation before making a purchase. Here are some of the most important functions to look at. Message Types What kind of messaging can the vendor handle? Outside of text, and phone reminders it s also important to consider message types such as new patients, patient recalls, recurring appointments and much more. If you re a business, perhaps you want to send out a marketing message to all of your clientele about a new service you provide.

5 Some specialties in the medical / vision & dental fields may also want to send out custom messages based on the type of appointment; for example, reminding their patient to not have any food or drink 8 hours prior to their visit. Or for them to bring in their updated insurance information. Customization can also play a big role in which vendor to select. How frequently do you want your messages to go out to your clients / patients? Can you determine their frequency? What about same-day messaging? If a patron cancels their appointment on the same-day it was scheduled, will the software still send them a message reminding them of that same appointment? This can be very frustrating for your customers. You may also want birthday, holiday or seasonal messages sent out. How many personalization options do you have with each vendor? Does their messaging seem personal or robotic? Other customization options could be language preferences like Spanish or French, depending on the demographics of your client / patient base. Opt-In/Opt-Out Each customer will have different preferences on how they want to be reminded of their visits and how they want to correspond with your office. Some reminder vendors have the capability of sending out and Opt-In / Opt-Out option to your customer population so that certain customers that

6 do not wish to receive electronic communication can be excluded from doing so. Remember, the most important factor when determining which reminder system to purchase is how it will positively or negatively affect your customers & patients. Additional Features With so many advancements in technology, many customers are more apt to utilizing digital methods of interaction with those they do business with. For example, if you re a medical practice, you may want to collect a lot of information from your new patients before their initial visit. This documentation can take a lot of time to manually enter in to your software. Some vendors can provide a paper-less check-in option, saving your staff a ton of administrative time. Marketing possibilities are becoming more frequently available with many reminder systems as well. Having the ability to send out newsletters, updates, discounts & promotions to your customers can be a valuable tool in increasing revenue and building customer loyalty. After all, it s much more expensive to bring on a new customer than it is to keep your current customers happy. blasts, online reviews & social media are just a few of the options many reminder software vendors can now offer.

7 Which Vendors Work For Me? We ve compiled a list of almost every appointment reminder system on the market and, through our extensive research, have correlated their system with the 4 basic categories: Medical, Dental, Vision and Business. This way, you know exactly which vendors cater towards your industry - a huge time saver!

8 What You Should Expect to Pay You should expect to pay between $100-$400 per month for a single location business or practice. Many vendors also have an implementation or setup cost involved. This will vary, but expect to pay anywhere from $50-$500 up-front to get started. Expect the price to increase based on the number of providers, locations, employees or by the volume of messaging you ll need. Your price will also vary depending on which features will be the most important to your company. For example, if you want your reminder software to directly integrate with your practice management or scheduling software, you ll tend to pay a bit more because those systems are typically more robust. On the lower end of the price range, reminder systems may require you to manually upload a CSV file of your appointments for a given time period so that they can send out the automated messaging. These are important considerations to keep in mind. Other factors that can determine your cost may be: A secure patient portal where patrons can reschedule their visit, pay their bill, and much more. Paperless check-in has become a very popular option for tech-savvy practices as well. Also things like marketing, newsletters, reviews and reporting can be included in some reminder software.

9 Be sure to ask about contracts, free-trials, guarantees etc. This will be different for each vendor. As a general rule of thumb, the more you invest in reminder software, the more complete of a solution you ll be buying. Higher end systems tend to save you and your staff much more time on manual tasks involved with sending out reminders and engaging your customers. You get what you pay for! They will also typically provide a better experience for your customers by being able to have opt-ins and opt-outs, various languages, custom messaging and much more. Often times, if just one additional appointment kept is worth it to pay a little more for a better solution. Remember - the price is important, but your customer s satisfaction is much more important! Keep your customers and patients in mind first and foremost when buying reminder software. No Pressure & No Obligation to get Free Price Quotes Call us at:

10 Online Reviews One of the most effective ways of conducting research on a vendor is to look at online reviews of current and former users. Reviews can be a fantastic resource for: Coming up with critical questions to ask the sales rep Identifying potential pitfalls to avoid Uncovering areas you may not have considered before Comparing each vendor in key areas like support, features and client satisfaction Keep in mind that typically online reviews are slightly more negative than positive. Its human nature to want to leave a negative comment more than a positive comment. Online reviews should not be the only determining factor in your decision. Reviews should be a supplementary component in your evaluation. That being said, online reviews do tend to be honest and straightforward. If a customer had a bad experience, they will generally give accurate descriptions of what happened that upset them.

11 Software Demonstrations You should always schedule a demo with the vendors that we have matched you with. Looking a live demo is the most efficient way to evaluate software. Online demonstrations of reminder software typically only take about minutes, depending on questions and how the conversation goes. Keep in mind - most sales reps will ask you for your business during the demo. It s OK to say Yes! - if you ve seen what you need to make a decision. Be up-front with the sales rep in giving him feedback on your thoughts and what you need to see to be able to make a decision. Often times, our human nature is to avoid the constructive tension between a buyer and seller - don t be afraid of your sales rep! You are only preventing yourself from making the most educated decision possible by not being up-front and honest with your rep. Let them help you make the best decision. Be sure to ask lots of questions and give frequent feedback throughout the demo. Also, make sure to have your rep show you samples of the messaging (phone, text, ) for you to evaluate.

12 Time to Decide We hope that you found this guide useful. We ve done gads of research on each vendor and we ve worked with tons of businesses and practices in helping them make the best decision for their organization. Do yourself a favor and give our experts a call. All of our services are 100% FREE to every Buyer. We ll narrow down your search to a short list of vendors that are well matched to your business. From there, each vendor reaches out to you to schedule a demo and compete for your business. Our Experts save an average of 2-3 weeks of research for each buyer! It costs nothing but a phone call to save weeks of research! Call us at: