Automations
Automations
Nurture sequences and appointment reminders that message patients for you.
Automations send the messages your team would otherwise have to remember: nurture for new enquiries, reminders around appointments, follow-ups after a missed visit. Everything lives in Settings → Automations, split into two tabs:
- Sequences — multi-step nurture tied to a lead's journey. A sequence starts when a journey enters a stage (or is created, won or lost) and works through its steps: messages, waits, tasks, notes and stage moves.
- Reminders — fixed cards anchored to appointments: booking confirmation, pre-visit reminders, post-visit follow-up, missed-appointment recovery and cancellation messages.
New practices start with a ready-made library: default sequences for the main treatment groups and a standard set of reminder cards, all editable.
How automations behave
- Messages thread into the inbox. Every automated send lands in the patient's conversation like a human-sent message; replies arrive in the shared inbox as usual.
- Humans win. When a patient replies, or a team member messages the patient manually, the running sequence stops — automation never talks over a live conversation. If a shared family contact replies and SmileLine cannot safely identify one patient, reply-sensitive sequences stop for every patient that contact represents.
- Quiet hours. Automated SMS and WhatsApp messages only send inside the practice's send window (default Monday–Saturday, 08:00–20:00, changeable under SEO → Reputation → Setup). Email is exempt.
- Consent is checked at send time. Channel opt-outs always block that channel. Under the explicit consent GDPR mode, an automated message holds until marketing consent is recorded for its channel.
- Edits apply immediately. Changing a live sequence affects leads currently mid-sequence: removed steps are skipped, new steps apply to anyone who hasn't passed them, and pausing a sequence freezes everyone in place without ejecting them. A message already prepared when the pause wins is marked as cancelled in the Inbox and cannot be manually retried. After you re-enable the sequence, its next scheduled check resumes that exact step and message instead of creating a duplicate.
Automated activity is always visible: sequence starts, stops and sends appear on the patient timeline, and each lead's journey shows a chip with the running sequence and a Stop button.