Recall reminders

Remind patients when their check-up or hygiene visit falls due — from four weeks before to 18 months after — with a one-tap link to book it.

Recall reminders bring patients back for the visits their recalls schedule: an examination, a hygiene visit, a periodontal review. They sit on the Recall due step, in the Recall phase at the end of the automations timeline, and go out at set times before and after each patient's due date until the patient books.

Recall reminders work for practices that keep their recalls in Smileline's clinical workspace (see Patient forms and recalls). If your recalls live in another practice management system, that system's own recall messages carry on and the Recall due step doesn't show.

How a patient's recall cycle works

A patient's reminders follow their earliest due recall — of their active recalls, the one due soonest (a paused recall doesn't count). Every message is timed from that due date and goes out at 9:00, in the time zone of the recall's site.

One message covers every recall the patient has due within a week of it: a patient whose examination and hygiene visit fall due together gets one message about both, not two.

When the recall is completed, its next due date starts a new cycle, and the messages follow it on their own.

Set up the schedule

Go to Settings → Automations and open Recall due.

Click Use the recommended schedule. It adds ten messages, from 4 weeks before the due date to 18 months after it, switched off so you can check the wording first.

Click a message to change its timing — a number of days, weeks or months before or after the due date, or on the due date — its channel or its text, then Save.

Click Turn on all, or switch messages on one at a time.

The recommended schedule:

When	Channel
4 weeks before	Text and email
3 weeks before	Text
On the due date	Email
1 month after	Text
3 months after	Text and email
6 months after	Email
12 months after	Text
18 months after	Email — the last one ("we'll stop reminding you")

A message can go from a year before the due date to two years after it. There is one schedule for every recall type; {{recall.types}} names the recalls each message is about. The Recall types button beside Recall messages opens Recall types, where you set what patients are recalled for and how often.

When a message is skipped

Every message is checked again just before it goes. It is skipped, recorded, and never sent later when:

the patient has a visit booked — any visit still to come, booked online, by phone, by the AI receptionist or in the diary (an online booking still waiting for its deposit isn't a visit yet);
the recall was completed, rescheduled or paused since the message was planned;
the patient is archived, deceased or merged into another record;
the patient opted out of that channel;
the message has been switched off.

If a booked visit is cancelled, the next message in the schedule goes out as normal. A reply from the patient, or a message from your team, doesn't stop recall reminders — booking, pausing or completing the recall does.

Switching on

Patients who are already overdue when you switch the schedule on get their next message on its normal date — nobody is sent a burst of messages on the first day. Patients more than 18 months overdue get no automatic messages; they stay on Recalls due for your team to call.

If sending is held up for a while, the messages that came due in the meantime go out late — but only the most recent one on each channel for each patient. The earlier ones are recorded as skipped, so nobody gets two recall texts on the same morning.

The one-tap booking link

{{recall.bookingLink}} (Recall booking link in the merge-tag list) puts a short personal link in the message. It opens Time for your check-up:

The patient is recognised by the link: there are no details to type, and their name is never shown.
The visit to book is chosen for them — the appointment type the recall Books online as (see Recall types), at the recall's site, with its clinician. They pick a time and click Confirm booking.
The booking marks the recall booked, sends your usual booking messages and shows You're booked with a link to manage that booking. It doesn't create a lead or move anything on your boards.

Instead of the booking page, the link can show:

You have a visit on … — the patient already has a visit coming up.
Nothing to book right now — the recall has been completed or moved on.
Please call us to book — the visit can't be booked online: the recall type has no Books online as type, the type isn't bookable online, needs a deposit or your confirmation, the site books by chair, or your recalls are no longer kept in Smileline's clinical workspace.
This link has expired — a link works until 90 days after the last message of its cycle.

While your online booking page is off, the tag is empty and the step marks the messages that use it Online link empty: turn the page on, or reword those messages.

Merge tags

Tag	Shows
`{{recall.types}}`	The recalls the message is about, e.g. "examination and hygiene"
`{{recall.dueOn}}`	The due date of the patient's earliest recall
`{{recall.bookingLink}}`	The one-tap booking link

What your team sees

Every recall message appears in the patient's conversation, like any other message.
Each active recall on the record shows Automatic reminders — how many were sent, the last one and the next.
Recalls due shows each patient's Last reminder — the last recall message or posted recall letter — so you can call the right people first.

Recall reminders are service messages, like booking messages: they reach every patient whatever marketing consent they've given, and an opt-out still counts one channel at a time. Keep them free of offers.

In the US, the recommended texts end with "Reply STOP to opt out", and each fits in a single text with its link. Keep your own recall texts short and about the visit only: that's what US rules expect of healthcare texts sent without written consent.

Recall reminders

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