# How reminders work

Diarybook sends appointment reminders automatically by SMS text, email, voice call and letter. Nobody has to be logged in for them to go out.

This page is the model behind that: what decides which client gets a message, over which channel, and when. Each channel then has its own page — [SMS](/docs/reminders/sms-reminders/), [voice](/docs/reminders/voice-reminders/), [email](/docs/reminders/email-reminders/) and [letter](/docs/reminders/letter-reminders/) — and the advanced options live in [Additional Messaging](/docs/reminders/additional-messaging/).

## Why this matters

Most of the value of a reminder system comes from the messages nobody has to think about — and most of the trouble comes from a rule that quietly excluded the appointments you meant to cover. Understanding how a Reminder Setting decides who gets a message is what separates an account that reduces Did Not Attend (DNA) rates from one that simply sends a lot of texts.

## Reminder Settings

A **Reminder Setting** is a named configuration that dictates when and how a client is reminded of an appointment. Each appointment is linked to one.

An account can hold as many Reminder Settings as it needs — a service that gives two days' notice for routine appointments and a week for procedures uses two, and links each appointment to the appropriate one. A new account starts with default messages and a schedule already assigned, so reminders work before anyone configures anything.

Go to the **Settings** area and select **Reminder Settings**. The setting itself holds three fields:

| Field | Purpose |
|-------|---------|
| Reminder Name | The name of the setting, used when linking it to an appointment. |
| Physical Location | Optional. The location the setting belongs to, selected from a list. |
| Email Report | Optional. Sends a daily report of which appointments were sent reminders using this Reminder Setting. |
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**Physical Location** is worth setting carefully. A location can also be set on the appointment type and on the appointment itself, and if they disagree the appointment cannot be saved — see [Appointment types](/docs/appointments/appointment-types/).

Beneath those fields are five buttons, each opening a window where that channel is activated and configured:

- **SMS Text Reminders**
- **Email Reminder**
- **Letter**
- **Voice Reminder**
- **Additional Messaging** — advanced SMS and letter behaviour, including contacting the client *after* the appointment, and **Letter By SMS**.

The four channels each carry their own schedule. Additional Messaging works differently and is covered separately below.

## Schedules and triggers

Each channel has its own schedule, and a schedule is made up of schedule items. A schedule item decides when a message is sent and which appointments qualify for it. If no schedule item matches an appointment, no message goes out on that channel.

### Triggers

The trigger sets the point a message is measured from.

| Trigger | Main reminder | Additional Messaging |
|---------|:-------------:|:--------------------:|
| Days before the appointment |  |  |
| Hours before the appointment |  |  |
| The day the appointment was created |  |  |
| The day of the appointment | — |  |
| Days after the appointment | — |  |
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Anything that happens on or after the appointment day is only available in Additional Messaging. That is where follow-up messages live — a survey request after an appointment, or a letter to a client who did not attend. Both of those triggers wait until the appointment's end time has passed, so nothing is sent while an appointment is still in progress.

### Earliest Time

**Earliest Time** stops a message going out too early in the day. A reminder due on Tuesday with an Earliest Time of 09:00 will not reach the client at seven in the morning.

It sets the point at which sending *begins*, not a single moment when everything is sent. Appointments added to a qualifying day after that time can still produce messages later in the day.

### Restricting to particular appointment days

A schedule item can be set to apply only when the appointment falls on specific days of the week. This is how an account avoids sending at weekends, and it applies to every channel.

To give two **business days**' notice without anything going out on a Saturday or Sunday, use two schedule items:

| Schedule days | Days in advance |
|---------------|-----------------|
| Appointments on Monday, Tuesday | 4 days in advance |
| Appointments on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | 2 days in advance |
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Messages then go out on these days:

| Appointment day | Day the message is sent |
|-----------------|-------------------------|
| Monday | Thursday |
| Tuesday | Friday |
| Wednesday | Monday |
| Thursday | Tuesday |
| Friday | Wednesday |
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The same pattern works on any channel, and matters most on voice, where an automated call at the weekend is the least welcome of the four.

### Is Flexible

By default a schedule item is a strict rule: an appointment created after the trigger point has already passed gets no message from that item. An appointment booked tomorrow for the day after will not pick up a two-day-before reminder.

Select **Is Flexible** and the item also sends for appointments created inside the days-before window. Use it where short-notice bookings are normal and a late reminder is better than none.

### How many schedule items

The main **SMS**, **Letter**, **Email** and **Voice** schedules can each hold several schedule items, which is how an account builds up a layered pattern — a week before, then again the day before.

Additional Messaging is different: **SMS**, **Letter** and **Letter By SMS** each take one schedule item only.

## Which appointments get a message

Two rules apply before any schedule item is considered.

**Cancelled appointments never receive a reminder**, unless an Additional Messaging schedule item specifically stipulates it.

**Confirmed appointments are normally skipped.** Once a client has confirmed, Diarybook stops reminding them. Select **Include Confirmed Appointments** on a schedule item to override this — worth doing where an appointment has several reminders and the client should receive them all.

Those two rules are the whole of the filtering available on a main SMS, Email, Voice or Letter schedule. Additional Messaging items go further and can target status directly — which kind depends on the trigger:

| Additional Messaging item | Targets | Typical use |
|---------------------------|---------|-------------|
| Before the appointment | Confirmation status | Chase only the clients who have not responded |
| On or after the appointment day | Attendance status | Follow up everyone who did not attend, or survey everyone who did |
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Targeting a confirmation status is also the only way to reach a cancelled appointment, since main reminder schedules never send to one.

Both status lists, and the warning Diarybook shows when a selection mixes confirmed and cancelled appointments, are set out in [Additional Messaging](/docs/reminders/additional-messaging/). The attendance statuses themselves are explained in [Attendance and DNA](/docs/appointments/attendance-and-dna/).

## How each channel behaves

### SMS

The main decision is whether the client can respond to the text to confirm the appointment.

If they can, the message is sent from a Diarybook number and replies come back to your account. If they cannot, the message is sent from an alphanumeric sender ID belonging to your account, which the client's handset cannot reply to.

That choice is worth making deliberately. A returned text carries no context — if a client receives reminders for two appointments on the same day and answers once, there is no way to tell which appointment they meant.

You also choose which of the client's numbers to use: the main mobile only, or the two extra/guardian numbers as well. In a synced environment this affects how the incoming data is read, because the same client appearing with several numbers has to be distinguished from a client whose number has changed. See [Appointments in a synced environment](/docs/appointments/synced-appointments/).

The message text is yours to write. [Merge fields](/docs/reminders/merge-fields/) pull in details from the appointment, the client, the user and the location; a basic reminder uses just the appointment date and time. Where replies are enabled, the convention is to close by asking the client to reply to confirm.

Longer messages cost more — see [SMS message parts](/docs/reference/sms-message-parts/).

### Email

Email reminders go to the single email address held on the client record.

The content is a fixed template and cannot be customised. It opens with the client's first name, gives the day, date and time of the appointment, and offers an **Add To Calendar** button. Below that it sets out the location:

| Label | Filled from |
|-------|-------------|
| Location | ^^loc_name^^ |
| Address | ^^loc_address1^^ through ^^loc_address5^^ |
| Contact | ^^loc_contact^^ |
| Email | ^^loc_email^^ |
| Phone | ^^loc_phone^^ |
| Further Details | ^^loc_directions^^ and ^^loc_map^^ |
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It closes by telling the client the email cannot be replied to, and to contact their service provider with any questions. Because the address block is filled from the location, an incomplete location record shows up directly in the client's inbox.

### Voice

Voice reminders call the single landline number held on the client record.

The Reminder Setting must carry a script for the call to read, written much like an SMS message. You also choose whether the client can confirm attendance, cancel, or both.

When the call is answered the script is read three times. At the end of each reading, where feedback is allowed, the client is prompted to press **1** to confirm or **3** to cancel.

### Letter

A letter is generated as a PDF from a Word template uploaded to the Reminder Setting.

The PDF is emailed to a Diarybook user, not posted to the client — Diarybook produces the letter, and printing and posting stay with you. The destination address is a field in the Letter window, separate from the **Email Report** address on the setting itself.

[Letter reminders](/docs/reminders/letter-reminders/) covers the template and the send in full.

### Letter By SMS

**Letter By SMS** generates the same letter but does not email it. The PDF is saved against the appointment record, where [DiaryPage](/docs/reminders/diarypage/) can present it to the client when they view their appointment online.

It needs three things in place:

- A DiaryPage subscription.
- An approved alphanumeric sender ID.
- The text of the SMS notification, which must include the DiaryPage merge field that produces the link to the client's DiaryPage. That merge field is specific to your account and is supplied by your account manager, so there is no general name for it.


## What to watch for

**A short-notice appointment gets no reminder**

The schedule item is strict. An appointment created after the trigger point has passed falls outside it. Select **Is Flexible** on the item so late bookings are still picked up.

**A client confirms and then hears nothing again**

This is the default: confirmed appointments are skipped so clients are not chased needlessly. If several reminders are configured and all of them should be delivered regardless, select **Include Confirmed Appointments** on the later items.

**Reminders arrive at the weekend**

The schedule item is counting calendar days, not working days. Split it into several items restricted to particular appointment days, giving early-week appointments more notice.

**A client replies to confirm and the wrong appointment is updated**

A reply carries no appointment context. Where clients routinely have more than one appointment on a day, consider a sender ID that does not accept replies and confirm by another route.

**Letters never reach the client**

Letter reminders are emailed to a Diarybook user as a PDF. Diarybook does not post them. Check who the Reminder Setting sends to, and that somebody owns printing and posting.

## Related

- [SMS reminders](/docs/reminders/sms-reminders/)
- [Additional Messaging](/docs/reminders/additional-messaging/)
- [Merge fields](/docs/reminders/merge-fields/)
- [SMS message parts](/docs/reference/sms-message-parts/)

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Source: https://diarybook.com/docs/reminders/how-reminders-work/