NOTE: As of this writing, text templates can only be used for appointment campaigns and scheduled contract payment communications. Recurring text campaigns are coming soon; however, you are able to set up the templates now for future use.
Cloud 9 now offers Patient Follow-Up Care Recurring Campaigns. Text Campaigns are coming soon; please keep an eye on the release notes. For now, you can create custom Text Templates to be used for Appointment Campaigns or for Patient Communications for Scheduled Contract Payments if you have Cloud 9 Connect. Any time you are creating a recurring campaign; the first step is to create a template. In this example, you will be instructed on how to create a text template for future functionality in Patient Follow-Up Care Recurring Campaigns.
This article will walk you through setting up a template for text campaigns so that, as soon as you've created the campaign with the text template and recipient list, you'll be able to create and send text campaigns right from Cloud 9. (Once the Text Recurring Campaign for Patient Follow Up Becomes Available which is coming soon). Text campaigns are very effective for patient communication and can be a huge boost to your office productivity.
Before you begin, confirm that you are set up for Recurring Campaigns by navigating in Cloud 9 to "Edit > "Automation Suite" > "Recurring Campaigns". If you have that option, your setup is complete.
Next, you will click on the "Templates" tab and then click "Add Text Template". Now you're ready to begin.
On the right hand side, you will want to give the template a name. This can be anything you like. In the next box, you could copy from an existing template. You would use this if you already have a template that you would like to base the new one on and just make a few changes. If this is not the case, just leave that field blank. Next, you will choose a category for your template. Just remember to use "Payments" for scheduled contract payment texts and "Appointments" for appointment campaigns. Now it's time to get into the heart of the template.
The next box is the "Message" box. This is where you will type the exact text message that you would like to send. There are two things you can put in text message templates other than plain text. Those are emojis and "Merge tags." You can find the emojis by clicking on the smiley face icon in the upper left of the message box. The "Merge Tags" are just to the right of that. Think of the merge tags just like the merge fields in your letter templates. They are used to pull in specific information from your database. As you can see in the example, I am pulling in the responsible party name (adult patients will typically be their own responsible party) and the practice address. I also threw in a cute emoji. With the name and emoji, it gives the text a much more personal feel.
Also, note the character count at the bottom right of the message window. You now get a full 640 characters for text campaign templates, and it will warn you when you go over the character limit.
You can now save your template and you're ready to create and send that campaign.
As always, if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to reach out to Cloud 9 Support by emailing us at cloud9support@planetdds.com, or chatting us online using the chat bubble on the lower right at https://cloud9support.planetdds.com/hc/en-us, or giving us a call during our business hours of 8:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST at the 1.800.394.6050 option 2.