This article is designed to answer some of the more common and frequent questions that may be on your mind when considering the addition of C9 Connect to your Practice Management Software, or that you may have during your daily use of the system.
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Who receives the reminder, the Patient or the RP (Responsible Party)?
Reminders are sent to the Responsible Party who has the appropriate Correspondence boxes checked in their profile (Phone, Email, or Text). (Note: This is located in Edit > Patient > Relationships tab > Click edit on the responsible party relationship.) If their Text box is unchecked, they will not receive text messages. -
If the patient has two Responsible Parties, will they both receive reminders?
If they both have the appropriate correspondence boxes checked, they will both receive notifications. -
If one Responsible Party has two emails, and/or two phone numbers, will they both receive notifications?
No, only the highest-ranked contacts in the Contact Information list for one email and one phone number will receive notifications. To receive texts on a second number, set it as the top-ranked cell number under Edit > Patient > Relationships Tab > Responsible Party Contact Information. -
Can images be sent/received via text?
Due to HIPAA regulations, this option is unavailable. Please contact our sales team to learn how to purchase Cloud 9 Practice marketing (formerly Legwork) with C9 Connect, which enables image uploads in the forms product for text messaging with forms links that contain images. -
For Two-Way Messaging, instead of getting the flashing alert, can it be set to some audible tone, such as a ding or a beep?
No there is no auditory alert for that. -
Is obtaining the cell phone carrier from the Responsible Party still required as it was for the legacy reminders to work?
Fortunately, the cell phone carriers are not required for Connect Appointment Reminders or Two-Way Messaging within Connect. -
Is there a way to set up an inclement weather/office closed template to blast out when necessary?
Yes, this can be created as a Recurring Campaign. To learn how to do this within Cloud 9, go to this link: Recurring Campaigns: Creating an Email Template. This can be created before-hand and sent within minutes during an actual event. -
Do any team members need to trigger appointment reminders in order for them to be sent?
No, they do not. Automated Reminders are a set and forget type of system. The rules, once set up and toggled to the active position, are fully automatic. -
Can we use our existing office phone number for Two-Way Text Messaging?
While it is possible to use an existing phone line, it often takes a lengthy (three weeks) time to be ported over. Also, this line will be unable to be used for any other purposes, such as an emergency number for the office. We strongly recommend a new line be used. -
If we choose to purchase Connect, how does that change our existing ways of emailing/texting from Cloud 9?
Letters and emails can still be sent through Cloud 9 as always. Appointment Reminder Emails would be sent through C9 Connect. Appointment Reminder Emails are also now created through the Recurring Campaigns Templates section of Cloud 9. Follow the link to this article to provide yourself with the necessary permissions to be able to create and edit those Reminders Recurring Campaigns Employee Permissions, and this link for instructions on Creating and Sending those Reminders Creating & Sending Recurring Campaigns. You can also view this C9 Connect About page to see links to all pages for Cloud 9 Connect features and processes. -
How will patients be able to confirm their appointments?
This differs depending on whether the reminder is an email or a text. Emails will have a message such as "Click here to confirm your appointment," which will return to Cloud 9 and mark the appointment as confirmed on the Appointment Schedule as well as in the Reminders Dashboard. Text messages will automatically include the "Text C to confirm" message, which will also mark the appointment as confirmed in both places. The confirmed appointment will look like this in the dashboard. -
Can a patient's text or reminder history be deleted?
The reminder is permanent, as a record of your communication. Reminder texts and Two-Way Messaging can both be seen under Two-Way Messaging. All reminder history is maintained in the Reminders Dashboard. For additional information on Two-Way Messaging, click here:
C9 Connect Two Way Messaging
C9 Connect Reminders Dashboard -
When a patient calls to reschedule an existing appointment, do the rules automatically transfer over to the new appointment date/time?
If you move the patient's appointment to a different time, location, or even just a different chair, it will create new reminders. Cloud 9 considers any changes made by rescheduling or moving the appointment to count as an entirely new appointment, and Connect will send reminders out to reflect that. -
If a patient is 18, do reminders still go to the RP or to the patient themselves?
Currently the communications will continue to go to the Financially Responsible party. In order to make the patient receive reminders, they would need to have a 'self' record set up and marked as financially responsible in the Relationships tab of the Edit Patient page. We are looking at whether a certain set of criteria, such as the age of the patient, will allow us to alter that in the future. -
Can you pick and choose who gets an Email blast message?
Recurring (Email) Campaigns can be filtered by many of the same criteria contained in the Data Miner for selecting those categories of patients that you want to receive the message, such as Over 60 days past due, those in a specific Patient Status (New Patient, or Retention, etc.). Check out this article for more in-depth information Recurring Campaigns: Recipient Lists -
Can you send reminders for one patient's appointment to multiple Financially Responsible people?
Yes. Each party must be marked as Financially Responsible, each must have an email/text address listed under their Responsible Party account, and each must have the appropriate Correspondence boxes checked for the type of reminder you are sending. -
Can we use hyperlinks and unsubscribe notifications in the message body of an email campaign or text reminder?
All default templates already have the unsubscribe message on them. You will be unable to save a newly created email template without including an unsubscribe message. The particulars of how to do this can be seen in this article Adding a Sender Address and Unsubscribe Link to Recurring Campaign Email Templates There is also an option to include hyperlinks in the body of a message. -
How does one activate the C9 Connect Services? And is there an additional charge for that?
Individual Demonstrations are conducted by the Sales Department. They can provide you a comprehensive view of the system's capabilities, and a timeline for activation of the new capabilities after training. Click here for the Sales Team contact information. -
Is there a character limit on text messages?
The text templates that can be created will cap you at 640 characters. But the Merge Fields utilized do not count toward that limit. Also, if the message extends to longer than the maximum limit, the entire text will be sent. It may be on two consecutive messages, but the entire body of the message will be sent. -
We have seen an issue where our early morning appointments are not receiving their reminder messages. Can you tell us why?
Within your URL, go to Edit>Setup>Automation Suite - Appointment Campaigns. Under the Practice settings, there is a defaults button that will bring up the Edit Config screen. The screenshot below shows the button to select to pull up this dialogue box.Once you select that button, you are taken to this screen. The Send Reminders field needs to be adjusted to accommodate the early morning appointment reminders. If your first appointment is at 8 AM, and your "Day-of" Reminders are slated to go out two hours prior to the appointment, then this time would need to be changed to 6 AM to allow for that reminder to go out. Remember to save your work.
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If a patient has opted out of Reminders or Two Way Messaging, is there a mechanism in place to opt them back in?
In order to opt back in, the responsible party must text START back to the number that sent them the text reminder or two way message. If they no longer have the phone number, your practice should have a record of the number that sent the message, but we can also look that up in the lookup if you contact Cloud 9 Support.
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.