Keywords: C9 Connect, appointment campaigns, appointment reminders, automation suite, routines, save the date, pre-appointment, day of, follow up, no show, confirmable, location routines
Summary
This article discusses how to set up and use Appointment Campaigns in C9 Connect within Cloud 9. It covers employee permissions, configuring defaults, creating reminder routines, location based setups, and specialty and appointment type exceptions.
Overview
C9 Connect’s Appointment Campaigns feature allows your practice to automate appointment reminder notifications. After configuring the desired routines, C9 Connect handles reminders automatically based on your setup. This article walks through how to configure Appointment Campaigns, customize your reminder routines, and make the most of this feature for your practice.
Employee Permissions Required
To access and edit Appointment Campaigns, the Edit Reminders Setup permission must be added to the employee’s profile. Someone at the practice with access to Edit > Setup > Employees will need to apply this permission.
Accessing Appointment Campaigns
Navigate to Edit > Automation Suite > Appointment Campaigns.
At the top left of the screen there is a toggle switch that controls whether Appointment Campaigns are active or inactive. An orange toggle means the routine is active and reminders will send. A gray toggle means it is inactive and reminders will not send.
Defaults Setup
Click the tools icon next to Defaults to access and configure your practice level defaults shown in the screenshot below.
The Edit Config screen includes the following key settings:
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Send Reminders From: Sets the time range for sending notifications. This defaults to 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM but can be adjusted to fit your practice. This setting is time zone specific and triggers reminders based on the local time of the scheduled appointment.
- Day Of Reminder Timing: If you want Day Of reminders to send two hours before an appointment, make sure the Send Reminders From start time is set at least two hours before your practice opens.
- Specialty Overrides: If your practice has a pediatric dentist, you can enable a pediatric specialty override by checking the corresponding box. This creates a separate routine to manage reminders for that specialty.
- Appointment Type Overrides: These allow you to set specific rules for certain appointment types such as Deband or New Patient Exams, overriding the practice level routine for those types.
Reminder Types
Routines are set up like timelines for appointments. There are five types of reminders available:
- Save the Date: Sends when an appointment is scheduled or shortly after. The timing is customizable.
- Pre-Appointment: Fully customizable and you can have multiple. Set it for one week before, two days before, one day before, or whatever fits your practice’s needs.
- Day Of: Sends on the day of the appointment. If you want it to send two hours before the appointment, make sure the Send Reminders From time in Defaults is set two hours before your appointments begin.
- Follow Up: Sends after the appointment is completed. Can be set to send immediately or after a customized amount of time.
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No Show: Only triggers if the appointment is missed and marked as a No Show.
Note: You can have unlimited email reminders in a routine but only four unique text reminders per routine.
Routine Hierarchy
Routines follow a specific order of priority:
- Practice Level routines are set up first and apply across the whole practice.
- Location Level routines override practice level routines for that specific location.
- Specialty Exceptions and Appointment Type Exceptions override both practice and location level routines.
Reminder Settings
All reminders follow the same format when being created or edited:
- Message Type: Email or Text.
- Template: Select the email or text template to use. There are default templates available or you can create your own in Edit > Automation Suite > Recurring Campaigns > Templates tab. See the Creating Text Templates for Appointment Campaigns article for instructions.
- When to Send: Sets the frequency and timing of when the reminder sends.
- Is Confirmable: If checked, the reminder will include a confirmation option. For text reminders this displays as “Send C to Confirm” and patients can respond by text. For email reminders this displays as a clickable confirmation link.
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Ignore if Confirmed: If checked, the reminder will not send if the appointment has already been confirmed.
Note: If you cannot access Edit > Automation Suite > Recurring Campaigns > Templates tab, see the Recurring Campaigns Employee Permissions article here.
Creating a New Routine
To create a new routine follow the steps below.
- Select the blue circle above the Appointment Reminder type you want to work with.
- Fill out all fields in the Creation Window.
- Click Save and Close when done.
Viewing Existing Rules
To quickly view the existing rules for any reminder, hover your mouse over the appropriate Text or Email icon on the Appointment Timeline. The hover tooltip will show the reminder type, the name of the template selected, when the reminder will send, whether it is confirmable, and whether it is set to Ignore if Confirmed.
Editing or Deleting an Existing Rule
Click the appropriate Text or Email icon on the Appointment Timeline to edit or delete an existing rule. Make your changes and click Save and Close when done.
Creating Location Based Routines
To create Location based routines, follow the steps below.
- Click the Add Schedule button in the upper left of the Appointment Campaigns screen to open the Schedule Configuration Window.
- Select the location you want to add a routine for from the dropdown and click Save.
- Back on the main Appointment Campaigns screen, existing locations will be listed. Click on a location name to expand and view its routines.
The location based setup works the same way as the practice level setup.
Deleting a Location Routine, Specialty Exception, or Appointment Exception
To delete a location based routine or a Specialty or Appointment Exception, click the red X on the right side of the routine.
Going Live
Once all Appointment Campaigns are configured and the toggle is set to active and showing orange, routines will go live and reminders will send automatically based on your setup. The setup screen also shows who last made edits to a routine and the date the changes were made.
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.