How to send SMS text appointment reminders

If you think that your organization could benefit from reminding its clients about important appointments or bookings, then you should carefully consider the options available to you to help choose the one that best suits your requirements. Plenty of products claim to be the best appointment reminder software but when looking for a text reminder service for your business what things do you need to consider?

Here is a handy check-list to help you decide:

1. Does your IT system already have the capability to send out text or email messages? Many modern client, appointment and diary management systems have in-built SMS capabilities to send reminders by text and/or email. Check this out first before looking at other alternatives, this may be the simplest solution but do compare the prices as it may not be the cheapest.
2. If you don’t have an IT system, or the one you have doesn’t offer the ability to send SMS messages, don’t worry as there are some great third party applications available to help you (like SMS Client Reminders!). The internet has enabled low-cost, hosted software to be easily integrated with your own calendar and contact systems. If you don’t have your calendar and contacts in an electronic system, then you can quickly and easily set up your own online tools, many of which are free of charge.
3. Calculate how many appointments or bookings you typically have each month, so you can establish how much it will cost to send SMS text message reminders to each of them. There is a cost to sending each text reminder, just like you would pay from your own mobile phone, but you’ll be surprised how little it will be if you’re doing this in bulk. Most importantly, do shop around online and check for the best deals because the prices being charged vary a lot for very similar services.
4. Take a free trial of any service before you commit to use it. This will let you check that it does what you need and works with your existing system without any problems. If you are using your own electronic calendar and contacts database, a third party application will need to be able to communicate with your system. Read carefully the tutorials and FAQ’s during the trial, to make sure you can set things up correctly before you sign up to a new service.
5. Don’t lock yourself into long term contracts. Your business needs may change, the third party application may change or you may just decide you don’t want the service at some point in the future. Stay flexible and avoid getting trapped in expensive red tape.
6. Monitor your usage of SMS text reminders each month to make sure you’re getting the best deal. If your business volumes vary throughout the year, make sure you’re on the best tariff and that your provider lets you move from one deal to another whenever you want.

Follow these simple guidelines and we’re sure you’ll find the right service for you. Of course, we hope that it will be SMS Client Reminders and we encourage you to take our free trial so you can compare it to others on the market.