Set up appointment follow-up sequences

A follow-up sequence is a set of WhatsApp messages you prepare for an appointment in advance, which are sent automatically when their time comes: appointment details, a reminder, aftercare tips after the appointment and so on. This article explains how to set up a sequence with a template and start it on an appointment.

Before you start

• Messages are sent through a WhatsApp session that has been set up for your company and is connected. Contact our team to set up a session.
• The follow-up is started through the customer record the appointment belongs to, and messages go to that record's phone number.

Creating a template

1. Open the Definitions → Appointment Follow Up → Appointment Follow Up Template page and click New.
2. Enter a Name, a Description and the Operation Type the template will be used for.
3. Prepare the first message in the Appointment Follow Up Items section:
   • Write the message text for each language.
   • In the Appointment Follow Up Timing field, choose Appointment Created, Before Appointment, After Appointment or Both Before and After.
   • For before or after, type the time in the Hour field or click one of the preset buttons, such as 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week or 1 month.
   • If you like, add an image, audio, video or document for each language, and enter the file name and caption.
4. For more messages, click Add and repeat the same steps.
5. Turn on the Active switch and click Create.

If you type the following fields into the message text, they're replaced with real details when the message is sent: #PatientName# for the customer's name, #OperationName# for the operation, #AppointmentDate# for the appointment date and time, #LocationName# for the appointment location, and #OwnerName# for the record's owner.

Starting the follow-up

1. Open the appointment's details and click Start Appointment Follow Up.
2. Choose how the messages are sent: WhatsApp Direct sends them straight to the customer's number. WhatsApp Group uses a WhatsApp group for the appointment; you can pick an existing group, or create a new one by typing a Whatsapp Group Name and choosing members from the customer, the record's owner and the appointment's participants.
3. Fill in the Title, Description, Appointment Follow Up Template and Language fields. The language comes prefilled with the customer record's language, and you can change it; messages are sent with the text in the chosen language.
4. In the WhatsApp Session field, choose the session that will send the messages. Only connected sessions can be selected.
5. Click Start Appointment Follow Up.

Messages timed for Appointment Created go out right away; the others are sent when their time comes. If the appointment's date changes, the send times are recalculated from the new date.

Monitoring and stopping a follow-up

Every follow-up you start appears in the Appointment → Appointment Follow Ups list. When you select one:

• Appointment Follow Up Items shows each message's send date, any error message, and the number of attempts.
• Stop stops the follow-up, and the remaining messages aren't sent.
• Restart Session resumes a stopped follow-up from where it left off; messages that were already sent don't go out again.

Frequently asked questions

If I change the template, are follow-ups already started affected?

Yes. Started follow-ups are linked to the template, so changes to the template apply to messages that haven't been sent yet.