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Sending Appointment Reminders Manually

Send appointment reminders manually with Zanda.

In addition to the automatic appointment reminders, you can also send appointment reminders manually whenever you need. 

By default, SMS and Email reminder templates will already be selected in User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders, but you can change these if desired.  

Important

A dedicated Toll-Free Number (TFN) is required to send/receive SMS messages in the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Barbados. For more details, please click here. 

In this article:

Sending Manual Reminder from the Appointment Context Menu

  1. Go to the main Appointments screen (Hint: clicking the Zanda logo will get you there.)
  2. Locate the appointment for which you wish to send a reminder, then right-click on it.
  3. In the pop-up menu, click on either Email Appointment Reminder or SMS Appointment Reminder to manually send the reminder to your client.

 

Sending Manuals Reminder from the Appointment Panel

1. Go to the main appointments screen, locate the appointment and left-click on it once to open its Appointment Panel on the right-hand side. 

2. Click on the Notify Now (the white bell icon next to the Appointment Details), select either SMS Reminder or Email Reminder:

 

Note: Add the client's the phone number and email address to their Zanda profile  before sending SMS or email appointment reminders.

Frequently Asked Questions

❓ Will an automatic reminder go out if I sent the reminder for the same appointment manually?

The automatic reminder will still be sent as scheduled, even if you have manually sent a reminder for the same appointment. To prevent this, disable the automatic reminder in the appointment panel after sending the reminder manually and save your changes.

❓ Can I send an appointment reminder SMS from the Messaging Panel?

An SMS sent from the Messaging Panel on the right-hand side is not linked with an appointment and the system will not automatically confirm or cancel an appointment.

❓ Which template is used when I send a reminder from the Notify Now bell?

When you select SMS Reminder or Email Reminder from the Notify Now bell, Zanda uses the SMS or email reminder template selected in User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders. You can edit those templates from the same settings page.

If the appointment is a telehealth appointment, the Notify Now menu may also show SMS Telehealth Link and Email Telehealth Link. These options send the built-in telehealth link message for the appointment. To send your own wording and include the telehealth link in an editable reminder template, use SMS Reminder or Email Reminder and add the {ClientTelehealthUrl} merge field to the selected appointment reminder template.

❓ Can a manually sent reminder let the client add the appointment to their calendar?

Yes. Add the {AppointmentAddToCalendar} merge field to the email reminder template you send from Notify Now or the appointment context menu. It puts the appointment date and time into the message and attaches a calendar file named event.ics that the client opens to save the appointment. Sending to a group appointment sends one reminder per attendee, so each attendee receives a calendar file for their own booking.

A reminder email carries a single attachment, so if the template also contains {InvoicePDFAttachment}, an appointment that has an invoice sends the invoice PDF and leaves the calendar file off, with nothing to flag it. An appointment with no invoice has no PDF to send, so the calendar file goes out instead. Keep the two in separate templates. See Available Merge Fields for Communication Templates.

❓ The reminder sent, but the practitioner's name is blank in it. Why?

The {AppointmentPractitionerShortName} merge field reads the Shortened Name field on the practitioner and nothing else, so when that field is empty it prints nothing and does not fall back to Practitioner Name or Real Name. Shortened Name is optional and starts empty on every practitioner Zanda creates. Fill it in at User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Practitioners , on the practitioner's Details page, and send the reminder again. See Available Merge Fields for Communication Templates for the other fields that behave this way.

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