This tutorial is part of our "Sending Reminders Through Google Calendar" tutorial series. #
Previous Tutorial Required #
This tutorial relies on what we set up in the Google Calendar : First Steps to Integrate Google Calendar Tutorial.
Where we covered:
Linking a Google Calendar
Setting up a Reminder Type
In this tutorial I will walk you through sending a Recurring Google Calendar Text Message Reminder 2 days prior to the appointment date.
Sending a Recurring Google Calendar SMS Reminder for an existing customer/patient. #
The first step is to open up 2 browser tabs. One with your appointmentreminders.com account and the other with your Google Calendar.
Check or Add a Reminder Type #
Then I am going to check that I have a text message reminder set up and that it is my default.
I am also going to click on settings and make sure this reminder type is set up to go out 2 days prior to the appointment date.
Check Your Google Calendar Settings #
I am going to go to the Google Calendars page and click “Edit” for the calendar I want to use.
I am just verifying that “Read Tags” and “Match Name” are both selected. Also I want to “User Company Default” as my Default Reminder Type.
Check or Add a Customer/Patient #
I am going to add a new customer/patient by going to the Customers page and then clicking on “Add New Customer/Patient”.
I’ll just enter Bob Tester and enter my phone number and email address.
Now that the customer exists I’ll open up the Google Calendar tab and schedule an appointment.
Schedule a Google Calendar Appointment That Sends the Text Reminder #
Then I’ll schedule an appointment in Google Calendar. I will go ahead and schedule it a week out which will be next Friday. The Google SMS Reminder should go out next Wednesday.
I will also make this a recurring event to happen every Friday.
I will make sure to put the customer First and Last Name in the appointment title.
A couple of notes… I could have also put the first and last name into the appointment description in a TAG like this <Bob Tester>. Also, keep in mind this technique only works if all of your customers/patients have unique first and last names. In other words, if you have more than on patient named Bob Tester, then you should use a calendar TAG and specify phone number like this <Bob Tester 3035551212>.
Viewing the Reminders in Our System #
I’m going to check to make sure that the reminders were added.
To do this I’ll go to the Google Calendars page and then View the Calendar.
Events are pulled every hour so to pull this event immediately, I’ll click on “Refresh Calendar Events”.
If I hover over the event I can see the details about it.
We only pull Google Calendar events that are up to 30 days out so you may only see a few of the appointments.
I can also go to the “Reminders Page” and see the reminders sitting in Queue.
