SMS reminders and Special Offer Alerts can be sent automatically to any patient that has agreed to be contacted via SMS. In order to use this feature you will require a ‘Twilio’ account. Twilio is a company that specialises in automating SMS messages and phone calls over the internet. More information about them can be found here.
Setting Up a Twilio Account
- Go to https://www.twilio.com/ and click ‘Sign Up’
- Fill out the Sign Up form and select ‘Get Started’
- If requested select ‘Projects’ and ‘Phone Numbers’ in order to proceed to the dashboard.
- Once your account is set up, click on the ‘Home’ icon to bring up the Console Dashboard.
- In order to link the account with Consentz, copy both the ‘Account SID’ and ‘Auth Token’ from the Twilio Console Dashboard to the Control Centre. The required text fields can be found under ‘Settings’ -> ‘Messaging’ -> ‘Twilio’ menu items, as shown below.
- For the final text box, we need to return to Twilio and create a phone number to associate with your account.
- From the Twilio Console, select the the ‘All Products & Services’ option on the left side of the screen.
- Select ‘Phone Numbers’ & ‘Buy a Number’
- Add a new number to your account and select a suitable telephone number by clicking on the search button. The number you select from the list will be used to send SMS numbers from and will be visible to customers. Make sure the selected number has SMS capabilities.
- Once a telephone number has been selected, return to the Consentz Control Centre, and add the number to Twilio Active Phone Number text box. (You can remove the ‘+’ at the start of the numbers).
You will need to upgrade your account to send SMS messages to all patients. However, the basic Twilio account allows messages to be sent to verified telephone numbers. You can verify numbers from the ‘Verified Caller IDs’ menu. Once a number is added here, you can test the SMS functionality without having to upgrade the account.