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SMS marketing in the healthcare sector has made communication between patients and medical practices easier. Hospitals and medical centers are already using SMS to send alerts and updates to their patients. However, SMS offers medical practices much more potential than just alerts and updates.

Why Choose SMS Marketing

Reach Patients Instantly

SMS has an excellent open rate of 98% and only a 1% chance of being marked as spam. This means that almost every message sent to patients is read. This is also because receiving SMS in real-time does not require a constant internet connection. Thanks to instant delivery, about 90% of all messages are read within three minutes of being received.

So, if you need a fast and reliable way to reach your patients and send them updates or reminders, SMS is an ideal medium.

Before you start sending them messages, make sure your patients have opted in to receive your SMS. Sending a follow-up message after their visit to the practice is a great way to encourage them to subscribe. For example:

Thank you for choosing Hospital X. If you would like to receive our updates, reply "YES" to this message. Take care!

A Better Response Rate

Just like its extraordinary open rate, the SMS response rate is 45%, which is much higher than a similar medium like email. The click-through rate for SMS is also higher, at 36%.

High response and click-through rates allow you to communicate effectively with your patients and drive traffic to your website. High engagement is also useful when you need to reschedule appointments.

Automated Interactions

SMS is the most effective medium for customer service. Patients often have questions about opening hours, appointments, test availability, and more. You need to provide them with high-quality, 24/7 customer support. Unlike phone-based customer service, you do not need staff available around the clock to provide support via SMS.

You can answer your customers' most frequently asked questions by sending them automated responses. Furthermore, patients can send their requests via SMS in just a few sentences without the hassle of busy lines or call transfers. Additionally, more than 50% of customers prefer texting customer service over calling.

If a customer is in a situation where they cannot answer the phone, such as during a meeting or at work, they can easily reply via SMS in a few sentences. Introducing an SMS customer service channel saves both time and money, making it a better communication method than email or phone calls.

Send Targeted Information

It is highly likely that your patients do not suffer from the same health issues, especially if your clinic offers a wide range of services. In this case, you should segment your patients according to their needs.

SMS marketing tools like Octopush provide an easy way to effectively manage your contact lists so that you have the most up-to-date data when sending information or updates. You can use its API to customize them to your needs and integrate it into your platform.

This trend toward a personalized customer experience is the secret to great customer service. Segmentation ensures that your patients receive messages that are relevant to them. If you are sending health tips, you can tailor the message to your patients based on their medical history.

Manage Schedules and Communication

SMS is the ultimate communication tool. By using an SMS marketing service like Octopush, you can go even further and facilitate communication with multiple recipients.

For example, if you need to inform your maintenance team of a schedule change, you can choose to send a message only to the relevant people.

In addition to helping you communicate effectively, SMS can be a highly efficient tool for managing internal and external schedules. You can integrate it with your CRM software to adjust your patients' and staff's schedules. You can use SMS to manage and notify people about appointments, staff allocation, shift changes, and more.

Build Mutual Trust

SMS marketing can be a very effective tool for increasing loyalty by building a close relationship with your patients. They feel closer to you thanks to the personalized interactions made possible by SMS.

You can go even further with Octopush, which features a personalization tool you can use to add the names of the recipients, the doctor, or the clinic to your messages. This helps strengthen your patients' trust in you.

You can also receive feedback from your patients via SMS. If a comment highlights a specific issue that requires your attention, you can send a follow-up message once it has been resolved.

This will show your patients that they are being heard and will help you build a connection with them.

How to Use SMS Marketing in Your Medical Practice

1. Send Reminders and Reschedule Appointments

Missed appointments are a recurring issue in medical practices. They are particularly financially damaging, as healthcare professionals set aside their time for these visits.

You can use your SMS marketing tool to send personalized appointment reminders to your patients. They can cancel or reschedule before the day of the appointment if necessary. This allows you to allocate their slots to other patients.

Appointment reminders can be automated and scheduled however you like. You can send a reminder 24 hours or even a week before the appointment. Automating reminders saves you time and effort.

High SMS delivery and open rates make them the easiest and most effective method for sending reminders. Octopush helps you plan and automate appointment reminders in advance, avoiding the hassle of manual sending.

Furthermore, reminders are not limited to just stating the appointment time. You can include information such as the location, floor, estimated duration of the appointment, and more.

In the event that a patient misses an appointment, you can send them a message to reschedule. Patients will appreciate you following up after a no-show.

In addition to scheduled appointments, you can send automated messages to remind patients to get regular health check-ups. People tend to underestimate the importance of regular check-ups, two or three times a year.

You can send personalized messages to remind them and offer to book an appointment.

2. Send Health Tips and News

Sending weekly health tips is a great way to communicate with your patients. It will strengthen your close relationship. Because SMS is naturally personal, sending weekly health tips will help you stay top-of-mind with your patients.

SMS can also be used to send alerts regarding illnesses such as the flu, seasonal viruses, epidemics, etc. Send them a link that redirects to a page containing preventive measures to adopt or first-aid recommendations. In case a patient has already contracted the illness, add a button so they can book an appointment. This will make it easier for them to use your service.

COVID-19 has overwhelmed healthcare professionals worldwide, and clinics are adapting to new procedures. You can send the latest news about these procedures to your patients.

They are also using telemedicine to minimize the risk of catching the virus. If you offer this service, keep your patients informed by sending them an SMS. Send reminders and follow-ups regarding telemedicine appointments, just as you do for in-person visits.

You can also send them updates if new services become available at your clinic. Patients can also be notified if a new doctor joins your facility. Targeted SMS proves practical in these types of situations.

3. Test Results

People are often anxious to know if their test results are available and frequently contact customer service about it. Delays in delivering results can be inconvenient for both the patient and the clinic.

Automated SMS can be particularly useful in this situation. You can send automated responses as soon as a patient requests their results status. Use your CRM software integration to automatically send an alert the moment results are available. SMS marketing services like Octopush make this easy, allowing you to send SMS notifications based on your specific needs.

You can also send them a digital copy of their results. Add a shortened link to your message that redirects to a secure portal containing a comprehensive digital version of their results. For example:

Hi Lucie, your results are ready for pickup any day between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. at Hospital X. You can also access the digital version by clicking this link: bit.ly/resultats

Treatment Reminders

You can offer an option that reminds your patients when to take their medication. Use scheduled, recurring reminders to notify them at the ideal time. They will also need to schedule follow-up appointments after a certain period.

You can also use reminders to notify your patients of an upcoming appointment. Regular appointment reminders also help doctors, as they can easily keep track of their schedules.

Internal Communication

Using SMS in your medical practice isn't limited to just you and your patients. You can manage internal hospital staff communication via SMS. Send important updates such as schedule changes, cleaning shifts, urgent replacements, and more.

SMS is an effective way to ensure your staff is notified of any sudden changes, helping to avoid problematic situations.

Replacements

Even healthcare professionals can get sick. In such situations, you need an effective communication channel to relay information to your staff and quickly find a replacement.

You can use SMS marketing tools like Octopush to send mass, two-way SMS messages. If another employee is available, they can reply immediately to cover the shift.

Queue Updates

Long wait times before an appointment can frustrate patients, especially if they are unwell. You can use SMS to provide patients with real-time updates on estimated wait times based on the current situation.

Additionally, you can send mass messages to your clients whenever there is a temporary or permanent change to your service's opening and closing hours. Your clients will stay informed and can plan their visits accordingly.

Gathering Feedback

You can take advantage of the high response rate of SMS to collect feedback from your patients. This will allow you to improve the quality of your service by taking into account how patients perceive you.

You can use Octopush to send surveys and questionnaires to your patients after an appointment, where they can share their experience, whether positive or negative. In the event of a negative experience, be sure to contact the patient and inform them of your efforts to improve.

After resolving the issue, send a message to let them know and thank them for their support and feedback. Communicating with patients helps build a close relationship with them, which ultimately increases loyalty.

Integration with Your Medical Software

Integrating an SMS marketing service into your medical software is a necessary prerequisite for sending automated text messages. Octopush allows you to easily integrate and manage all your SMS campaigns directly from your software and applications using our API.

SMS automation not only reduces the time and effort required to fully leverage the power of SMS marketing, but also ensures you provide faster service to your patients. Integration allows you to send reminders, reschedule appointments, provide automated customer service, and more.

Customer Service

In some cases, doctors and patients do not need to be in direct contact. Patients may simply need to request general information from customer service, such as opening hours, available time slots, the hospital address, and more.

If you rely on phone-based customer service, patients may face long wait times or multiple call transfers. Introducing an SMS-based customer service system allows patients to efficiently get the information they need, as automated responses are generated in seconds.

If automated messages cannot resolve the request, patients receive an SMS informing them that a customer service representative will respond during business hours. This reduces administrative and communication costs, allowing funds to be redirected toward more important priorities. It also increases patient satisfaction.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to healthcare, ease of access is just as important as quality of care. Incorporating SMS into your service provides patients with a fast, secure, and reliable way to interact with you. This builds trust and increases patient retention.

Healthcare professionals face immense pressure every day. Octopush handles your SMS communication and marketing, allowing you to focus on patient care. Sign up now by creating a free account on Octopush!