How to bring lapsed patients back

1. Build the list

Decide what lapsed means for your practice, for example a recall date that has passed by a period your team chooses. Export those patients from your practice-management system with their names, mobile numbers or email addresses, and a recall due date or last visit date. Remove anyone you know should not be contacted, such as patients who have moved away. If your file has neither a recall date nor a last-visit date, the import asks you to choose a recall date to apply.

2. Decide who can be contacted

A patient can only be contacted on a channel you hold. In RecallQ that means an Australian mobile number for SMS or an email address for email, with consent recorded and no opt-out. Before the import runs, someone at the practice ticks a confirmation that the practice holds, or is otherwise entitled to rely on, each listed patient's consent to be contacted by SMS and email, and that patients have been told, or have agreed, that RecallQ's providers, some outside Australia, handle their details. RecallQ records that the tick was given.

The longer since a patient last heard from you, the more carefully you should check that you can still rely on their consent, so treat very old records with care. RecallQ's catch-up sweep asks the practice to confirm explicitly, and records that decision, before it includes patients 24 or more months past their recall date. You remain responsible for your lawful basis; our Spam Act guide gives general information.

Patients whose last recorded visit was more than 24 months ago are stored but do not count towards your plan's active-patient limit, and patients with no last-visit date count as active, as the active-patient limits guide explains.

3. Write plain, identifiable messages

• Say who you are. RecallQ replaces [Practice Name] with your practice name, and the rule form will not save a message without it.
• One reason, one action. For example, a visit is due and the patient can call to book.
• Stick to the recall. Leave offers and promotions out.
• Keep SMS short and plain. RecallQ checks that SMS wording uses plain characters and is 135 characters or fewer before your practice name is filled in, so a longer practice name can make the sent message longer.
• Leave health advice out. Describe the schedule, not the patient's health, and pass clinical questions to a person.

Illustrative wording, not a template RecallQ supplies: "Hi, it's [Practice Name]. It's been a while since your last visit. Please call us to book a time that suits you." On the Pro plan, RecallQ's AI may reword your SMS recall from your template, so the text a patient receives can differ from your wording and from the preview; the practice name is always included.

4. Choose timing and pace

In RecallQ a rule sends a set number of days before or after each patient's recall due date, at a time of day you choose between 9am and 7pm. Recall SMS are only sent between 9am and 8pm.

For an older backlog, avoid contacting everyone at once. RecallQ's catch-up sweep sends to a limited number of patients each day, longest overdue first, and by default skips anyone sent a recall in the previous 90 days. RecallQ sets a sweep up for a practice on request and goes through the numbers of patients who would be contacted and who would be skipped before anything is queued. You can also send a single recall from a patient's page, when the patient can be contacted and the send window is open.

5. Handle replies and opt-outs

Replies appear on the Today page. A patient who said yes needs a time. RecallQ may send them a short fixed reply saying the practice will call to find one, so make that call promptly: book them in your own practice software, then record the time in RecallQ. Replies it cannot place are shown on Today for a person; on Pro, if you turn on AI replies and give it an FAQ, the AI may first answer simple factual questions. A reply that suggests an emergency is listed first. This is a keyword check that can miss an emergency, so your team should still read replies. A STOP reply stops SMS straight away. If a patient tells you by phone or in person that they want no more messages, record it in RecallQ and in your practice software.

6. Measure recovered patients

RecallQ defines a recovered patient as a booking your team confirmed in RecallQ that came from a recall. A yes on its own, or a booking RecallQ only inferred from a reply, is shown but not counted. The next day, mark each visit on Today as came in or did not come, so the report reflects what happened. The ROI report shows recalls sent, replies, yeses, confirmed bookings and patients who came in, by month. Revenue figures are estimates from an average visit value (it starts at $420 until you enter your own). Results depend on your list, your wording and your follow-up, and RecallQ does not predict them.

Sources: RecallQ Terms of Service (clauses 3.1, 4.9, 9.4 and 9.5) and Privacy Policy (section 7).