The healthcare and wellness industries are transforming. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the industry has been forced into normalizing telehealth and virtual appointments, something that will redefine public health beyond the current pandemic. Patients and clients now expect text messaging for healthcare and wellness reminders and updates. Plus, there’s much more you can utilize text messaging for to save you time and money, while ensuring happy patients and clients. Whether you’re already using text messaging or just beginning the process of getting started, here are some tips to help you optimize your text messaging campaigns.
Tips for Using Text Messaging for Healthcare and Wellness
1. Automate appointment scheduling.
Text messaging reduces appointment no-shows by 40%. You can make it easy for your clients and patients to book services with automated scheduling and reminders. The option to easily reschedule via text message prevents no-shows and by using automation you save time by not having to make changes manually.
2. Stay compliant with patient privacy.
By choosing a compliant and secure text messaging platform you’ll ensure that you are HIPAA compliant. A secure messaging platform with administrative functions to control settings on sending and receiving messages means you never have to stress about ensuring patient privacy.
3. Share wellness tips.
SMS messages offer a natural way to converse with your clients. When you regularly reach out with relevant tips and information, you create a stronger relationship with your clients. Using SMS messages to share wellness tips is a powerful yet simple way to show your clients you care about them, their health and their well-being.
4. Streamline personalized healthcare communication and education.
Texting allows patients and caregivers to use rule-based messaging to send messages about health coaching, post-discharge care instructions, taking medications, or following special diets. This helps them stay on track with their personalized healthcare plans and recommendations. In fact, daily text messaging reminders have been shown to increase medication adherence by up to 68%.
5. Encourage patient participation in preventative healthcare.
Provide health tips, invitations to community wellness events, or recommend specific preventative screenings. By sending these on their preferred channel of text messaging they will be more likely to engage with your recommendations.
The Bottom Line
Patients and wellness clients expect personalized communication via text messaging. As the healthcare landscape changes to include many more virtual appointments and experiences, text messaging will play an integral role. If you haven’t yet adopted text messaging for your team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your contact center.
