Here is our situation:

We do several hundred appointment calls each evening for several clients. For some of the clients we need to resubmit the appointment calls when the first one has failed. We do not need to resubmit for all our clients. In our calendar it is completely full of appointment calls, many successful, some not. In order to determine which failed calls are for which client, we need to open each failed call, then resubmit if it is the appropriate client. Also, the appointment reminder we send out is the day prior, so the message says “for your appointment tomorrow”. If the call fails, then we re-send the reminder the next morning, but with a different message “for your appointment today”.

Question:

How do we resubmit the failed calls for only some of our clients without having to open up each failed call. Is there an easier way to do this? And, how do we resubmit w/a different message for “today”?

Also, we are maxing out our calendar. The screen is so busy w/appointments it is difficult to navigate/manage the program. What is the most organized way to send out calls to multiple clients? Is it to create a calendar for each client? I also see something called Rooms…I can’t find any information on your site or in the program as to what they are…is this something we can use in our situation.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

First, if you have multi-user license for AutoReminder, you should set different background color of appointment for each user. You do not need to create a calendar for each user. You can use the user filter to display appointment for a particular user. You probably are doing that already.

You may also try to expand the calendar by set the time unit to a smaller value. This is done by selecting View > View Options from the program main menu. If you use AutoReminder for reminder call only, you can set the appointment duration to a smaller value, so it won’t clog the display.

“Room” is used for certain offices that use different room to see patients. Not sure it is useful in your case.

You do not need to worry about your reminder message. If you use the system default message, it will automatically change the message based on the calling time and appointment time. So when you resubmit the reminder call, the message will be correct. If you use a custom designed message, you may need to create a different message for the re-submitted calls.

We are considering to add call status as a criteria for the appointment search function. This will help you to find the failed calls for certain user. However, we do not have enough customer request for this feature enhancement yet, so the date for implementation is not set.

The best method for re-submit failed calls are through the AutoReminder API. If you have IT staff, you can have them to write a program to read the failed calls and re-submit them.

Are you saying that I need to create a color for each client (user)? Example: client A = Red client B = Blue? If so, I see that there is only a license for 10 users. How will I distinguish between clients if we have more than 10 clients?

Also, how do I access / use the filter? I went through the entire menu and don’t see how to use filter users. There is only an option to manage users…and this is only and add/edit/delete function.

Yes, so you can tell easily which appointment is for which client (user). If you have more than 10 clients and you only have a 10 user license, then you need to add users to your current license.

Once you have multiple user created, you should see an dropdown box on the program toolbar. The dropdown box is the user filter. Select a client/user from the list, the calendar will show appointments for only that user.

Thank you for the information. I was able to find Skype 3.8 and successfully tested the software. I do have a couple of issues:

1. My office would be making calls for multiple providers. The reminder message should state the provider’s name. I didn’t see that field listed in the import file format. Is that something that can be done in a single import, or will I have to import a separate calendar for each provider (that’s a no-go for me).

The provider’s name is called “user” in the import file.

2. I need for each call to refer callers back to the actual provider’s office (we have nine offices) instead of the generic company name and corporate office phone number. I can provide that information in the input file, but how do I incorporate it into the message?

This could be setup automatically when you have multi-user license. Each user, i.e. provider, can define his own callback number, and different background color for appointment.

I guess the best question is, can you create a custom message for our practice that pulls data from the input file for each call, and if so, how much would that cost, assuming we purchased the software and the text-to-speech engine. Thank you.

If all you need is to have an appointment reminder message that has different call back number, then just use the system default message after you get a multi-user license. If you need other kind customization for the message, please send us the details. One tool you might want to evaluate is Voicent IVR Studio, which allows you to created almost any reminder message you want. The tool is fully integrated with AutoReminder and has a GUI design environment for easy application creation.