We’ve all done it. You book the dentist six weeks out, feeling very organised, and then life carries on as usual. Fast forward to the day itself and you’re halfway through a meeting when you remember, roughly forty minutes too late, that you were meant to be in the chair at 10:30.
For the person who forgot, it’s a slightly embarrassing phone call. For the clinic, it’s an empty slot that could have gone to someone else, a gap in the day’s income and a patient who still needs to be seen. The good news is that a well-written SMS reminder is one of the simplest and most effective ways to cut down on no-shows, and the way you word it makes a bigger difference than most people expect.
Why do people miss appointments?
Mostly, they’re not being difficult. When the NSW Behavioural Insights Unit looked at missed outpatient appointments at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, the research it drew on suggested that around 30% of no-shows come down to people living busy lives and simply forgetting.
The rest is a mix of things you’d probably recognise: plans change, people feel better and decide they don’t need to come, or they mean to cancel and never quite get around to it. A reminder can’t fix all of that, but it can make attending, cancelling or rescheduling much easier than quietly not turning up.
Do SMS reminders actually reduce no-shows?
They do, and one of the best examples happens to be right here in Sydney. St Vincent’s Hospital was already sending reminder texts, yet nearly 15% of outpatient appointments were still being missed, with each one costing the hospital at least $125.
So the NSW Behavioural Insights Unit worked with the hospital to test different versions of the reminder. The winning message added one line explaining that by attending, “the hospital will not lose the $125 that we lose” when a patient doesn’t turn up, and that the money would go towards treating other patients. That small change reduced no-shows by 19%.
Fewer missed appointments at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, from one extra line in the reminder text. A later version at Central Coast Local Health District cut them by 34%.
It didn’t stop there. When Central Coast Local Health District later built on the same approach, its messages also reminded patients to allow travel time, bring their test results and avoid ending up back on a waitlist. That version cut missed appointments by 34%.
The lesson for any business that runs on appointments is a hopeful one. Sending a reminder helps, but the wording, the timing and the practical details inside it are what really move people to show up.
When should you send an appointment reminder?
There’s no single perfect time, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably selling a template. What matters is giving people enough notice to act on the message, whether that’s rearranging their day, organising a lift or letting you know they can’t make it.
A common approach is to send a reminder a couple of days before the appointment, so there’s still time to fill the slot if someone cancels, followed by a short nudge the day before or on the morning. For appointments booked months in advance, an extra reminder a week or so out can help too.
The best timing for your business depends on how far ahead people book and how easily you can fill a cancelled slot. The nice thing is you don’t have to guess. Try two timings on a small group of bookings, compare the attendance, and keep the one that works.
What should an appointment reminder say?
A good reminder should make sense to someone glancing at their phone while they wait for a coffee. Before you send, check that yours covers:
- Who it’s from. Put your business name at the start, so nobody has to wonder whether it’s genuine.
- When and where. The day, date, time and location, written the way people actually read them.
- What to do next. Reply to confirm, or call to reschedule, with one clear option rather than several.
- Anything practical. Parking, what to bring or how early to arrive, if it genuinely helps.
- Why it matters. As St Vincent’s found, a short line about what a missed appointment costs, or who else could use the time, can make a real difference.
One small thing to watch: adding an emoji or certain special characters can quietly turn one SMS into two or three, which adds up quickly across hundreds of reminders. Our guide to SMS character limits explains why, and there are more tips on writing SMS that gets a response.
Should people be able to reply?
If you can, yes. A reminder that lets someone reply Y to confirm, or text back to say they can’t make it, removes the biggest excuse for a no-show, which is that calling to cancel feels like a chore. It also gives you time to offer that slot to someone on your waitlist.
To make replies work, you’ll need to send from a number people can respond to, rather than a business name that can’t receive messages. With Prodocom SMS, replies come into a virtual number, and you can set up automatic responses so people know their message has been received.
What should you leave out?
Reminders often pop up on a lock screen where anyone nearby can read them, so it’s worth keeping them discreet. The appointment time and your business name are usually all that’s needed. Details about someone’s condition, test results or treatment are best left for the appointment itself.
It’s also wise to keep reminders free of promotions. A purely factual reminder is a different thing from a marketing message, but adding a special offer can change that, along with the rules that apply. Our guide to SMS marketing rules in Australia explains the difference.
Can reminders send automatically from your booking system?
They can, and for most businesses that’s where reminders really earn their keep. Nobody wants to be copying appointment times into a spreadsheet at 5pm on a Friday.
Prodocom connects with more than 200 business systems, including booking platforms like HotDoc and Healthengine, so reminders can go out automatically using the appointment details you already have. If your system isn’t on the list, our team can usually build the connection for you, which means you can set up the reminder once and let it run in the background.
The takeaway
Most no-shows aren’t people deciding not to come. They’re people who forgot, or who meant to cancel and didn’t get around to it. A clear reminder, sent at the right time, with an easy way to reply, takes care of a surprising amount of that, and a thoughtful line about why the appointment matters can take care of even more.
If you’d like a second opinion on your current reminder, send it through to us. We’ll take a look at the wording, the timing and the cost per message, and let you know if there’s an easy win hiding in there.