See FAQ: Reminders, forms, and special actions for a list of frequently asked questions or Set up combined reminders email to send one weekly email with upcoming and past due reminders to clients with multiple patients.
Forms, reminders, and products work together in IDEXX Neo to make up your complete reminder protocol. You can think of forms as the content your clients receive in the email or SMS reminder communication, reminders as the system-based notification of a product or service that is due, and products as the trigger you can attach the reminder to, using special actions, to generate the reminder.
There are five steps to set up and send reminders:
- Create a form
- Set up the reminder
- Schedule when the reminder will be sent
- Attach the reminder to a product with a special action
- Send your reminders
Since forms are a prerequisite for creating reminders, and products are what automate the reminders to drive business to your practice, it’s critical that reminders are set up in this order.
Let's look at each step in more detail.
Step 1: It all starts with the form
Forms are what your clients actually see. They can be texted, emailed, or printed, and can contain text, hyperlinks, and form variables. You can use form variables to automatically pull client, patient, or practice information into your forms, so you can deliver customized reminder communications.
Notes:
If you're using the combined reminders email feature, you can edit the subject for the email, the body of the form. and create branch-specific messaging if your practice is multi-branch.
If you only send postcard reminders using the IDEXX Reminder Service, go to step 2.
To create a new reminder form, go to Administration > Forms & Certificates and click Create a new Form.
When you're setting up a reminder form, give it a title you will remember and always choose the Reminder Reports group. This will make it easy to find the reminder form when you're ready to link to it in the next step.
Learn more about creating forms and certificates.
Step 2: Reminders control which forms are queued
Once you've set up a reminder form, it’s time to set up your reminders (go to Administration > Reminders and click Add New Reminder). The name for the reminder should relate to the product or service that's due. For example; Rabies Canine 1 Year or Rabies Canine. This name prints on the combined reminder email and on invoices.
Creating a reminder does not add it to the patient's file; reminders must be attached to products to generate reminder communications. Be sure to read through to Step 3!
Let's look at an example:
- This reminder will create an email using the Canine Vaccination Reminder form and a text using the SMS vaccination reminder form.
Note: If this reminder is included in the combined reminders email, follow the instructions in the yellow box to make changes. The combined reminders email uses a default form—not the form set here, but you can still choose an email form here to use if you want to be able to print or email this reminder individually.
- In the next step, this reminder will be attached to the one year rabies vaccine product and set to be created one year after the rabies vaccine is administered and invoiced.
- It will be sent based on the combined reminders email schedule, or when you go to the all due reminders page (Administration > Reminders and click All Due Reminders) and send individual queued reminders.
This is also where you can choose to set up Automatic Reminder Settings. If you enable automatic settings, you can choose the send date and timing, as well as the method of delivery (SMS or individual email).
Note: Automatic reminders will automatically send an SMS or an individual email (when the reminder is NOT included in the combined reminder email) for each individual reminder on your patient's file. For patients who receive multiple procedures in one visit, or clients with multiple patients, this may result in multiple emails or SMS messages being sent in one day. We recommend using the combined reminders email feature so your clients will receive one email with their pets' upcoming and past due reminders instead of an email for each reminder.
When setting up reminders, it is recommended that, at a minimum, you attach an email or SMS form. This is the same form used for printing if you plan to print reminder letters at your practice.
For practices with Vello enabled only. IMPORTANT: When Vello's automated medical service reminders are enabled for your practice, all automatic reminder settings will automatically be set to Off to avoid duplicate reminders being sent to clients. To learn more about Vello's medical service reminders, click the Help Me tab in Vello, then locate and review the available resources.
Learn more about managing reminders.
Step 3: Set up the combined reminders email
The combined reminders email lets you send a weekly email to your clients for upcoming and past due reminders based on settings you can customize for your practice.
Learn more about setting up combined reminders email.
Step 4: Attach the reminder to a product with a special action
Linking your reminders to products using special actions is what actually generates the reminder on the patient record. If an email or SMS form was attached to the reminder, the form will also be created to be sent. After the product is added to the consultation:
- The form(s) will display when the invoice is saved.
- The reminder is added to the patient Reminders tab when the invoice is closed (marked ready to be paid).
To link a reminder to a product, open the product (for example, Rabies - 1 Year Vaccine) and click Edit Special Actions.
From here you can create unlimited one-time reminders or a single recurring reminder:
In the example above:
- The Rabies Vaccination Canine 3 Year Reminder will be created with a due date 1095 days (3 years) after the Rabies Canine vaccine is dispensed.
- This reminder will be added to the patient's record and will create an alert on the patient's file:
- If there are any existing reminders of this type, they will be deleted to prevent duplicates.
- If there other reminders on the patient's record that should be deleted during invoicing, select them under Delete Additional reminders. For example, the Rabies Vaccination Canine 3 Year reminder should delete the Rabies Vaccination 1 Year reminder.
Learn more about setting up and managing reminder special actions.
Other Reminder Settings
You can also add, edit, or delete reminders for individual patients by clicking the Reminders tab on the patient's file. For example, when a new patient transfers to your practice and has services due in the future.
Step 5: Send all due reminders!
You've created a form, set up a reminder, set up the combined reminders email, and attached the reminder to a product. Now what?
If you are using the combined reminders email feature or sending individual automatic reminder emails and SMS messages, you don't need to send them—Neo will do it for you!
To send individual reminders or to download a file to upload to the IDEXX Reminder service for postcards, go to Administration > Reminders and click All Due Reminders.
From here, you can set a date range, filter, and review the reminders to be sent, and then select the reminders you'd like to send.
Learn more about managing and sending reminders.
Curious if your reminders are having an impact?
The Reminder Compliance report tracks how many patients visit the practice within 4 weeks of receiving a reminder, as well as the total number of reminders sent each month.
To access this report, click your name in the menu bar. Then click Reports. Under Patient Reports, click Reminder Compliance.