PPS can automatically schedule follow-up correspondence for clients on your system a desired amount of time after an appointment, a charge, or another type of contact. These follow-up activities can be in any of the formats available in PPS; Letter, E-Mail, SMS, or Telephone Call. Once they are scheduled automatically you can process them along with your other activities.
The following guide will take you through the different ways to trigger and control follow-ups from your system.
Section 1 - Configuring your System for Follow-Ups
a. To begin, you will need to create the follow-up template that you would like to send as a follow-up. Do this by navigating to Tools > Activity Templates.
b. Create your follow-up template in all of the contact formats that may be applicable. Follow-ups that will be sent from appointments or DNAs will need to be assigned to the 'Follow-Up Appointment Reminder' category. Follow-ups from charges or other activities can be assigned to any category.
b. You'll then need to set your client preferences for follow-up reminders. To do this navigate to Tools > Options > General System Options > Set Up Client Preferences. From here set your contact preferences for the Appointment Follow Up Reminder field. Though this says "appointment" it applies to follow-ups created from appointments, DNAs, and charges. Once you've chosen your options hit Apply and then Update Now! to roll the updates out to all applicable clients.
Section 2 - Scheduling a Follow-Up from an Appointment
As well as contacting the client at the time of booking and before the appointment via the confirmations and reminders functionality PPS can schedule a follow-up for some time after a client has been in to see you. It's also possible to trigger a separate follow-up if the client does not attend the appointment and it is marked as DNA.
a. To enable follow-ups from appointments navigate to Tools > Options > Appointments Diary Options > Reminders.
b. In the 'Appointment Follow-Up Reminders' section choose to enable follow-ups by ticking the Use Follow-Up Reminders box.
You'll also need to choose who is 'prompted' to process the activity. The person or persons you choose here will see the follow-up activity in their list of activities to process when it is due to be sent.
You then also need to select how to schedule the follow-up. Follow-ups set to 'Automatic' will need no manual intervention and will be scheduled as soon as the appointment is completed. If you set them to 'Prompted' then you'll need to choose to schedule the reminder during the appointment complete process. Choosing 'Disabled' will not schedule the follow-up or prompt you to do so.
Choose Apply once you've chosen the relevant options.
c. If you'd like the scheduling process to be automated for all or some of your appointments then you will need to associate a follow-up template to the appointment types. To do this navigate to Tools > Look Up Tables and double click on Appointment Type.
d. You'll now see a list of your existing Appointment Types. Find one you want to assign a follow-up to and double click or highlight and choose Modify.
e. Just over halfway down the Appointment Type screen you'll find the follow-up section. Choose here when to schedule the follow-up template for and which template should be used. If you have created a template and it is not visible here then it is not assigned to the 'Follow-Up Appointment Reminder' category. Refer to point b in Section One of this guide to resolve this.
f. Choose Save once done.
g. If you've assigned a template to the appointment type and opted for automatic processing then the follow-up will be created and scheduled when you complete the appointment as long as the client has the relevant contact preferences enabled. This can be done by double clicking the appointment from the diary and choosing 'Complete this Appointment'. You can also single-click the appointment and choose the purple tick in the top right corner of the diary screen to complete.
h. If you've assigned a template to the appointment type but you've chosen to use 'Prompted' scheduling then choose 'Schedule a Reminder' from the Appointment Complete screen.
Section 3 - Scheduling a Follow-Up from a DNA
When an appointment is marked is Did Not Attend you can opt to schedule a follow-up correspondence to the client some time afterwards. These follow-ups are based on the Reason for Non-Attendance and do not link to client preferences. Before beginning you will need to set up the activity templates you wish to use for the DNA follow-ups as per section 1.
You can find more information on DNAs here.
a. To begin scheduling follow-ups for DNA appointments navigate to Tools > Look Up Tables > Reason for Non-Attendance.
b. Here you'll see your existing list of Reasons. To add a follow-up to an existing entry select it in the list and choose Modify. To create a new entry choose New.
c. In this screen you'll find a section where you can configure the DNA follow-up. Choose how long after the appointment the follow-up should be sent and choose the template. If you have created a template and it is not visible here then it is not assigned to the 'Follow-Up Appointment Reminder' category. Refer to point b in Section One of this guide to resolve this.
d. When necessary mark an appointment as DNA and choose one of the reasons you have configured for follow-ups.
e. You'll be prompted to schedule the follow-up. Choose Yes to schedule it.
Section 4 - Scheduling a Follow-Up from a Charge
Before configuring PPS to send follow-ups after charges are raised ensure you've set up your follow-up template/s and configured your client contact preferences as per the details in Section 1 of this guide.
a. Follow-ups from charges in PPS are set per standard charge. This means you can set different follow-up preferences for different charges, choosing only to send follow-ups for particular charges where necessary. Begin by navigating to Tools > Look Up Tables and double click Standard Charges and Stock Items.
b. From here you'll see a list of your existing standard charges. To add a follow-up to an existing entry select and choose Modify. To add a new entry choose Add. You can get more information on Standard Charges here.
c. Here you'll find the Follow Up section where you can choose which template to send and how long after the charge being raised it should be scheduled for. You can also choose how the follow-up should be scheduled. Choosing one of the Automatic options will schedule the follow-up without a pop up asking you if you'd like to schedule. These will appear when a Prompted option is chosen. Choosing "with confirmation" will give another pop up that confirms the follow-up has been scheduled. Choose Save once you're happy with the settings in this screen.
d. When you raise this charge via Cash Desk, Create A Charge, or when completing an appointment your follow-up will be scheduled in the manner you chose. Prompted follow-ups will get the following:
Choose Yes to schedule the follow-up.
If you chose to receive a confirmation then one will appear on screen.
Section 5 - Scheduling a Follow-Up from an Activity
Follow-ups scheduled from other activities do not require client preferences, but you will need to set up your Activity Template beforehand, as per the details in section 1.
a. When any activity (e.g. confirmations, reminders, ad-hoc activities) are sent to client you can configure the system to schedule another activity some time after. To do this head to Tools > Activity Template. Here you'll see a list of your existing Activity Templates. To begin, select the activity you want to trigger a follow-up and choose Modify.
b. Use the options as the bottom of the screen to control a follow-up to be triggered when instances of this particular activity template are completed. Choose the formats of the follow-up, the template, and how long after the initial activity it should be scheduled.
c. Now, when that activity is sent you will be prompted to schedule the assigned follow-up.