Go from a new account to texting your first patient. Start with one office team and one patient, check it works, then roll out to everyone.
In the left bar, click Directory, then + to invite hygienists, assistants and front-office staff with their work email.
Turn on Administrator only for the people who manage your plan, organization settings and members.
A team is a shared inbox. A team with its own texting number also gets its own hours and after-hours reply. Make one per office, or one for the front office and one for treatment coordination.
In Directory, open the Teams tab and click +. Name the team, then add its staff with Add members. Only admins can create teams.
Click Settings, then Organizations, your practice and the Details tab. Turn on Don't allow users to see patient phone numbers.
Staff who aren't admins then see only the last four digits of a patient's number.
Your practice needs patient texting before you can add patients. If you started the free trial with patient texting at signup, it's already on.
If you clicked Skip for now, an admin turns it on: click Settings, then Organizations, your practice and the Plan tab, and click Activate on SMS Messaging. Then click Select a phone number on the same tab to give your practice its own texting number.
Full walkthrough →In the Inbox, click +, add the patient, or a parent for a child patient in To and click Message.
Then bring in the staff who need to see the chat: in the chat, click View participants, then Add participants. Pick each person and click Save. The video shows this part.
Open the chat, click + beside the message box, then Attach. Add a note so the patient knows what the files are for, then press Send. The files and the note go out as one message.
Patients read and reply on a secure page that opens in their phone's browser, with no app or account. Add a note like this to your first message:
Save this number in your contacts as [Clinic Name] so you know it's us when we text. Tap the link in the text to read and reply, and always reply on the page that opens.
In Directory, open Teams, your team, then the Auto-Reply tab. Check Business Hours and the time zone (Edit hours to change them).
Switch on Out-Of-Office Reply, click Edit message, write your reply and click Save. Only admins can save.
For exampleWe're closed right now and will reply when we open. In an emergency, call 911.
People call the number you text from. On the team's Call Forwarding tab, turn on Forward incoming calls to another number, type the Forwarding number and click Save forwarding number.
Save the instructions you send after common procedures as templates. In a chat, click +, then Templates and + New template. Next time, insert it, fill in what's missing and press Send.
Full walkthrough →Use broadcasts for recall reminders, closures and schedule changes, not marketing.
In the left bar, click Campaigns, then +. Name it, check the Team, and under Message Type choose Secure text with link if the message contains health information. Insecure text is for messages with none, such as an office closure. Add recipients, write the message and click Save campaign. Nothing goes out until you click Send…, then send it now or schedule it.
Test with one admin, one regular staff account and one patient before you roll out to everyone.
Need help? Click Feedback in the left bar and choose Support, or email support@bloomtext.com.
Book a call and we'll walk your team through every step.
