Overview
The New Appointment Booking workflow can send patient-facing SMS messages after a call. These are different from staff notifications: patient messages go to the caller, while staff notifications alert your clinic team about calls that need attention.
Phone Agent currently supports two patient communication actions:
Send new appointment confirmation: send an SMS after a new appointment has been successfully booked.
Text the online booking link: send the clinic's online booking link when the caller asks for it or after the configured caller details have been collected.
Configure patient communications
Open Phone Agent > Agents.
Open the agent and select Edit.
Open the relevant location.
Open Workflows, then select New Appointment Booking.
Find the Communications section.
Enable the actions the clinic wants to use, complete the required settings, and save the agent.
New appointment confirmation
Enable Send new appointment confirmation when the clinic wants Phone Agent to send a confirmation SMS after successfully completing a new appointment booking.
This action belongs to the New Appointment Booking workflow. If the agent only records a request for manual follow-up, or if the booking is not successfully completed, do not assume that a booking confirmation has been sent. Confirm the result in the call record and during go-live testing.
Online booking link SMS
Enable Text the online booking link on request, then enter the clinic's online booking URL. The URL must be a valid HTTP or HTTPS link and can be up to 512 characters.
Each location's New Appointment Booking workflow currently stores one online booking link. If the clinic has separate links for different services, forms, memberships, or practitioners, choose the single link that routes callers most safely or keep the action disabled and use an approved manual workflow.
Choose when the booking link is offered
Only when asked: the agent offers the link when the caller asks to book online or requests the booking link.
After details are collected: the agent can offer the link after it has collected the configured caller information.
In every mode, the agent asks for consent before sending. The SMS is sent only to the phone number the caller is using, and existing sending limits apply.
Current booking-link message
The current booking-link message uses a standard template containing the clinic name, the configured booking URL, and an instruction to contact the clinic for help. The message is not currently customised in the workflow editor.
Do not advertise the SMS sender as reply-enabled or use replies as a clinical or administrative inbox unless reply handling has been explicitly confirmed and tested for your clinic's setup.
Test before go-live
Save the agent after configuring the communication actions.
Use the Playground to check the agent's wording and when it offers the booking link.
Complete a real test call from an SMS-capable mobile number before diverting live clinic calls.
Ask for the booking link, give consent, and confirm the SMS arrives at the number used for the call.
If live booking is enabled, complete a non-production booking test and confirm the expected appointment confirmation arrives.
Open Phone Agent > Call Logs and review the transcript, tool usage, and booking result.
Playground is useful for testing agent behaviour and when it offers patient messages, but Playground does not send SMS messages. To test booking-link or appointment-confirmation delivery, connect the agent to a live Phone Agent number and complete a real test call.
If a patient SMS does not arrive
Check the correct action is enabled in the correct location's New Appointment Booking workflow.
For booking links, check the URL is valid and saved.
Confirm the caller gave consent and called from an SMS-capable number.
Check whether existing sending limits were reached.
For appointment confirmations, confirm the booking was successfully completed rather than recorded for manual follow-up.
Review the call record and tool usage for an error.
If the issue persists, contact Motics support with the agent name, location, call time, caller number, action you expected, and what appeared in Call Logs.
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