Kapow Account Set up for Appointment and Recall Notifications & Appointment Confirmations by SMS or Email - MANAGE

Kapow Account Set up for Appointment and Recall Notifications & Appointment Confirmations by SMS or Email - MANAGE

Kapow Account Set Up

Kapow offers credits for SMS messages so Appointment and Recall Reminders/Notifications and Appointment Confirmations can be sent.  Kapow also offer a paid service called  "Virtual Mobile Number"  [VMN] which allows Users to text back and forth with Patients, and also allows automatic update of the Appointment status to "confirmed".  
  • Most start up customers don't use the VMN, Kapow charge around $85AUD/month.  Kapow still Sends without it, but does not allow Reply.
  • If the customer signs up for a Virtual Mobile # the application cannot be completed without the Send URL.
    • Apply to Auditdata support for the URL.
    • You also have to ask Kapow to open the port at their end.
  • If you want a particular identity to Send From, not just an anonymous "mobile" number, apply for a From ID. If is a one-off upfront fee, and is discounted provided you use our promocode simplyhear. Apply to Kapow if you forget to do this.
To  set up a free account with Kapow click on the following URL (Note, it works best with Chrome not Firefox): 
The contact at Kapow is Stacey:  stacey@kapow.co.uk or Beth: beth@kapow.co.uk.


Here are a couple of tips around the setting up of the account:

  1. PROMO CODE – be sure to enter this for your discount.:
    1. simplyhear

  1. There is no monthly or ongoing fee associated with setting up this account, just the costs of the SMS texts. They may be a little more than your local provider but Kapow services customers globally, and is what we required when doing our research - we found the best price for all countries.

  1. These two fields have an asterisk which seems to indicate that they are mandatory but they are not:


  1. But as the form says at the bottom:



Sending Options
  1. Ensure that Long SMS setting is configured by clicking on SMS Centre>Sending Options.

    1. Enable Long SMS.
    1. Set Radio button to Yes
    1. Set How many parts to 9 (Kapow’s max).
This will allow a message coming out from Manage OMS to be sent across multiple messages if its length is greater than 160. You will be charged for each message sent from Kapow, not each single item in Manage eg if the message coming out of AUR is 400 characters long, you will be charged 3 credits.
As the website says:

Pricing & Credits

Once the free account is set up, purchase the desired number of credits.  One credit is good for sending one SMS message.  

  1. We recommend setting an auto-top of credits. 

The approximate pricing is as follows (check for yourself as well to see if it has changed):


Credits


Price Per Credit $AUD

100


11.80c

500


11.80c

1000


11.35c

2000


11.35c

5000


10.89c

10000


8.6p

20000


POA

50000


POA

100000


POA


"From ID"

If you are interested in displaying a business From ID (eg phone # or Name – discuss with Kapow) the cost would be approximately $26 AUD and this is a one-time Kapow charge.  If you do not get a From ID, the message will simply show up on your patient’s phone from an anonymous telephone number.
  1. Enter the Promo Code ‘simplyhear’ in order to receive discounted pricing. Email them if you forget to apply it.
  1. Note the “from id”, you will input it in AUR config later.
  1. Input this in both Kapow and Auditdata Manage Notifications configuration. 

Virtual Mobile Number [VMN] for Direct Texting and Responses

For replies To and From Patients a Virtual Mobile Number is required. For a monthly fee of approximately $85AUD/month you can also purchase a Virtual Mobile Number (VMN), which allows you to receive Notification responses. This is negotiated with Kapow, they charge you, not Auditdata. 
  1. A VMN will allow responses and texting and can be set to auto-change the Appointment Status to “Confirmed” if they reply using any of the text you enter in the SMS Confirmation Response field in AUR Config. For example, if they type Y, y, Yes, yES, OK or oK and so on.

  2. Inform Auditdata staff because we will have to set up the web service then advise you of the URL to input on the Kapow application, and ask Kapow to open the port at their end. Lead time 1-2 weeks.  The new VMN will be input in the “FROM ID” field in an international format eg 61400123123.
  3. Auditdata needs up to 2 weeks notice to schedule web service.
Note: once Kapow is enabled in production, existing appointments WILL NOT be queued for an appointment notification. Auditdata staff can create these for you using a special one-off Utility [31].

Configure Notifications in In Manage

In the top right hand corner of Manage select User Profile select Environments.
Open Configure System Settings. Select the Patient tab, then select Notifications. The Help! manual also documents how to configure Notifications.


Patient Notifications

Appointment or Recall Notifications and Appointment Confirmations can be configured to send Notifications by SMS or Email depending upon how the Patient is configured.

Here are the conditions by which a notification will be sent or removed:

  1. A queued Notification looks at the information in the Patient at the time it is sent eg if a mobile# was changed after the appointment was made, it will send it to the new mobile #.
  1. If there is a Notification queued to be sent at, say, 12 noon it may not be sent at exactly 12 noon, there is a period where it is in the Send batch, but it may take a few minutes for it to be reached in the queue.
    1. During that period, if a person changes something, [example - the appointment status] in that appointment before it is sent but after the time it is due to be sent,  it removes the unsent record.
    2. The reason it does this is because it is now less than the set frequency eg 1 day or 2 days prior to the appointment, and it therefore doesn't meet the conditions.
    3. This is our most common support call. That, and credits running out in the Kapow account because auto-top up has not been configured.
In Configure System Settings, select the Patient tab from the left, then select Patient Notifications.


  1. In SMS Configuration add the Kapow User Name and password and select SAVE.
    1. Passwords never display, so if will be empt.
    2. If you aren’t sure it is correct, overtype it again then click Save.
    3. If you click on the password field at any time, you will need to re-enter it.
  2. If you purchased a business From ID, enter it in here also.
  1. Select your available transmission times (both start and end times). If a message is scheduled to be sent outside of the specified transmission hours, the message will be held until the next available start time on the next day
  1. Set Maximum # of Retries. [This is set so that if there is ever an Outage at Kapow, meaning that we can't send, you won't end up with thousands of retries until Kapow fix their problem.]
  1. If you purchased a Virtual Mobile Number, click on SMS CONFIRMATION RESPONSES, and add all the permutations of Yes and No that you can think of, otherwise skip this:

  1. Select Save in the Toolbar (but don't exit yet).

Select the Messages tab.


  1. Click ADD and input the message description.

Click on the search options in the Details field.
Type your message, selecting tags to input required information as shown:

  1. Press Continue to save the message, then SAVE the configuration again before continuing.
    1. If you don't Save before navigating to the next instruction, you may lose your message.
Navigate to the Appointment Reminders tab.
  1. Set the reminder Frequency for example 1 or 2 days before the appointment is due
  2. Select the Interval as required,
  3. Select the Message configured for this type of reminder eg SMS Appointment reminder message


Navigate to the Appointment Confirmations tab.

  1. Set the confirmation Frequency for example 30 minutes after the appointment is saved.
  2. Select the Interval as required
  3. Select the Message configured for this type of reminder eg Appointment Confirmation SMS
Recall reminders can be set as well in the same way as outlined above.


Email Notifications
Email Notifications can be configured in the same way as outlined above but they need their own Messages configured. The difference is, when setting up the messages, it will request a template, like this:


Email Templates

Information on how to set up the Emailing Templates can be found here, on the Auditdata website: https://support.auditdata.com/portal/en/kb/articles/aurora-emailing-documents-notifications

How to Test MANAGE once the Web Service is enabled:

To test whether notifications are working:

A.    In Patient Information, select or add a “Test” Patient, input your Mobile # in the mobile # field. [If there is no mobile number in this field, notifications will not be sent – it MUST be in the mobile # field, not the Home # field).

B.   In the Notification field on the Marketing tab, Untick Sys Default then tick “SMS:

                        i.         Create an appointment in two days plus 30 minutes to give the web service time to queue the notification. Eg if it is Monday at 11, make the appt Weds 11.30.

                      ii.         Check the NOTIFICATION INQUIRY in REPORTS & INQUIRIES>MARKETING AND CRM to see if the Notification is pending.

                    iii.         See if you receive a text on your phone in the next hour or so.

                     iv.         If so, check the Notification Inquiry again - it should be in "Sent".

                       v.         If it hasn’t worked, check the configuration again, particularly the password, and make sure you have credits with Kapow.

                     vi.         If you have a Virtual Mobile number, respond YES and see if it Confirms the appointment – allow 15-30 minutes for the web service to receive the response – don’t open the appointment while you are waiting.

9.    After successful completion of testing and when you are ready to go, you can either set each Patient’s Notification setting individually on the Marketing tab, or globally in Config>Patient>Notification by ticking the SMS field under the Notification Defaults. Note: IVR is not used in Australia.

10.                  If a non-patient texts the virtual number, it will display in the Resolve tab in Patient Notification Inquiry.

Brief Overview of Direct Texting (Virtual Mobile number only)

To create a new direct SMS message to this patient, click ADD at the bottom left of the window. A new DIRECT SMS window opens:

PATIENT - The patient selected will default here.

MOBILE NUMBER - The mobile number of the selected patient, or their preferred contact will appear by default, and can be edited if required.

TIME TO SEND - Select to send a Direct SMS message now or select a specific date/time or delay.

DATE/TIME - The date and time the message will be sent will display or can be edited here.

DELAY - If a delayed message was chosen, choose the delay option here.

Then enter the SMS message you wish to send.

 

Notification Troubleshooting

In a Notification Message you can test what notifications will look like as long as there is an appointment.

When you click the TEST button the system will check for any appointment dated today or later.  If there are no appointments to be found it will display this error:

Notifications can be configured in the Patient record. Go to the Patient menu down the left, then select Patient Information. On the left, select the Marketing tab,

No Notifications

It is possible to set the following configuration areas so that Notifications are not to be sent - select No Notifications in the following areas:
In Configure System Settings, select Scheduler then select:
Appointment Reason. For example, don't allow notifications for Staff Meeting type appointments - select the No Notifications check box.
By Appointment Status

By Recall Reason

By Specialist - note that you have to expand the row:

In Configure System Settings go to the System tab and select Location

    In the Patient record go to the Marketing tab in the list on the left