Automated Meeting Reminders
Overview
We are introducing a comprehensive Meeting Reminders system designed to help students stay on track and reduce appointment no-shows. Administrators can now configure automated notifications at the institution level, ensuring every student receives a standardized reminder via Email or Text (SMS) prior to their scheduled time.
Key Capabilities
- Institution-Wide Control: Configure reminder settings globally in one place, rather than managing them service-by-service.
- Native SMS Support: Enable text message reminders immediately, assuming active Twilio integration.
- Flexible Delivery: Choose to send reminders via Email, Text (SMS), or both.
- Smart Location Logic: The message content automatically adapts to the meeting type, displaying the specific Campus/Office for in-person meetings, the specific Meeting Link for online sessions, or "Phone" for phone appointments.
Message Content
The system sends a standardized message using the template below. The content is generated at the moment of booking to ensure accuracy.
Subject: Meeting reminder [Date]
Body:
Hello [Student Name]:
This is a reminder of your upcoming meeting with [Staff Name] for [Service] on [Date] at [Time].
Location:
- [If In-Person]: [Campus Name], [Office Name]
- [If Online]: Online: [Meeting Link]
- [If Phone]: Phone
Details:
[Student's original notes from booking, if any]
Critical Prerequisite for SMS
Before checking the "Text (SMS)" option, you must verify that your institution's Twilio integration is fully active and healthy. A good indicator of this is if your advisors are currently able to send text messages to students successfully; if so, your integration is operational. If your integration is incomplete or inactive, enabling SMS reminders will cause messages to fail or remain stuck in the queue.
Configuration & System Behavior
To enable this feature, navigate to Meetings > Meetings Configuration and locate the Meeting Reminders section.
Please note the following behavior when enabling or adjusting these settings:
- Forward-Looking Only: Reminders are attached to a meeting at the moment it is booked. Therefore, enabling this feature will only trigger reminders for new meetings scheduled after the setting is saved. Meetings already on the calendar will not receive reminders.
- Lead Time Adjustments: Similarly, if you change the Lead Time (e.g., from 24 hours to 2 hours), the new timing will apply only to meetings booked after the change is made.
- Cancellation Logic: If a meeting is canceled, the pending reminder message is automatically removed.
- Sender Information: Messages are sent from the System Account. Assuming an active Twilio integration, the phone number for this account is automatically provisioned; no manual activation (e.g., messaging a dummy number) is required. Note that initial messages may briefly queue while the number is being established, but they will send automatically once the line is active. Once provisioned, the number used for reminders will be visible in the Twilio numbers list and will display using the institution’s configured System Account name, or “System Account” if no custom name has been set.
- Visibility: Because these reminders (email or text) are sent by the system account, they are automatically excluded from the student's internal Inbox. This logic applies even if a student replies to the reminder; the original message will not appear in the Inbox, and the student's reply will be visible only in their Sent folder.
Note on Mobile Notifications
This new, reliable system message infrastructure supersedes the legacy "mobile nudge" functionality that existed in earlier versions of the mobile app. All future meeting notifications will be handled through this new configuration.
Continuing students in the Attendance Detail report
We’ve added new filtering options to help you manage student attendance records more effectively.
- New Filter: A Student Status dropdown has been added to the report parameters (see image below).
- More Data: You can now run reports on Continuing and Inactive students, in addition to Current students.
- Updated Exports: A new column for "Student Status" is now included in the report grid and the CSV download.
Search: The student search field now includes names of Continuing and Inactive students.