Voice Reminders to Any Phone

Version 8.2 adds the ability to schedule voice reminders to any phone, anywhere in the world, including both land lines and cell phones. Businesses can benefit from this feature by scheduling phone calls to clients, reminding them of upcoming appointments. Instead of paying staff to place these calls or relying on expensive and complex systems, you can use VueMinder to easily automate the process. This feature will reduce your client no-shows, which will immediately translate into improved revenue.

Note: This feature is not available in the Lite version.

Voice Service Account

Before this feature will work, you'll need to request an account. There are no signup fees and you'll receive 5 free message credits so you can test out the system. There are a number of service plans to choose from, including a pay-as-you-go option that has no monthly fee. Depending on the service plan you select, the cost per voice reminder will vary between $0.06 and $0.10 USD (in the United States and Canada - international rates may vary).

After signing up for an account, simply enter your account login name and password in the SMS/Voice Options window. The window will also show your current account balance and allow additional credits to be purchased. An email alert will be sent when your account balance gets close to 0.

You can also pick the voice language. Currently, supported languages are English, French, and Spanish. You can also choose whether you want the voice to be female or male.

Scheduling Voice Reminder Phone Calls

A new "Call phone with voice reminder" action type has been added to the Event and Task Editor windows. The settings for this action are very similar to the email and SMS reminder types, and the reminder can be configured to be phoned to one or more contacts. You can also select the preferred phone type (home, business, mobile) and schedule multiple phone calls for the same reminder. For example, the reminder could be phoned to a land line 1 week before the appointment and again to a cell phone 1 day before. If the phone call isn't answered, the reminder will be tried again after an hour or two. A total of 3 attempts will be made per scheduled reminder. There is no charge for reminder phone calls that are not answered.

Voice Reminder Template

Voice reminders are generated using text-to-speech technology. There's no need to pre-record a reminder message. The default reminder for the example appointment in the screenshot above, if called to a recipient named John, would be:

"Hello John. This is an automated reminder. Root Canal tomorrow at 8:00 AM."

The reminder will repeat 3 times or until the recipient hangs up. You can adjust the reminder template using a number of dynamic fields (wrapped in square brackets), and personalize it with your business name or anything else you'd like included in the message. For example, the template could be changed as shown below and saved as the default for any new appointments.

The voice reminder for this template would say:

"Hello John. This is a reminder of your Root Canal appointment. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at 8:00 AM. If you'd like to reschedule, please call us at 1-777-123-4567 at your earliest convenience. Thank you for choosing Dr. Dan's Dental Care and have a wonderful day!".

The Preview button can be used to ensure the template is correctly entered and will be narrated as expected.