Send confirmations only when the appointment is confirmed

What this means for your practice

Confirm an appointment only when the agreed booking system has accepted it. Keep uncertain results visible for review so staff and visitors do not have to guess whether the booking exists.

Questions to take to your supplier

Ask to simulate a missing reply after a fictional booking request. Can staff locate the actual diary record before repeating the request or contacting the visitor? The supplier should explain how confirmations connect to appointment references and how unresolved outcomes are reviewed.

Agree the working process

Define what must happen before a visitor receives a confirmed appointment message. The answer should refer to the agreed booking system accepting the appointment and providing the reference your team uses. A request received online may deserve acknowledgement without being described as a confirmed allocation. Ask the supplier to show the references visible to the visitor and to reception, and how staff use them when somebody calls. Include a case where the diary acted but its reply was lost.

Repeating the request without checking may create a second booking, while calling it failed may prompt the visitor to try again unnecessarily. Agree who reviews that uncertainty and how the person is kept informed through the service's approved process. Keep unresolved confirmations visible rather than forcing every result into success or failure. After launch, compare a sample of confirmation records with actual diary entries. This checks the business promise directly and helps identify misunderstandings that a simple website success count would miss.

How to check the result

Measure confirmation records without a matching diary appointment.