With Zapier web service you can within a few clicks connect your SMSFactor account to your Gmail Calendar. This way you can automate your appointment reminders by SMS from your Gmail calendar without needing even the slightest development.
If you don’t feel confortable using this type of web application, know that we created internally our own appointment reminders by sms module . This solution is also free so do not hesitate to check it out if you want to go for the easier solution.
In this tutorial, we will cover how to link these two accounts together :
To create your account, go to this page and enter your information. Once complete you will receive a confirmation account creation email and you can log then.
Note that the use of your Zapier account remains free as long as your usage does not exceed 100, that is sending 100 SMS monthly. Otherwise, you will need to consider upgrading to a paid account. The potential of 100 SMS remains enough for a doctor liberal to their account.
From your dashboard, hit the orange button in the upper left corner "+ Create Zap" to make a new zap.
Search for Google Calendar or Outlook in the research bar located in the "Trigger" window and click on the chosen app.
Choose "Event start" from the dropdown list.
Log in to your Google account (same as Gmail account).
1-Calendar : name of the calendar storing your appointments. Usually it should be your e-mail adress if you haven't created any other calendar.
2 & 3- Reminder timing. In the "Time before" field insert a numeric value. In the "Time before unit" field insert the time unit. Together they represent the moment at which the reminder gets sent (for instance : 1 days or 15 minutes).
4-Search term : allows to restrain the reminder only to appointments containing a specific term in their title (example : "Client"). This field is not mandatory.
Once you clicked on "Continue", Zapier will allow you to test your calendar. This requires the presence of at least one appointment in your calendar.
Search for SMSFactor in the "Action" window and choose the latest version.
By default the "Send SMS" event is already selected. "Continue" to the next step.
Choose an account from the dropdown list or (if this is your first use) click on "Connect a New Account" in order to link your SMSFactor account.
1-First we'll write the message's content that will be send through SMS. Here we wrote one for a doctor and aim to custom our message to remind the appointment with details thanks to the custom fields. Indeed you can insert 4 of them. To add one, click on "Insert data".
In this example : Event Begins (Pretty) = event's date in your Google calendar. Description = Title of the appointement. Location = place of meeting. Duration (Minutes) = duration of the appointment in minutes. Other custom fields are available : choose the ones you need.
2-Message Push Type : select "alert". The other option ("marketing") forbids the sending of messages on sundays and from 10 PM to 8 AM from monday to saturdays.
3-Date to send : leave the default value "1 minute from now" as it is. We already specified the delay with the "Time before" field.
4-Sender : sender's name. Write your own name or your firm's one. (Dr John for instance). The expeditor's name can't exceed 11 caracters.
GSM Number : equals the phone number at which you intend to send your SMS. The number needs to be the only information in one of the fields.
For instance I can insert my client's number in the description field on Google Calendar (and nothing else) then choose "Description" in Zapier. Same applies for "Localisation" or any field you wish to sacrfice in order to insert the phone number.
In this step you will be able to test if everything works fine. This requires you to have an appointment coming up soon in your Calendar. Here's a little trick : create a fake appointment occuring in 24 hours and 2 or 3 minutes whit your own phone number to test instantly.
In this final step you'll juste have to publish the zap by pressing the "Publis" button in the upper right corner. The "Off / On" switch will allow to put it in stand-by without deleting.