SMS survey reminders are sent on the survey due dates, as well as the email notifications do.

We recommend checking that SMS reminders comply with the laws and regulations of the specific country.
Read more about it - Sending SMS Best Practices

The only requirement for sending SMS reminders is the patient’s mobile phone number input into the system (no matter whether it will be added to the system by the investigator while creating a case or by the patient during self-registration). If the mobile phone is added to the system from not the very beginning of the case (using Edit Case function), the patient will start getting SMS alerts beginning from the nearest coming survey due date.

So, to opt-in a particular patient to receive SMS Survey Reminders, add their mobile phone number to the system (case/patient details). To opt a patient out from SMS notifications, remove their mobile phone number from the system.

The text for SMS survey reminder is set at the protocol version level and can be localized in any of the supported by our system languages. Thus, any customer can request their own version of SMS notification.

All the SMS messages in our system are coded in GSM 03.38 alphabet that sets special requirements to the message length (GSM 03.38 character set). So, when adding a customer's version of an SMS reminder, be aware of character limits for different languages. Thus, we can add the SMS text up to 160 characters if there are no special characters not supported by GSM 03.38 code. If the message contains any characters that are outside the GSM 03.38 character set, it can have up to 70 characters.
To check whether the customer’s message length meets the requirements, use SMS Length Calculator.

!!! Ignoring the message length rules will lead to splitting the SMS text into several messages that will cause additional costs for our company.

The inCytes™ SMS service is supported by AWS and made available to nearly 200 countries. Please review the AWS pricing table to check your country's current rates.

Circle sponsors are responsible for covering the costs of SMS messages sent to cases created within their Circle(s), and must be signed up via Stripe for monthly payments.

How to customize SMS survey reminder (on the protocol level)

1. Navigate to Protocols and switch to the required custom modification‍
2. Click Patient Communication on the left

3. Open the dropdown list above the Languages and select SmsPatientSurveyReminder. Select the required language

After that, on the right, you’ll see the field for the customer’s SMS reminder version (Message) and below - the field with the pre-filled default SMS text existing in our system (Default Body). You can use these default texts as an example of how the message text should look like. If there’re no customer’s version of the SMS reminder, patients will get the default version of them.

List of fields: dynamic data that is pulled from the customers’ profiles. At the moment we can use Doctor’s last name, Survey title, and link to the due survey to design the message. Account managers can choose the required fields or use all of them in the message text. Note that dynamic fields must be typed in the parenthesis and only in English: {{DrLastName}}, {{SurveyTitle}}, {{Link}}. See the default SMS message text as an example.

4. Put the customer’s version of the SMS alert into the Message field and click SAVE
   a. To add one of the language modifications, select the required language in the list and put the required text in the Message field. Click SAVE when ready

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Default SMS Reminder text:

Your latest health assessment is now due on Benchmarc. For accurate results, please complete shortly upon receiving this message.

{{Link}}

Thank you, {{TeamName}}

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5. After saving the template, it’s strongly recommended to send a test SMS reminder to check if everything looks well and doesn’t require any changes to be applied. To send a test message:
    a.  click SEND SMS at the top right of the screen
    b.  enter your mobile phone number* and click SEND
    c.  look through the SMS on your mobile phone

If your mobile carrier is not supported by AWS, use some “free receive SMS services” like this one.
Check out this list to see whether SMS reminders are sent to your country.

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To customize SMS survey reminder for the particular survey:

1. Go to the required Protocol and select the required survey

2. Click SHOW PATIENT COMMUNICATION in the Patient Communication field

3. Repeat the steps mentioned for Protocol level emails

How to estimate SMS costs for customer

If the investigator activates 2-factor authentication, the cost of such SMS will be debited from his account, but it is difficult to say in advance how many SMS will be used.

For all other cases:

1. Determine the cost of 1 SMS.
   The cost should be taken from SMS Pricing Table
   E.g., USA: 1 SMS=$0.02
2. Find out the number of SMS to be sent
   For each language in "SmsPatientSurveyReminder" SMS template, a check should be performed using SMS Length Calculator, it is necessary that 1 SMS = 1 SMS part (if there is no explicit request for a long message). Real values should be used instead of variables (Ex., {{Link}}).
   For each survey: 1 SMS at the due date of sending the reminder + the number of additional reminders.
   Example, 5 surveys with 3 additional reminder for each = 20 units for case (5 + 15).
3. Calculate total expenses
   Total $ for 1 Case: $0.02 × 20 = $0.4.‍

Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q)