Most clinics send the same kind of message again and again. A consent confirmation before a new-patient visit. A heads-up about what to bring. A pre-appointment notice for a procedure. Writing and sending these by hand every week is slow, and it is easy to forget one.
Automating it sounds obvious, but many clinics are rightly cautious. A message that goes out to patients without anyone looking at it can go wrong in ways that are hard to undo. Health information is sensitive, and a wrong list or a wrong template is a real problem.
DataFlows takes a middle path for Cliniko clinics. Recurring schedules do the repetitive preparation work for you, then stop and wait for a person to review and send. Nothing recurring sends by itself.
In this guide you will learn what a recurring SMS campaign is, how daily and weekly schedules work, what happens at 5:00am each day, how to review and send a draft, and how this differs from a one-off promotional campaign.
What Is a Recurring SMS Campaign?
Recurring SMS campaigns are repeating message schedules that prepare a fresh batch of recipients on a regular rhythm, such as every day or every week, using a saved template and a lead time measured in days. In the DataFlows and Cliniko integration, a recurring schedule does not send anything on its own. At 5:00am it finds the patients who match the schedule, builds a draft campaign, and quietly places it in Campaign History with the status Ready to review. A staff member then opens the draft, carefully checks the recipients and the message, and chooses whether to send. This design suits pre-appointment messages, such as consent confirmations, where accuracy matters more than speed. The schedule removes the repetitive setup work, while a person keeps the final decision about what goes to patients and when.
Why It Matters for Australian Businesses
Australian clinics handle health information, and patients expect care in how it is used. A pre-appointment message that arrives at the wrong time, goes to the wrong person or contains the wrong wording can damage trust quickly.
At the same time, front-desk teams are busy. Preparing the same campaign by hand each week takes time that could go to patients in the waiting room. Skipped weeks mean patients arrive without the information they needed.
A review step solves both problems. The schedule handles the repetition, and a human handles the judgement. That is a sensible balance for allied health, medical, dental and specialist practices alike.
It also fits how Australian SMS rules work in practice. Marketing messages need consent and opt-out wording under the Spam Act 2003, while pre-appointment messages are a different kind of communication. Keeping the two clearly separate in your workflow, and keeping a person in the loop for the recurring one, makes it easier to stay on the right side of that line. For background, see our guide to SMS consent and opt-in in Australia.
Key Benefits
- Less repetitive work. The draft is prepared for you every morning, so nobody has to rebuild the same campaign by hand each week.
- A person stays in control. Every recurring draft must be reviewed and sent by staff. Nothing recurring sends by itself, so an unexpected recipient list never goes out unnoticed.
- Predictable timing. Schedules run at 5:00am, so the draft is ready when the team starts the day.
- Flexible rhythm. Choose a daily schedule with a rolling window, or a weekly schedule tied to a set weekday.
- Consistent wording. Each schedule uses a saved template, so every patient receives the same approved message.
- A clear paper trail. Drafts and sent campaigns appear in Campaign History with their status, so you can see what was prepared, what was sent and how many messages were delivered or failed.
How Recurring Schedules Work Step by Step
The Cliniko integration has a Campaign Builder for one-off broadcasts, and recurring schedules sit alongside it. Here is the flow from setup to sending.
Step 1: Connect Cliniko and set a sending number
Connecting takes one field, your Cliniko API key. DataFlows reads your region from the key and pulls in every business and location on the account. Before settings will save, you also need a sending number: a Virtual Number or a Sender ID. Patients can reply to a Virtual Number, while a Sender ID is one-way only. If you are new to the integration, our complete guide to Cliniko SMS features walks through the full setup.
Step 2: Choose daily or weekly
A daily schedule works on a rolling window. Each morning it looks ahead from today. A weekly schedule runs on a set weekday of your choice, such as every Monday. Pick the rhythm that matches how your team works. A busy clinic that prepares consent confirmations every morning might choose daily, while a clinic that sends a weekly batch for the week ahead might prefer weekly.
Step 3: Set the lead time in days
The lead time tells the schedule how many days ahead to look for appointments. For example, a lead time of three days prepares a draft for patients whose appointments fall that many days out. Choose a lead time that gives patients enough notice to act on the message, and gives your team enough time to review it.
Step 4: Pick a template
Select the message template the schedule will use. Write it once, check the wording carefully, and reuse it. Templates support merge tags such as {patient_name}, {date}, {time}, {practitioner} and {business}, and the editor shows a live SMS part counter so you can see when a message splits into more than one part. Messages over 160 characters split into more parts and are billed accordingly.
Step 5: Let the 5:00am run prepare the draft
At 5:00am the schedule runs. It does not send. It only prepares a draft campaign and places it in Campaign History with the status Ready to review.
Step 6: Review the draft
When staff start the day, they open Campaign History and find the draft. The review screen shows the list of recipients with checkboxes, so the person reviewing can untick anyone who should not receive the message. They can read the message, check the numbers and make sure nothing looks wrong.
Step 7: Send or leave it
Once the list looks right, the reviewer chooses Send to N patients. If something needs checking first, they can leave the draft and come back to it. Because nothing recurring sends by itself, a draft that nobody approves simply stays in the queue. After sending, Campaign History shows the campaign moving through Sending and Sent, with delivered and failed counts.
A Worked Example: Consent Confirmations
Imagine a clinic that offers a procedure requiring the patient to confirm they have read and agreed to the preparation instructions before attending.
The clinic sets up a daily recurring schedule with a lead time of a few days and a template asking the patient to confirm their consent and read the preparation notes. Every morning at 5:00am, DataFlows prepares a draft listing the patients whose appointments fall in that window.
The practice manager opens the draft when they arrive. They scan the list, notice a patient who has already phoned to confirm, untick them, and click Send. The remaining patients receive the message.
The effort is a quick review rather than a full rebuild. The decision to send still belongs to a person.
Why the Marketing Opt-In Check Is Not Applied to Recurring Drafts
One detail deserves a clear explanation. In the Campaign Builder, the box Only patients who've opted in to SMS marketing in Cliniko is ticked by default. Recurring schedules do not apply that opt-in check to their drafts.
The reason is the purpose. Recurring schedules are designed for pre-appointment messages such as consent confirmations. These are part of looking after a patient who has already booked, not promotional marketing, so the marketing opt-in is not the right test for them.
That has an important consequence for how you write them. Keep recurring templates strictly about the appointment. Do not use a recurring schedule to promote a service, advertise a sale or invite patients to book something new. Promotions belong in a one-off campaign, where the opt-in rules apply.
Recurring Schedules vs One-Off Promotional Campaigns
The two tools look similar but are built for different jobs.
- Recurring schedules prepare a draft on a daily or weekly rhythm for pre-appointment messages. A person reviews and sends each draft. The marketing opt-in check is not applied to these drafts.
- One-off campaigns are built in the Campaign Builder for a single broadcast. You find patients by appointment date range and outcome (Attended, No-shows only or All, always excluding cancellations), or by a reactivation rule such as "Last appointment was N to M months ago". The opt-in box stays ticked, and the review screen tells you how many patients were left out.
For a promotion, a reactivation message or a recall-style nudge, use a one-off campaign and keep the opt-in box ticked. You can untick it only for non-marketing practice notices, such as a closure. Our guide to the Cliniko SMS Campaign Builder explains the one-off workflow in detail.
How DataFlows Helps
DataFlows is an Australian SMS platform, and its Cliniko integration is native. It checks Cliniko's API directly. There is no Zapier route and no webhook to configure, because Cliniko offers neither. You connect with a Cliniko API key and work from the DataFlows dashboard.
Beyond recurring schedules, the same integration covers appointment reminders with rolling or fixed-time timing, booking confirmations, cancellation and reschedule notices, two-way reply handling, a waitlist, post-appointment follow-ups, satisfaction surveys, recall automation and invoice SMS. Replies from patients land in a combined Patient Inbox, and the Activity Log records what was sent and what patients said.
Pricing is pay-as-you-go. You buy SMS credits and top up when needed, with no monthly or annual fees, and your credits never expire. If you want two-way replies, you will also need a Virtual Number.
Because every recurring draft needs a human to approve it, you get the time saving of automation without handing over the final say. For many clinics, that is the right comfort level for patient communication.
Best Practices
- Review every draft, every time. The review step is the safety net. Check the recipient list and the wording before you click Send, rather than approving on autopilot.
- Assign an owner. Decide who reviews drafts each morning and who covers when they are away. A draft left unapproved simply waits, so a clear owner prevents missed sends.
- Keep recurring messages about the appointment. Use schedules for pre-appointment messages such as consent confirmations. Use one-off campaigns with the opt-in box ticked for anything promotional.
- Write the template carefully. The template is reused, so a single typo repeats. Preview it, check the SMS part counter and read it out loud before saving.
- Choose a lead time that fits. Give patients enough notice to act, but avoid sending so early that the message is forgotten.
- Remember opt-outs. If a patient replies STOP, DataFlows adds the number to your Blacklist, and no further SMS goes to that number from any location or feature. Make sure your team knows this and does not try to message them another way.
- Check Campaign History. After sending, look at delivered and failed counts, and follow up on failures.
- Test with a small group first. When you set up a new schedule, review the first few drafts closely to confirm the lead time and template behave as you expect.
Conclusion
Recurring SMS campaigns for Cliniko give clinics the best of both approaches. The schedule does the repetitive preparation at 5:00am, and a person makes the final call before anything is sent. Nothing recurring sends by itself.
That makes it a good fit for pre-appointment messages such as consent confirmations, where accuracy and care matter. For promotions and reactivation, one-off campaigns with the marketing opt-in box ticked remain the right tool.
Ready to set it up? Sign up at dataflows.com.au, connect your Cliniko account with your API key, and create your first recurring schedule today.