A complete, set-and-forget replacement for Cliniko's built-in SMS reminders. Smart reminders, instant booking confirmations, cancellation and reschedule notices, AI-handled patient replies, a cancellation waitlist, recalls, follow-ups, invoice SMS, NPS surveys, a two-way patient inbox and campaigns — all running automatically from your Cliniko data.
Connect once, and DataFlows stays in lockstep with your Cliniko account from that moment on. There is nothing for your staff to run, trigger or remember.
Not just one reminder at one fixed time. Mix timing modes, stack multiple reminders, and tailor wording by appointment type — all without juggling separate systems.
Sends a set number of hours before each appointment (e.g. "24 hours before"), recalculated individually for every booking.
Sends once a day at a set clock time (e.g. 9am), covering everything due the next day. Self-healing if a scheduled run is ever missed.
Not limited to one reminder — add a second, third, or more, each with its own independent timing and wording. A common setup pairs a 48-hour reminder with a same-day one.
Set a different reminder message for specific appointment types — Telehealth versus in-person, for example — without maintaining separate reminder systems.
Restrict reminders to only the appointment types you choose, rather than every type the clinic offers.
Built-in detection stops you from accidentally configuring two reminders that would fire on top of each other.
Each message type below is independently toggleable and has its own editable template. And unlike Cliniko's built-in reminders, DataFlows also texts patients the instant a booking is created, cancelled or moved — not just before the appointment.
| Message type | What happens |
|---|---|
| Booking Confirmation | An instant SMS the moment a new appointment is created in Cliniko — patients get the details in writing straight away, independent of the reminder that comes later. |
| Cancellation Notice | An instant SMS the moment an appointment is cancelled in Cliniko, rather than relying on Cliniko's own native notification, which many clinics don't have configured. Only sent to patients who were already notified about the appointment, so nobody hears about a booking they never knew existed. |
| Reschedule Notice | An instant SMS the moment Cliniko's own reschedule tool moves an appointment, separate from and faster than the next scheduled reminder. |
| Post-Appointment Follow-Up | A follow-up SMS sent a configurable delay after each appointment ends (e.g. "How did your visit go?"), with a no-show exclusion option so patients who didn't attend aren't asked how it went. |
| Recall Reminders | Polls Cliniko's own recall records — patients flagged as due for a follow-up visit, such as a 6-month checkup — and sends a reminder a configurable number of days ahead. Because this counts as marketing communication under the Spam Act, a clear opt-out notice is required and included. |
| Invoice SMS | Automatically texts a patient when a new unpaid invoice is created in Cliniko, including a live payment link when the clinic's Cliniko plan supports online payments. |
When patients text back, DataFlows understands the reply and acts on it — confirmations flow straight into Cliniko, and only the messages that genuinely need a human reach your staff.
| Capability | What happens |
|---|---|
| Automatic reply classification | Recognises confirm, cancel and reschedule intent using fast keyword matching, backed by AI classification for free-text replies like "can't make it Tuesday" — customisable for your clinic. |
| Auto-confirm in Cliniko | Confident "confirm" replies are confirmed directly in Cliniko. No staff action needed for a clean yes. |
| Smart escalation | Cancellations, reschedule requests, low-confidence replies and genuine questions are escalated to your staff automatically by email and/or SMS — always with the patient's name attached. |
| Graceful edge-case handling | A reply to the booking-confirmation text (which isn't meant to invite one) gets a "we'll text you closer to the date" response instead of a false staff alert. A duplicate reply to something already resolved gets an "already taken care of" acknowledgment instead of a second alert. |
| Full reply audit trail | Every incoming reply is logged with its detected intent, confidence score and the action taken — a complete internal record, separate from the optional Cliniko note-logging described below. |
When a slot frees up, DataFlows can offer it straight to waiting patients instead of leaving reception to work the phones.
Read the full walkthrough: Fill Last-Minute Cancellations with Cliniko SMS Waitlists
Beyond automated notifications, DataFlows gives your front desk a full conversation view, a way to gauge patient satisfaction, and marketing tools built around your real appointment data.
| Feature | What happens |
|---|---|
| Two-way Patient Inbox | Every SMS conversation with every patient in one threaded inbox, with the patient's name resolved automatically. Staff can jump in and reply manually alongside the automated AI handling above, whenever a conversation needs a human. |
| Patient Browser & Bulk Import | Search Cliniko's patient list live from inside DataFlows, or import every consented patient in bulk as a background job — built to handle clinics with 10,000+ patients without timing out. Save results into a contact group or carry them straight into a campaign. |
| Satisfaction Survey (NPS) | An automatic post-appointment survey link, with a dashboard showing responses over time. High scorers can optionally be prompted to leave a public review, and survey activity can be logged back into Cliniko as a note. |
| Manual Campaign Builder | Filter patients by appointment date range and outcome — attended, no-shows or all — with a fast, non-per-patient preview and background sending so the page doesn't hang on large lists. Ideal for reactivation and promotions. |
| Recurring Campaign Schedules | Auto-prepare a campaign on a daily or weekly schedule with a configurable lead time (e.g. "every Monday, targeting patients with appointments in the next 14 days"). Drafts sit in a review queue for a human to check and approve — recurring automation never sends unsupervised. |
Everything is logged, exportable and customisable, patient consent is respected by default, and every message sends from a number your patients recognise.
| Feature | What happens |
|---|---|
| Consent-aware messaging | Checks each patient's actual Cliniko-recorded reminder/follow-up SMS consent setting — not the separate marketing opt-in field — before sending anything. |
| Full activity & audit trail | Every automated SMS sent and every patient reply received, logged in one place. Optionally log confirmations and consent back onto the Cliniko appointment as a timestamped note, and export a full two-sided (sent + replied) CSV for compliance record-keeping. |
| Branded Sending Number | Send from a registered alpha Sender ID, so patients see your clinic's name (one-way only), or a dedicated virtual number, which is two-way and required for any feature that needs a patient reply — reminders, waitlist claims, inbox conversations. |
| Link shortening & click tracking | Optionally shorten links in reminder messages — a Telehealth video-call link, for example — and see when patients click them. A per-clinic toggle, so it never changes the account-wide default for clinics that don't want it. |
| Fully customisable templates | Every message type ships with a sensible default template, and every single one can be reworded in your clinic's voice — with merge tags like {patient_name}, {date}, {time}, {practitioner} and {business}. |
Five steps from sign-up to live SMS — no developers needed.
Sign up at sms.dataflows.com.au. Choose any plan — Cliniko integration is available on all paid plans.
In Cliniko, click your name in the bottom-left corner, then My Info, then scroll down to Manage API keys and click Add API key. Copy the generated key. DataFlows reads your Cliniko region straight from the key, so there is nothing else to note down.
In DataFlows, click Cliniko in the sidebar and paste your API key. DataFlows validates the connection and detects your region instantly.
Choose which automations to enable, set your message templates, and configure your sender ID or virtual number. Each message type can be toggled independently — and if you run multiple Cliniko businesses, everything can be configured per location.
That's it. DataFlows starts monitoring your Cliniko account and sending SMS automatically from that point forward.
Yes — that's exactly what it's designed for. DataFlows covers everything Cliniko's native reminders do, plus instant booking confirmations, cancellation and reschedule notices, AI-handled replies, recalls, follow-ups, invoice SMS and campaigns. Most practices switch off Cliniko's native reminders and let DataFlows handle all patient SMS.
Yes — DataFlows connects via the standard Cliniko API, which is available on all plans.
No. DataFlows reads appointment and patient data directly from Cliniko. Patients receive SMS on the mobile number stored in their Cliniko record.
Every reply is classified automatically as confirm, cancel, reschedule or question — using AI plus keyword triggers you can customise. Confident confirmations are confirmed directly in Cliniko with no staff action; everything else is escalated to your staff by email and/or SMS. Every conversation also appears in the two-way Patient Inbox, where staff can reply manually at any time.
Yes. Settings, reminders and campaigns can all be configured per business/location for practices with multiple Cliniko businesses.
DataFlows stores only the data required to send and log SMS (patient name, phone number, appointment time). Full privacy policy: dataflows.com.au/privacy-policy
Not in this first version. When a patient claims a freed-up slot, DataFlows sends them a confirmation and alerts your staff to finalise the booking in Cliniko. That's a deliberate choice for this release, not a limitation we're hiding — it keeps a person in the loop for the actual booking step.
Yes. Recall reminders promote a return visit rather than confirming an existing booking, so they're treated as marketing communication and every recall message includes a clear opt-out, in line with Australian SMS marketing rules.
Email [email protected] and our team will get back to you.
Connect DataFlows to Cliniko and start automating patient SMS in minutes.