Communications is the administration section where a clinic decides which messages go out to patients on their own, without anyone remembering to send them. Each category on this page covers one kind of message — a reminder before a visit, a confirmation at booking, a quote, a questionnaire, a recall — and opens onto its own settings.
What a new branch starts with
Every branch is created with a default set of communication rules already applied — the clinic’s first branch, created during registration, and every branch added from Branches afterwards. Appointment reminders, booking confirmations, appointment changes, the quote email, and the questionnaire sent after a booking start on. Patient recalls and the questionnaire sent before a procedure start off, because a new branch has neither a verified patient base nor procedures carrying a questionnaire link — turn them on here when that changes.
The wording is Nokairo’s own, in the clinic’s language, and the defaults are only written where that branch has no rule of that kind yet: a message you have already edited is never overwritten. Branches that existed before Nokairo began applying these defaults were not filled in retroactively, so an older branch that sends nothing has to be set up by hand. Nothing here is fixed — every rule stays editable, branch by branch. See Getting started.
What you can do here
- Appointment reminders — email patients before their appointment.
- Booking confirmations — email patients as soon as an appointment is booked.
- Appointment changes — email patients when a visit moves to a new date or time.
- Quotes — send a medical quote to the patient automatically.
- Questionnaires — send a procedure’s linked questionnaires before the visit.
- Recalls — invite patients who have not been in for a while back for a check-up.
- WhatsApp — choose which of these messages ride WhatsApp instead of email.
How each category works
Every category follows the same two steps: pick a branch, then edit that branch’s settings. Settings are held per branch, so one branch can send reminders two days ahead while another sends none at all. Changing one branch never changes another.
This is not the notifications inbox
Everything configured here is outbound: email or WhatsApp leaving the clinic and arriving with a patient. The in-app notifications inbox is a separate thing — it carries messages to staff inside Nokairo and is not affected by these settings.
Who sees what
These screens are gated by a communications management permission. Staff without it see an access-denied message instead of the settings, and the branches offered in each picker are the ones the reader is allowed to reach.