Communications
Communications are an important complementary capability to the scheduling engine. Communications ensure that the customers are informed about their scheduled meetings through various channels. This increases customer trust and transparency, reduces the likelihood of miscommunications regarding the meeting details, and eventually, decreases no-show rates. Therefore, the communications capability improves the institution's service quality and advisor productivity.
It is highly recommended that you activate any form of communications, either the default offering or any custom implementation of customer notifications. For self-service implementations, this increases customer trust in the process.
Meeting confirmation
The customer will receive a meeting confirmation message on successfully scheduling a meeting. The default recommended template includes details of the upcoming meeting such as location, advisor name, date, time, and subject of the meeting. The template also includes the administrator's instructions to the customer and any notes that the customer placed in the meeting schedule request. Online meetings include the Microsoft Teams meeting link that the customers can use to join.
You can configure and customize the template. For more information, go to Communication configurations.
Meeting reminder
The meeting reminder is sent a few days before the meeting to ensure the customer is aware of the meeting. The reminder helps in decreasing the number of customer no-shows, and also provides the customer with a reminder to cancel or reschedule the meeting based on their convenience.
The default recommended template for a meeting reminder includes details similar to those available in the default recommended template for a meeting confirmation. After a reminder is sent to the customer, the Appointment entity in the Email reminder sent or SMS reminder sent attributes is accordingly updated.
Meeting cancellation notice
The meeting cancellation notice confirms to the customer that the meeting will not be held. The default recommended template includes details of the canceled meeting, such as advisor name, date, time, and subject of the meeting. It also includes sufficient details about the canceled meeting for the customer's understanding if they have other scheduled meetings.
Note
Only the meetings canceled through the custom API set will receive cancellation notices. Meetings canceled directly through the advisor's Dynamics 365 apps, or Exchange will not generate a cancellation notice.
Add meeting cancellation link to communications
After a meeting is scheduled, meeting confirmation and meeting reminder communications are sent to the customer, if enabled. We recommend that you allow the customer to easily cancel the meeting from the communications, than expect them to take active action for the cancellation, if required. Enabling cancellation from the communications provides better customer experience, increases transparency, and eventually, decreases no-show rates.
You can help customers to cancel their existing meetings through meeting confirmation and meeting reminder communications, by embedding a link to your app or portal designated URL, to the communications templates, using the deep link technology. The link must include the meeting ID and direct customers to your app or portal. More information on how to configure and customize templates: Configure communications.
The following steps mention how you can enable customers to cancel any meeting through the app or portal, if required:
- The customer logs in to the app or portal and goes through the authentication process.
- After the customers are authenticated, the app or portal calls the CancelMeeting API, and passes the meeting ID and the contact ID as parameters. More information on how to call this API: Intelligent appointments API reference.
After the meeting is canceled, we recommend that you display a page confirming the cancellation. A meeting cancellation notice is sent to the customer shortly thereafter, if enabled.
Supported channels
The supported channels of communication are email and text. You can either use first-party connectors of Outlook, Dynamics 365, Azure communications, or any third-party connectors for the emails and text connectors. For more information, go to Communication configurations.
Communication controls
To enable or disable specific communications in a specific environment:
Go to Scheduling administration > Settings > Communications > General settings.
Depending on your requirements, you can manage the following controls:
Enable or disable all communication types (confirmation, cancellation, and reminders) in all channels using the main toggle.
Control any specific communication type in any or all channels using the individual toggles.
In the reminder communication, control the threshold of the number of days before the meeting that the customer should receive the reminder.
Note
These controls only take effect when the communication channels are properly configured in Power Automate, the flows are activated, and the templates for the communications are deployed. To set up the meeting communications using the Power Automate solution, see Communication configurations. By default, the communications feature is disabled.
See also
Intelligent appointments Support Deploy Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services What is Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services?