Push notifications from your practice’s app
Reminders, membership alerts and birthday gifts on the lock screen, with no charge per message sent.
Velarya sends push notifications from the app your patients already use, with no per-message fee, so a reminder or a membership alert never has to be weighed against a messaging budget. Reminders fire on a schedule you set, and membership events like an unclaimed benefit or an expiring voucher trigger on their own. Each appointment reminder and membership reminder is logged with the channels it was sent on, and every patient’s push opt-out is honored.
What does Velarya send without being asked?
The messages that actually protect revenue are the ones nobody has to remember, because they fire from the state of a record rather than from someone working a list on a Friday afternoon.
Trigger | What it prevents |
|---|---|
Booking confirmation, by email and in the app’s notifications list | The patient who is not sure the booking went through and calls to check |
Appointment reminder | The no-show that was a forgotten appointment rather than a change of mind |
Waitlist opening | A cancellation that becomes an empty hour instead of a booked one |
Birthday gift | A gift the patient never hears about and never uses |
Unclaimed membership benefit | A member reaching the end of a cycle without using what they paid for, which is a common reason a membership gets canceled |
Voucher approaching expiry | Value quietly evaporating and the member noticing afterwards |
Claim deadline approaching | A member missing the window to choose their benefit for the cycle |
Membership renewal coming up | The surprise charge that turns into a chargeback and a lost member |
Four of those exist because memberships and messaging live in the same place. A standalone messaging tool cannot tell you a member has an unclaimed facial with nine days left, because it has never seen the membership.
Reminders you actually control
Reminder timing is a list, not a single setting. You give Velarya the hours before an appointment when a reminder should go out. The default is twenty-four hours and two hours, which suits most practices: the first gives a patient time to reschedule rather than cancel, the second catches the person who genuinely forgot.
Each reminder goes out by push to patients with your app, by email to patients who have email switched on, and by text to patients who have texts switched on.
Each location’s own time and place
Every appointment reminder and booking confirmation follows the appointment’s location. The time is written in the time zone set for that location, and the confirmation email says which location the visit is at. For a group with sites set to different time zones, each patient sees the time as their own clinic keeps it.
How the rest of the per-location model works is covered on the multi-location page.
How do push, text, and email compare?
Channel | Where it lands | Best for |
|---|---|---|
Push | Lock screen, from your app icon | Reminders, waitlist openings, birthday gifts, membership events |
Text | Text thread | Transactional messages and patients without the app |
Inbox, often the promotions tab | Longer updates and receipts |
Push carries no per-message fee, but it needs your app on the patient’s phone, which is why it pairs with text rather than replacing it, and why the practices that get the most out of push are the ones whose patients install the app during their first visit.
Push opt-out, honored on every push
A patient can switch push notifications off for your practice in the app’s communication preferences, and every automated push checks that setting before it goes out.
This is not only courtesy. A patient who cannot opt out cleanly does the next available thing, which is delete the app, and that costs you the booking surface, the loyalty balance, and the push channel all at once. A clean opt-out keeps the relationship even when it quiets the messaging.
In the app, and each reminder sent once
For a patient with your app, reminders and membership notices land in the app’s notifications list, so the latest messages are there to find even when a lock-screen alert was swiped away.
Scheduled reminders are also deduplicated. If something retries, the patient does not receive the same reminder twice, which is the failure that does the most damage to a notification channel because it is the one patients complain about publicly.
Why is the app what makes this work?
Push only exists because your practice has an app on the patient’s phone. Every plan comes with one, and the question is whose name is on it: patients can use the Velarya app, which opens into your practice and takes on your colors, or your own app, listed in the stores under your practice’s name, where push arrives from your app.
That is also why push compounds with everything else. The same app carries points and challenges, rebooking, and membership benefits, so a notification has somewhere to send the patient that is one tap away rather than a link to a browser. The wider argument for keeping patients is on the client retention page.
Frequently asked questions
Do push notifications help client retention?
They work because of where they land and what they cost. A push notification reaches the lock screen of a phone that already has your app installed, and there is no charge per message, so staying in touch does not compete with your marketing budget. Every automated push honors the patient’s opt-out, which keeps the channel healthy.
Are push notifications better than SMS?
They complement each other. Push carries no per-message fee and lands on the lock screen, but it needs your app on the phone. Text reaches patients without the app and is better for transactional messages. Velarya sends both from the same place, so there is no second vendor contract.
What notifications does Velarya send automatically?
Appointment reminders, a waitlist opening, a birthday gift, and a set of membership events: an unclaimed benefit, a voucher approaching expiry, a claim deadline, and an upcoming membership renewal. Those fire from the state of the record itself, so nobody has to remember to run a list before a renewal date. Booking confirmations are automatic too: they go out by email and land in the app’s notifications list.
How far in advance are appointment reminders sent?
You choose, and you can choose more than once. Reminder timing is a list of hours before the appointment rather than a single value, so a practice can send one the day before and another a couple of hours out. The default is twenty-four hours and two hours.
How often should a practice send push notifications?
As often as you have something the patient actually values: a booking reminder, an expiring benefit, an opening from the waitlist. Frequency matters less than relevance. A cadence built on real account events keeps opt-outs low, while generic weekly blasts train patients to ignore you or switch notifications off entirely.
Do appointment reminders and confirmations show each location’s own time?
Yes. Appointment reminders and booking confirmations are written in the time zone set for the location the appointment is at, and the confirmation email names that location. A group with sites set to different time zones sends each patient the time as their own clinic keeps it.
Can patients turn push notifications off?
Yes. A patient can switch push off for your practice in the app’s communication preferences, and every automated push honors it. Respecting that properly is what keeps the channel worth having, because a patient who cannot opt out cleanly uninstalls the app instead.
What if a patient misses a notification?
For a patient with your app, reminders and membership notices also land in the app’s notifications list, so the latest messages are there to find even when the lock-screen alert was swiped away. Scheduled reminders are deduplicated too, which is what stops a patient receiving the same reminder twice when something is retried.