Yes. GoHighLevel's Goal Event action waits until a contact confirms an appointment, among other events, so the workflow can hold directions and pre visit instructions until the patient confirms, and call the patient if they do not. The bottom line: confirmation is the signal the office needs, so ask for it, and always send the basic details at booking so nobody arrives uninformed.
Why ask for confirmation
Reminders reduce missed visits, and a reply gives the office time to refill a slot. A randomized trial of 9,835 patients found no show rates of 13.6 percent with staff reminders, 17.3 percent with automated reminders, and 23.1 percent with none. A Kaiser Permanente Washington trial found that an extra text three business days before a visit reduced no shows for high risk visits, from 9.1 to 8.4 percent in primary care and from 20.1 to 17.9 percent in mental health. A confirmation request turns a one way reminder into a two way check.
What waits and what does not
| Send at booking | Hold until confirmed |
|---|---|
| Date, time, address, and dentist | Parking pass or building access details |
| What to bring | Arrival instructions for the specific entrance |
| Cancellation policy | Dentist approved pre visit instructions for the procedure |
Instructions that are clinical, such as fasting before sedation or arranging a driver, come from the dentist. They should be approved templates tied to a procedure tag, not wording written by the workflow. Hold them only if the practice also sends them in a call or by another channel, so a patient who never confirms still gets safety information.
Build it in GoHighLevel
HighLevel help center pages describe the Appointment Status trigger as firing when an appointment is created or its status changes, with statuses New, Confirmed, Cancelled, Showed Up, No Show, and Invalid, and with filters for calendar, calendar group, tag, user, and who made the change (customer, user, or API). The Update Appointment Status action can set the same statuses from inside a workflow. A third party agency guide adds that Appointment Status is now the main appointment trigger and the older Customer Booked Appointment trigger is being phased out, so use Appointment Status for new builds.
GoHighLevel's help page says the Goal Event action waits until a contact clicks a link, submits a form, confirms an appointment, makes a payment, or a team member replies.
- Build a workflow with the Customer Booked Appointment trigger that sends the basic details at once.
- Send a text 3 business days before asking the patient to reply C to confirm, or tap a confirm link.
- Add a Goal Event that waits for the confirmation, with a timeout of 24 hours before the visit.
- If confirmed, send the arrival details and the approved instructions for the procedure tag.
- If the timeout passes, create a call task for the front desk and send the basic instructions anyway.
- Build a second workflow with the Appointment Status trigger set to Confirmed that tags the patient Confirmed and stops the extra reminders.
Ways to confirm, compared
| Method | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Reply C to a text | One tap, and easy to automate | Some patients do not know to reply |
| Tap a confirm link | Can also offer a reschedule link | Needs a click, and a tracked link is not proof of attendance |
| Phone call from the front desk | Human, and catches doubts | Costs staff time |
Before text confirmations, offices called every patient the day before, which took a staff member an hour or more a day and often ended in voicemail. A text takes most of that work away. A call is then reserved for patients who did not confirm, which is where staff time does the most good.
Worked example
For example, a practice with 600 visits a month where 70 percent confirm by text has 180 unconfirmed patients to call (600 times 0.3). The front desk calls 180 patients instead of all 600, and learns about cancellations early enough to offer the slot to the waitlist.
Mistakes to avoid
- Holding safety instructions behind the confirmation. Send them anyway.
- Writing clinical instructions in the workflow. Use dentist approved templates.
- No timeout. Without one the workflow waits forever.
- Naming the procedure in the text. Keep it generic.
How this was handled before
Offices called the day before and left a message asking patients to call back to confirm. Few did. A two way text makes confirmation a single reply and gives the office time to react.
What to measure after launch
Track visits, confirmations, calls to unconfirmed patients, and no shows among confirmed and unconfirmed patients. Compare the no show rates of the two groups.
Check before you switch it on
US text messages sent from a standard 10 digit number need A2P 10DLC registration. The HighLevel support portal says registration is required for texts to US recipients from 10 digit long code numbers and that toll free numbers do not require it. HighLevel's opt in guidelines also say a person cannot be forced to agree to text messages in order to submit a form, so keep the consent box optional. One compliance guide separates informational texts, which need documented consent, from marketing texts, which need prior express written consent. Ask your attorney which category your reminders fall into. Have the dentist approve every pre visit instruction template and the privacy officer approve the messages. This is general information, not legal advice.
Questions people ask
Can GoHighLevel wait for a confirmation?
Its Goal Event action waits for events including a confirmed appointment.
Do reminders reduce no shows?
A randomized trial found no show rates of 13.6, 17.3, and 23.1 percent with staff, automated, and no reminders.
Should safety instructions wait for the confirmation?
No. Send them regardless, in addition to any call.
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You can also see this in action in our GoHighLevel capabilities demo.