The one message that looks backward, not forward
The follow-up email is the automated message ClinyPal sends after an appointment is marked completed — the only one of the four automated appointment templates that fires once the visit is already over, rather than before or at booking. Where confirmations, cancellations, and reminders are all about the appointment that's coming, a follow-up is about the one that just happened, and that changes what it's actually for.
Used well, this template is one of the more commercially useful of the four — it's a natural place to check in, ask how the visit went, and prompt the patient to book their next appointment while the visit is still fresh in their mind. Clinics that leave this template at a bare, generic "thanks for visiting" are leaving a rebooking opportunity on the table that a slightly more deliberate version would have captured.
- What marks an appointment "completed" and triggers this send
- Using the follow-up to prompt rebooking, not just say thanks
- Why this page has no <strong>Generate with AI</strong> button, unlike its SMS counterpart
- Where a sent follow-up shows up afterward for a given patient
What actually triggers the send
The follow-up fires after an appointment is completed, which distinguishes it from all three of the other automated templates — the confirmation fires at booking, and the reminder fires ahead of the visit. Since it depends on the appointment actually being marked as completed, an appointment that's cancelled or left open won't trigger this template at all — only visits that went ahead.
Editing the subject and body
The editor has the familiar shape: a plain Subject field and a rich-text Body field, with a placeholder-insert toolbar for merge fields above the body. For a follow-up, the placeholders that matter are the ones referencing the visit that just happened — the completed appointment's date and the practitioner seen — since the message should read as a natural continuation of that specific visit, not a generic check-in that could apply to anyone.
- <strong>Patient name</strong> — for the greeting.
- <strong>Completed appointment's date</strong> — so the message reads naturally as a reference to that specific visit.
- <strong>Practitioner name</strong> — who the patient saw.
- <strong>Location</strong> — useful for multi-site clinics.
A follow-up email with a direct rebooking prompt — a line and a link pointing to your online booking page — turns a courtesy message into a small but real driver of return visits. It costs nothing extra to include and it's the single highest-leverage change most clinics can make to this particular template.
Open the follow-up email template
Go to <strong>Settings > Follow-up Email Template</strong>.
Update the subject line
Reference the completed visit rather than using a generic greeting subject.
Write or adjust the body
Reference the specific visit using placeholders, and consider adding a rebooking prompt or link.
Save your changes
Click <strong>Save</strong>. The new wording applies to follow-ups sent from that point forward.
No AI drafting on this page
This Email template page does not have a Generate with AI button — that's only available on the Appointment Follow-up SMS Template page. If you're looking for the same shortcut here, it's intentionally not offered on the email side of this template, so writing (or adapting) the body by hand, with placeholder support for the variable details, is the expected workflow.
Its SMS counterpart
The SMS follow-up is a faster, lighter version of the same idea — useful for clinics that want a quick check-in without the fuller detail an email allows. Running both is common where a clinic wants to maximize the chance the rebooking prompt actually gets seen.