An Interview with GReminders User & Mental Health Professional, Jessica Fealk
While users of GReminders come from many business and professional backgrounds, we are experiencing an increasing number of therapists and counselors using our Reminders App to remind their patients of upcoming appointments.
We have heard many reasons why therapists are choosing Greminders over other applications, including price, the fact that it works with their existing Google or Outlook Calendars, or that we don’t limit the options on how many reminders can be sent to each client prior to an appointment.
Each individual has their own reasons for choosing GReminders and we thought it may be helpful for you to see how others utilize the software.
We met on Zoom with Jessica Fealk, a therapist who recently switched to GReminders. Here is our interview:
GReminders
Can you describe your business?
Jessica
Sure, I am a mental health professional. I’m a licensed professional counselor in the state of Michigan.
I work with couples and teenagers, adults and also some younger children.
GReminders
How long have you been in business?
Jessica
I opened my business March 1st, 2020, and I had a grand opening and celebration at my brick-and-mortar office. And it was a beautiful celebration. Then I didn’t see a single client in the office because everything moved online shortly after that, due to COVID. So right now, I provide one hundred percent telehealth sessions.
GReminders
How is that working out?
Jessica
It was a big adjustment. I learned about telehealth when I was in grad school as an option and I just thought, no. So it wasn’t my preference. But I think both my clients and I have found a lot of benefits to doing telehealth. There’s not the drive. I’m able to see clients from two or three hours away. Couples love it because if they have children, they don’t have to find a babysitter. So there’s a lot of benefits. And clinically, it works. I’ve seen success and people grow and heal in terms of dealing and coping with anxiety and depression and other issues that we’re working on. So it works. It doesn’t work for everyone. I know counselors where they are scrambling to get back into the office as soon as possible, and that’s how they do their thing or a hybrid.
GReminders
When did you start using Greminders?
Jessica
June 11th of this year [2021].
GReminders
So you’re a new user?
Jessica
Yeah.
GReminders
Do you use GReminders primarily for reminding clients of their appointments?
Jessica
Yes. I have set up three email reminders with different content.
GReminders
Were you using anything prior to GReminders?
Jessica
I was utilizing Square and so I had to create every single unique invoice per square and then that got sent out a couple of hours ahead of time. It served as a reminder of a session coming up.
GReminders
It was a little bit more complicated then?
Jessica
Yeah. I mean, GReminders is just easier. I was pretty much just keeping, honestly, a paper calendar, actually, two paper calendars. And then over time, I thought, I need to switch to something electronic, for a number of reasons. So I started using Google Calendar for appointments. Then I started looking for something outside of Square, other cheaper options for doing the same thing.
I started looking because of the cost and the time it took to set up every unique invoice. And the mental headspace to keep track of has this person paid or has that person paid. It just cluttered up my inbox a whole bunch. And I was using mental space that I felt didn’t need to be using.
I went with another payment platform but then I needed a reminder platform. I love that GReminders is fully integrated with Google calendar, which is something I’m using already. I love how easy it is to set it up and create several reminders. For example, new clients may need more specific reminders and I can set up separate reminders for existing clients. I send one reminder four days ahead of a session, and another an hour prior to a session.
In my reminders, I include a reminder to do any homework that we talked about or paperwork. I ask them to please think about your wins and losses. So it helps. It’s not just an invoice. It’s more personal than that and the reminders get clients, hopefully, thinking about, oh yeah, we did talk about doing homework.
GReminders
Have you received any feedback from your clients on the reminders they receive?
Jessica
Yeah, yeah. I’ve had several actually say, it’s great. I love getting that reminder an hour before. That means I don’t have to go digging for the zoom link. And I have some clients who, even if we go over when we were scheduled, they just didn’t get it right, or want to reaffirm that time. And so they get that in my four-day reminder, when an appointment is scheduled for this day at this time.
GReminders
Do you send reminders to yourself?
Jessica
I do not. I hadn’t thought about that.
GReminders
You can actually remind yourself of appointments that are coming up as well as remind clients.
So tell me about when you set up the program. Did you find it easy? Was it intuitive when you went in there to test, to set things up?
Jessica
I did find it intuitive, and it was also helpful that, I think shortly after I signed up, Amy reached out and we set up a time to connect. She helped me walk through some of the ins and outs of the available options for the service. It was great to have that initial support. I thought that was really, really thoughtful. She helped me discover the scheduling, though I’m not ready to get to that place at this point.
GReminders
Good, and so overall, have you found GReminders to be responsive?
Jessica
Very responsive. Yeah, response within, at least twenty-four hours, probably often less than 12, maybe even 6 hours. Yeah, very thorough and kind. And they always resolve my problem. I reached out about an issue and they were very gracious and said, well, it looks like you’re missing a location in Google calendar.
GReminders
Have you thought of anything that might make the program better?
Jessica
I feel like there are improvements all the time, like when I want to send a Zoom Link or the meeting link ahead of time. It’s so long, it creates so many characters, which eats up text credits. I think recently there was an improvement that actually shortened the meeting link, less than half of the original characters. So that was great.
So, yeah, I do really appreciate I think almost all of the features. And there’s a how-to video. I really appreciate that because I’m a visual learner so I need to see it. And that that is very, very helpful.
GReminders
I agree, if you can watch someone do something, it makes it easier to follow.
Jessica
Yes, exactly. I guess one thing that I would come back to, to reiterate what makes the service so helpful is having different reminders set up for my existing clients and new clients. It’s so nice to have these automatic reminders for each unique set because there are unique needs for each set.
It goes back to that mental space of having to like, oh, I’m looking at my calendar and I have an intake in two days, but I haven’t gotten their intake forms before. So it’s nice to not have to worry about that; they’re going to get those reminders automatically.
I don’t have to use that headspace, that mental capacity to be remembering things that will just happen automatically. That has been incredibly helpful for all of this, everything being virtual and online. I can focus on reading intake forms and I can focus on the counseling piece. The admin part is automatically taken care of, so I appreciate having that. There’s only so much capacity that we have.
GReminders
You want to spend your time doing what you do best, right?. As a small business, you don’t want to be having to spend a lot of your time on administrative tasks.
Jessica
Very true.
GReminders
Finally, GReminders is HIPAA compliant with a BAA, was that important for you?
Jessica
That was a must. That was a deal-breaker.
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Feedback from Other Therapists that use GReminders:
Working in mental health, I tend to have certain patients that would fail to show up for their scheduled appointments. I wasn’t comfortable using my actual cell phone to remind them of their appointment, and calling just wasn’t feasible since my practice consists of only me. GReminders has cut down on my no shows tremendously!
– Julia – MFT
Albuquerque, NM
Reminding my patients of their appointments has cut my missed appointments by around 35%. The greatest part is that I only had to set the system up once and now I don’t even have to think about it.
– Keith – Psychologist, MFT
Sacramento, CA
So many of my patients have commented on how much they appreciate receiving SMS reminders for their appointments. I run a fairly small practice, and my assistant didn’t have enough time to call everyone to remind them of their appointments. He found GReminders and signed up for a trial. We were sold within the first few days!
– Dr. Lauren Jones
New York, NY
Sometimes I forget that I am using Greminders, because it works so seamlessly in the background. My clients remind me when they express gratitude for all the reminders that keep them accountable!
Administrator in Mental Health Care
I appreciate the HIPAA compliant option. The templates are easy to use and customize. Customer support is super helpful.
– Ryan E
Primary Therapist and CEO
If you are looking for patient reminder software that includes interactive appointment scheduling, we hope you will consider GReminders.
If you are already a user and you would like to share your experience with us, we would love to hear from you! You can contact us HERE