The Oklahoma Bar Journal January 2023

appointments or appearances to doing it 90% of the time, it is a huge improvement that should result in fewer missed appointments. AUTOMATED TEXT MESSAGE REMINDER TOOLS In today’s law offices, anytime you can automate a process, it is usually worth it unless the cost is prohibitive. In January 2020, I wrote about an Oklahoma lawyer who loved the app Apptoto: 2 Apptoto will integrate with calendar software. That is, if we type an appointment into my calendar and type the client’s cellphone number into the appointment, Apptoto will automatically pick up the meeting and will send a text to the client before the appointment, notifying them of the appointment. My secre tary likes this feature because she can type an appointment into the calendar and does not have to take any extra steps. I learned to use Apptoto, and then all I had to do was tell the secretary to continue entering appointments into the calendar. I chose Apptoto precisely for this reason [my secretary was

concerned she’d have to do additional work and learn to use a new tool]. My secretary was very happy and thanked me for the choice I made. … I can program Apptoto to send the client a text at a specified time before the meeting. I’ve programmed my account to send each client two texts – one at 6 p.m. the day before the appointment and another text one hour before the appointment. I can also program Apptoto to send a client a different text message based on what I type into the appointment. For example, if I type ‘appt’ into my calendar, Apptoto will send the client a text saying, “Appt Reminder: You have an appointment with [my name] today at 4:30 p.m.” If I type ‘Court Appearance’ into my calendar, Apptoto will send the client a text saying, “This is [my name]. You have a court hearing tomorrow on Monday, Nov. 4, at 1:30 p.m.” The text will also ask the client to press 1 to confirm that they received the message. Apptoto has set me up with a local number … If the client texts a response, the client’s text

from the law office. She bought an inexpensive burner phone and purchased more time for the phone as needed. She left it plugged in at the receptionist’s desk, and it was used to text the clients. It would be a simple task for the receptionist to set aside 10 or 15 minutes each day to text out a few reminders for the next day; if anyone responded with a question or canceled, that employee is best set up to reschedule the appointment or get answers to questions. A slightly more expensive version of that would be to buy a smartphone with a limited data plan. That would allow you to easily set it up to have the text come from the law firm’s name and do more sophisticated tasks since many burner phones lack a camera or web browser. You could send a Maps link to the law office or a photo for example. Either approach is simple and understandable as long as your receptionist is not overwhelmed with current duties. However, both are done manually and require a staff person’s or lawyer’s time to accomplish the task. That is not terrible, but a person may forget or run out of time. Still, if you improve from never texting reminders about

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL