Optometry is half clinic and half shop, and the messaging reflects that. The clinical half runs on recall; the retail half runs on collection and reorder. Both are predictable enough to automate, which makes this one of the easier practices to run well on a small budget.
An eye test is health information
Recall messages should carry a time and a practice name, not a reason. 'Your diabetic eye screening' in a notification discloses a condition to anyone who can see the phone. The constraint is the same as medical and dental.
The three messages
export const optical = { // Recall — the appointment engine of the practice. recall: (c: Ctx) => `${c.practice}: you're due for a check-up — it's been ${c.months} ` + `months. Reply BOOK and we'll find you a time: ${c.link}`, // Collection — stops glasses sitting in a drawer for weeks. ready: (c: Ctx) => `${c.practice}: your glasses are ready. We're open ${c.hours}, ` + `no appointment needed for collection — takes about ten minutes ` + `to fit them properly.`, // Reorder — pure recurring revenue, and genuinely useful. lenses: (c: Ctx) => `${c.practice}: you're due to run out of lenses around ${c.date}. ` + `Reply YES for the same again and we'll have them ready.`,};'Takes about ten minutes to fit them properly' matters more than it looks
Uncollected glasses are money already spent and not yet earned, and the usual reason is that people assume collection is a queue. Naming the time — and the fitting, which they cannot do at home — moves collection from a chore to an appointment.
Contact lens reorders are the most reliable revenue in the practice
A lens wearer consumes on a predictable schedule and will buy from whoever makes it easiest. If your reorder message arrives a week before they run out and takes one reply, they will never visit an online retailer. If it does not, they eventually will.
Tie the reorder prompt to consumption rather than to the calendar, and include the aftercare check when one is due — bundling the clinical requirement into the convenience is what keeps both happening.
Next step
Browse the other industry playbooks, compare the services that can send this on the providers page, or tag your links with the UTM builder.