A messaging switch moves the thread; it leaves open who to text and when
A texting platform carries the conversation. The decisions that make texting pay, which patient is due, what the offer is at this month's margin, how Dana would phrase it and when the reply gets worked, sit outside it. An owner who switches platforms for those decisions gets a new inbox and the same silence from the patients who were due. Write the want in one sentence and mark whether an inbox answers it or a plan does. If a plan does, build the plan around Podium and stop comparing inboxes.
What Podium holds in a practice, and what each item does on the way out
- The text conversations: exported where the vendor allows, otherwise archived; the desk loses its memory of each patient unless the history is kept somewhere readable.
- The review requests: the history of who was asked and when; the reviews themselves sit on your Google profile and stay there.
- The web chat: the widget on your site, replaced on switch day, and the leads inside it exported first.
- The payment links: open invoices settled or re-issued before the old login closes.
- The number and the registration behind it: whether the number moves, and what that does to your texting registration, is for the vendor and your carrier to answer; confirm with counsel. A number that changes is one patients have to learn again.
- The chart lives in your record system, is the legal record of care, and moves, if ever, as a separate project with its own rules; a texting switch should never touch it.
Questions to answer about your own practice
- Is the want an inbox want or a plan want?
- Would the number come with you, and what happens to the texting registration if it does? Ask the vendor and the carrier, and confirm with counsel.
- How many patients have a texting consent on record, where is that record kept, and would it travel with the contact? What counts as consent is for counsel.
- How many desk hours would the overlap period take, with two inboxes watched until the old one goes quiet? Platform prices are on each vendor's pricing page; the hours are the number only you can give.
- For any platform you consider: is a Business Associate Agreement offered, where would patient messages be stored, and who at the vendor could read them? Confirm with counsel what your practice requires.
- Which pages carry the Podium web chat or a Podium link, and who swaps each on switch day?
The number, the threads and the consents, each with an owner
| Item | Moves, stays or ends | Who owns the step |
|---|---|---|
| The texting number and its registration | Moves only if the vendor and carrier confirm it; otherwise a new number patients have to learn | The owner, with the vendor, the carrier and counsel |
| Text conversations | Exported or archived in a readable form before the old login closes | Priya, with the owner checking a sample |
| Consent records | Travel with each contact; a contact without one is treated as new | The owner and counsel |
| Review requests and reviews | The request history is exported; the reviews stay on the Google profile | Priya |
| Web chat and payment links | Widget replaced on switch day; open invoices settled first | The owner and whoever maintains the site |
| The chart and the calendar | Stay in the record system | The medical director and the desk |
What runs around Podium today, and would run around its replacement
The Podium thread is already the record of every text the practice sent and every reply it got, so NorthCore reads it first. It shows which messages produced a booking, which went unanswered, and how long a reply waited before the desk saw it. Set beside the visit dates in your record system and the cost of each treatment, it becomes the strategy: who to text this week and with what offer at this month's margin. The system then runs it through the thread you have. Your call is answered on your number and booked into the calendar in your record system. The patient who is due gets a message in Dana's voice through the Podium thread, so the desk keeps one inbox, and Priya follows the reply until it is an appointment. A review request fires from the visit when the result shows. Memberships and parties are priced from margin with the six calculators at /tools/, and the numbers reach one page each evening. A later switch re-points the sending at the new platform after the overlap. The page for Podium shows the connection.
How to decide in two weeks
- Day one: write the want and mark it inbox or plan.
- Day two: ask the vendor, in writing, whether the number moves and what that does to the registration; send the answer and the agreement to counsel.
- Days three and four: export one month of conversations from Podium and read what came out.
- Days five to seven: count the contacts with a consent record on file, and confirm with counsel what counts.
- Days eight to ten: cost the overlap period in desk hours with two inboxes open.
- Days eleven to thirteen: put the BAA, storage and export questions to each remaining platform in writing.
- Day fourteen: decide. A plan want is built around Podium, and the comparison ends there.
What to do next
NorthCore's Time the comeback and Answer every patient solutions are built around Podium: numbers read first, strategy priced from margin, the call answered, the comeback sent through the thread you already have. It is scoped in writing and backed by the promise on this site: results in 90 days, or we keep working until you have them.
