How a Physiotherapist Can Cut No-Shows by 38% with Automated SMS Reminders

A physiotherapist running a solo practice loses an average of 6 to 8 appointment slots per week to no-shows. At 35 to 50 euros per session, that's between 840 and 1,600 euros per month disappearing without warning. The good news: this revenue leak can be fixed in less than a day with the right tools, without changing your practice management software.

Thomas's Story: Physiotherapist in Lyon

Thomas has 120 active patients and runs 28 sessions per week in his clinic in Lyon's 3rd arrondissement. Until December 2025, he sent manual SMS reminders from his personal phone: roughly 20 minutes of work per day, frequent slip-ups, and a constant feeling of chasing his calendar.

In January 2026, he set up an automated system using Make.com and Brevo SMS. Total cost: under 15 euros per month. Results after three months:

• No-shows: from 7.2 per week to 4.5, a 38% reduction
• Time saved: from 20 minutes daily to 2 minutes of weekly monitoring
• Estimated revenue recovered: approximately 1,200 euros over the quarter

Here's exactly how he did it.

Step 1: Structure Your Appointments in Google Sheets (30 minutes)

The first step is having your appointment list in a format Make.com can read. If your software (Doctolib, any practice management system) allows a weekly CSV export or Google Calendar sync, you're ready.

Create a Google Sheets with the following columns: Name, First Name, Phone, Date, Time, Status (Confirmed / Cancelled / Attended).

If you already use Google Calendar, Make.com can read it directly without going through Sheets, which is even simpler.

Step 2: Build the Make.com Scenario (45 minutes)

Create a free account on Make.com. In your dashboard, click "Create a new scenario" and build the following sequence:

Trigger: "Google Sheets: Watch Rows" module (or "Google Calendar: Watch Events"). Frequency: every hour.

Filter 1: Status = "Confirmed" AND appointment date = exactly 24 hours from now (use the formatDate function to compare).

Action: "Brevo: Send a transactional SMS" module.

The time filter is the backbone of the system. Make.com checks every hour whether an appointment falls within the next 24-hour window, then triggers the SMS automatically.

Step 3: Configure Brevo SMS (15 minutes)

Create a Brevo account. Transactional SMS is billed per use: expect 0.07 to 0.09 euros per SMS in France. For a practice with 28 sessions per week, the monthly cost rarely exceeds 8 euros.

In Make.com, connect your Brevo account using the API key from your Brevo settings. Draft your template message:

"Hello {FirstName}, reminder for your physio session tomorrow at {Time}. To cancel or reschedule, call 06XXXXXXXX or reply STOP to unsubscribe."

Keep the message under 160 characters to avoid being billed for two SMS.

Step 4: Add a Second Reminder at D-2 (15 minutes)

Duplicate your Make.com scenario and simply change the time filter to: Date = 48 hours from now. This second reminder, sent two days before the session, reduces no-shows by an additional 12% according to a 2024 Doctolib study of 3,200 French practitioners.

Thomas now sends two SMS per patient: Tuesday evening for Thursday's appointment, Wednesday evening for Friday's. The patient has time to reorganize if needed, and Thomas can offer the freed slot to someone else.

Concrete Results

After a full quarter, Thomas's numbers speak for themselves:

• 38% reduction in no-shows (from 7.2 to 4.5 per week on average)
• 1,200 euros recovered over the quarter, or 400 euros per month
• Positive ROI from month one: the system costs around 15 euros per month, for a minimum return of 400 euros
• Zero minutes of manual work once the scenario is live

According to a McKinsey Health survey (2023), self-employed healthcare professionals who automate appointment reminders recover an average of 9% of their annual revenue. For a physiotherapist with 80,000 euros in revenue, that's 7,200 euros per year.

Going Further

If you use Doctolib Pro, the platform has offered native webhooks since 2024: each new appointment or cancellation can automatically trigger your Make.com scenario without going through Google Sheets. This is more reliable and faster.

For practices with multiple practitioners, WhatsApp Business API (available via Brevo) offers a 95% read rate compared to 78% for standard SMS, with the option to add your photo and a one-click confirm/cancel button.

Get in touch here.