Watch our recording of Cliniko & Coffee 2

Our second session of Cliniko & Coffee took place during a new time slot to accommodate more attendees from Europe and the UK—that meant it was evening time for Joel. He answered a fresh batch of questions about Cliniko while preparing his current favourite Colombian Geisha from Proud Mary in Melbourne. No word on how he managed to sleep that night.

This replay includes the scoop on forthcoming updates to some of our most popular features, including appointments and patient forms, as well as some discussion on how you can connect with other Cliniko users.

Cliniko highlights

Are there any updates coming soon for online forms—for example, forms auto-populating patient detail fields in Cliniko?

Absolutely! It's one of the bigger changes we are planning to make. We've spent a lot of time working on the design for this update and we're just about ready to begin development now. The biggest change will be the ability to map form fields (i.e. name, address, etc.) to fields that are already in your records - so that as patients complete their form, the information will populate straight into Cliniko. We're still looking into some of the security elements of this change, such as patient identity verification, but our team is actively working on it! (Hear Joel's full response at 5:30 in the recording.)

How can I add a buffer to my appointments for extra cleaning time or admin?

This has been requested before but until now it's not been a high priority for our development team because we have workarounds that act as a fix, such as adding more time to appointments and then hiding the appointment duration for online bookings. However, with COVID-19 cases spiking back up in some places, we see a growing need for this functionality to help clinics adopt special cleaning processes after appointments. We're now re-assessing whether this should be higher priority for us to do, so watch this space. (Joel's response starts at about 30:57 in the recording.)

What are your thoughts on a Cliniko Facebook group for users to interact with each other and share how they use the system?

We see a lot of potential value in this, but we're not sure about using Facebook for it due to their on-going privacy and integrity issues. We do maintain a Cliniko Facebook page because we know many of our customers are already on there. However, we've recently decided to stop spending money to amplify our posts (AKA "boosting") in solidarity with the Stop Hate for Profit campaign.

There are Cliniko groups made and managed by other people on Facebook, but we also have our own Cliniko community where we welcome discussion on all things Cliniko. (Answer in full at 53:39.)

Joel also mentioned that we're excited to be hiring again very soon! We've written blog posts before about the fact that we hire the best from all over the world, and this round will be no exception. So, if you or someone you know is interested in working with us, keep an eye on our social media or jobs page for updates! (Hear a few more details at 42:45.)

Coffee tip

If you're an espresso drinker and make it at home with a machine, Joel recommends replacing the basket inside your portafilter as an easy way to make a big difference to the quality of your brew. He uses a brand of basket called VST in a 20-gram ridgeless style, which costs about $20 AUD. According to Joel, this is a relatively low-cost upgrade that can pay dividends when it comes to how good your coffee tastes! (Joel shares this about 29 minutes into the recording.)

We'll be holding more Cliniko & Coffee sessions the future, so keep your eyes peeled on our social accounts or sign up to receive updates about all of our educational events if you'd like to attend.