Not all automations are created equal. In today’s episode of The Tech-Savvy Dietitian Podcast, Courtney unpacks the messy middle between saving your sanity with systems and losing your humanity to tech.

We’ll talk about exactly what you should set on autopilot — like scheduling, confirmations, and forms — and what deserves a human touch, from tough sessions to client referrals. If you’ve ever found yourself manually reminding clients about appointments or sending the same intake form twenty times a week, this one’s your permission slip to stop.

You’ll walk away knowing:

• Which automations actually save time (and which just create more chaos)

• How to simplify scheduling, forms, and payment collection without feeling robotic

• What not to automate if you want to keep your practice ethical and personal

• A few “hybrid” ideas that strike the right balance between efficiency and empathy

Because automation should support your humanity, not replace it.

   📍   Welcome to the Tech Savvy Dietician Podcast, where we believe that your systems should support your practice and not sabotage your sanity. I'm your host, Courtney Vickery, a registered dietician turned web designer and tech translator for private practice owners who are tired of playing calendar Tetris and inbox Detective. 

Hey. Hey friend, and welcome back to the Tech Savvy Dietician where we believe that automating your practice shouldn't make you feel like a robot in a pants suit. I'm Courtney, and today we're gonna talk about what you should absolutely automate in your private practice and what you should never hand over to a machine, no matter how.

Slick that tech stack looks, because here's the thing, automation should support your humanity and not replace it.

. We've touched on this a few times, but the reasons we automate, right? We wanna reduce admin fatigue. We wanna stop reinventing the wheel. We wanna eliminate bottlenecks that slow down your client experience or make it not feel like a great experience and we wanna free up more space so that we can actually see clients and take care of them, or, you know, hear me out on this radical idea.

Um, we could rest, we could take some time and, you know. Chill out a bit. , So if you're replying to every inquiry manually, like we've been talking about with the same info, I want you to hear this and I want you to know that I say it with kindness. You're not being personal, you're being inefficient.

Okay? Okay. It's okay to automate some of these things, and today we're gonna talk about what you should automate and what you shouldn't. So here are the things that I think you should set it and forget it when it comes to automations,

scheduling and confirmations. I've only met a few people that have done this, so if you're listening and you're still sending people like times that you're available and then going into Zoom and or Google Meet and creating a link for that.

Please stop. It is not necessary. I send colleagues and friends my scheduling link. We should not be going back and forth on times that were available. And I know sometimes I've heard people say like, oh, well I am worried that I send them the link and then they schedule the time and I'm actually not available at that time 'cause I forgot to update my calendar.

Connect everything to your Google calendar. And then block a time off every time. Now, we don't wanna add more things to our tech stack that aren't necessary. But if this is a, a real problem that you continue to have, like let's say you blocked off the doctor's appointment for yourself, but you forgot to take into account travel time.

So maybe your appointment's at 11 and then somebody books at 10, but you need travel time to get to the doctor. And now what do you do? There are systems that will add travel time. Whenever you book something, I mean down to the address from where you start to where you're going. If you're interested in things like that, send me a message.

I will happily send you a list of things that will help you with that specifically. But back to the scheduling, we know we've talked about practice better, and did you know that with Google Workspace there's a scheduler now? You could literally use your Google calendar to share a link so that someone can schedule an appointment.

Now it would be Google Meet, which, hmm, I don't love and I'm just a Zoom. I'm a zoom girly, so that doesn't work for me. But I just want you to know that that is there, that exists and it's an option. Another one that a lot of people know of is Calendly. Calendly is fine. It's great. I personally have never paid for it because I just don't think it's necessary.

When there's something like Tidy cow, for example, I think it's 29 or $39 at this point for tidy cow, but one time you'll probably pay that every month for Calendly if you're using it for more than one thing. So use the things you have, practice better. If you have Google Workspace and you're okay with Google Meet, use that scheduling feature if you need something affordable.

Check out Tidy Cal, and again, there's tons of other ones I could recommend if you are interested and want me to send those over. , But those are the top ones that I always mention, so that should be automated. They should get that link. They should pick their time and then get that email that we talked about in the last one for their welcome email.

And those reminders should be automatically if you, if anyone is listening to this and they are sending out reminders manually themselves and thinking, oh, I need to remind that person tomorrow. I'm gonna tell you right now, stop. Please stop. Not necessary. You know this is not about removing human touch.

This doesn't need a human touch. You've done the human touch and the welcome email, and the discovery call and your website, and made connections there, maybe your social media reminders for their call. They don't, that doesn't need a human touch. They just need to be reminded. You can make the message, you know, sound like you as much as you can, but it, it doesn't need to actually come from you manually doing it because I think everybody understands that that's something that is automated.

Okay, so the intake form delivery, whether that is in the program set up like we talked about before, or it's being sent. Via an email. It doesn't matter. That should be triggered when a client books or pays. You should not have a VA going and sending all these forms. I am not saying it's bad or wrong, I'm just saying you shouldn't, it's not necessary.

The systems will do it for you. , And it would save both of you time and then the VA can do the things that are even more important to your business. And again. We talked about it in the last episode, but if you have different types of clients you work with, you can include that conditional logic in the form itself or have it set up so that, you know, I probably would use conditional logic now, but what I did when I had my practice was I had two different types of intake session schedulers.

One was for general nutrition and one was for eating disorders. And that way, whichever one they scheduled. It sent the correct intake forms and and documents I needed. The other thing, payments, we're running businesses, right? We have to get paid. We cannot run a business and serve people if we don't get paid.

It's, it is just a fact of life. , As much as it would be wonderful if we could do this for free, 'cause I know we all care so much, that would be great, but it's, it's not reality. And we have to, we have to be paid for our work. You know there's Stripe, there's Square Practice. Better integrates with a lot of these.

You could use QuickBooks to send invoices. The one thing I will say, and again, this will be dependent on everyone, and I know that everyone has opinions on it. This is mine. You need to collect payment before the session, because was happened so much is that we don't do that, and then they don't show up.

And then we don't have a card on file or the card doesn't work, and then now we've lost the business is losing money. So that's my personal recommendation. If you can make it work for your setup, that's what I would suggest. next we wanna think about how it doesn't end after that intake consult. Right. What I typically did was share any notes that were appropriate with the client in the portal. I. But you can also. Schedule or automate post session check-ins. One thing that I automated was there was an email that I had automated to send in practice better that would be sent one day before their next appointment.

That had a very, very short form to say. How are you doing? And it, it was literally multiple choice. Like on a scale of one to five, how has last week gone? On a scale of one to five, how have you felt about the goals we set in the past week and then there was a box I. So if they, you know, if there's anything else you wanna share, put it here.

The reason I did that was because I know what it's like to be a client and when I go into the appointment sometimes I just, my mind just goes blank and I don't remember anything. So I liked giving them that opportunity before coming into the session to really just kind of sit and reflect on how their week went.

And they didn't have to do it, but it was there if they wanted it. And it also was a touchpoint and a check-in for them. If you have a wait list, what I would recommend is not just setting up the wait list and then, you know, it goes and sits in our Google sheet graveyard. We wanna keep them warm, you know, add them to your email marketing so they get that welcome sequence so they can start to get to know you while they're waiting for you to reach out.

That's just running on its own, which that's a whole nother episode, but if you don't have a welcome sequence in your email marketing, definitely recommend that because again, that's something that. It can just happen without fault. It just sends them the welcome email. They get to know you, they get to know the practice that you're at the top of their mind and it shows you care.

Um, so, you know, make sure that you're keeping those leads warm. I. And you know, these are places where we shouldn't be burning out because the system can do the heavy lifting for us. Like I mentioned earlier about me stressing out about the emails and feeling like I needed to respond immediately.

Maybe this wait list is at the back of your mind and you're thinking, oh, I gotta hurry up and get to that person. Or they're gonna forget or they're gonna move on, or, you know, whatever it may be. Even whether it's intentional thought or not, it could be subconsciously there. So having. This set up so that you know that it's sending this email sequence to them and keeping them, , warm and keeping you at the top of their mind and letting them know like, I didn't forget about you.

I'm going to reach out when I'm have a spot. It makes a difference to you and to them. what should we keep human? What are things that should not be automated or don't recommend them being automated? This is gonna sound contradictory, but hear me out initial inquiry responses, but this is nuanced because this is only if the client is unsure that your non diet approach is right for them.

What you can do once you get that form and maybe they answer the question in a way that made you feel like, Hmm, I don't think they're ready. Send them a message or an email, invite them to a discovery call if you haven't already. Honestly, that's what I recommend the most. If you have time in your schedule and are able to do discovery calls and you know, of course, keep it clear that like this is if just a 15 to 20 minute check in to see if I'm a good fit for you.

You know, because that's the point of it, it's, it's not to be salesy or try to convince them to sign up. It's to say, I wanna make sure that I can help you because I'm not sure based off this message. I mean, we wouldn't say it like that, but that's basically what it is. It's again, showing that you care.

You care enough to say, Hmm, this actually isn't the best fit for you, but here's someone else, or something else I think would be more helpful. Next thing is session feedback and emotional support. So. A quick check-in after heavy session. Absolutely. Human response there. That's not something we can automate.

You know, what would we do? We have a little form in our practice, better, uh, chart afterwards, and it's like if I check this and says it was an emotionally heavy session today, send them a message. No, don't do that. That's not what we're automating. We're keeping that human. We can send them a chat message or an email and say, I appreciated our session today.

I'm here if you need to process more. And again, you've already set the expectations on communication so they can respond. And if it's after hours, just know that you don't have to respond until you're back into your hours Now handling harm or red flags. No automation can replace your judgment when something doesn't feel right or it feels off.

You know what the red flags are, even if you can't verbalize them, you know what they feel like. And if that's happening, then that's not something that we can prescreen or filter out or automate. That's something that we're just going to have to face head on as a human and address. The other thing, I don't think you can automate.

Again, maybe a little nuanced because you know, if you had a really specific question on your form that says, do you work with chronic kidney disease or something, you could have an email that gets sent to them. If you have someone that you specifically refer people to for that, that's a little different, but I still think that this is a piece that needs to be human.

So if you need to refer someone somewhere else. And it's an inquiry, you know, nuanced. But if they're a client, absolutely not. Like you need to tailor the email and the message or the meeting so that you can refer them to a, a list of people that would be best for them and that it shows you care and it's professional.

So just remember, automations don't build relationships. You do. We talked about templates earlier, and this is where it's sort of a hybrid automation. This is actually how a lot of my emails are when I'm working on a, a design project with someone. The emails are templates to begin with, but I almost always personalize them because every situation's different, and that way the template can give you a starting point.

But then you add in the specifics that are, uh, you know, related to that situation. Another thing is, we talk about workflows and automations, but that doesn't have to be client facing necessarily. That could be things for you. You could have practice better or a zap set up that sends reminders to you.

I used to do that in some things. I would have it send me an email if something happened specifically that I needed a reminder about. So keep that in mind. You kind of think outside the box with that. Here's an example. After session two, um, I always send a quick message with one takeaway and a reminder of our next goal.

So we have a draft or a template saved, but of course we then tweak it based off what happened. That way you're not rewriting the intro every single time. Again, just little things like that that add up and save time. So here's what I want you to do. We love an audit and a time sheet or a spreadsheet. I want you to audit your weekly tasks and look at what can be repeated.

And again, we gotta stop the black and white thinking. I just showed you some examples of what I would consider a hybrid automation, and out of that I want you to set up one automation. Again, it's a form or an email. Whatever it is, create another template. For your emails or a resource or a reply, and then I want you to write a list of what you would never automate, so a list of things or situations that you know are hard know for you.

Now, I would never automate this thing. So automation isn't the enemy of connection in my opinion, but bad automation is. So we need to make sure we're building systems that support your brain, your energy, and your mission without turning you into a robot with a form letter heart. If you wanna see the exact automations I use in my practice or my business, you can always head over to the blog, send me a message, come hang out with us in the clinician group.

Or schedule a strategy session, and I can walk you through how to do all this in your setup. Next week we're gonna talk about something I see way too often, which is forgotten, follow-ups, and spoiler alert, it's costing you money, so stay tuned.

 Thank you so much for hanging out on the Tech Savvy Dietician podcast. If today's episode helped your practice feel a little lighter, I would love for you to follow the show, share it with a friend, and even leave a review. If you want even more support, come check out decklet designs.com or clinician crew.com.

Until next time, here's to systems that work and practices that thrive.