How do I remind customers about their appointment?

Three things can happen to an appointment, and each one can start an automation: it gets booked, it is coming up soon, or somebody did not turn up. Pick the one you want, write the message once, and it goes out on its own.

Build the reminder

1. Open Team management, then Setup, then Automations.
2. Click New automation and give it a name you will recognise later.
3. Pick one of the three appointment triggers:
   • Appointment booked fires the moment a booking is taken, whoever took it: your online booking page, the AI, or somebody on your team.
   • Appointment coming up sends once before each appointment, at the lead time you choose.
   • Appointment missed fires when somebody on your team marks an appointment as a no-show.
4. For "Appointment coming up", set how many hours before the appointment to send. Leave it blank for 24 hours. Anything from 1 hour to 14 days works.
5. Pick an action: send a text, send an email, or create a task for your team.
6. Write the message. You can use {{first_name}}, {{org_name}} and {{appointment_time}}, which prints the day and time in your own timezone, worded exactly as the booking confirmation words it.
7. Save. It starts working on the next appointment.

What happens when plans change

• The customer cancels. Every message still waiting to go out for that appointment is pulled back, including the confirmation email if it has not left yet. Nobody is reminded about a booking they cancelled.
• The customer moves the time. The waiting reminder is pulled back and a new one is lined up for the new time, so they get one reminder, for the right day.
• Somebody marks it done, or a no-show. Nothing is on a clock. An appointment is only ever treated as missed because a person said so, which is why a customer who cancelled over the phone is never told they missed you.

One "coming up" rule at a time

You can have as many "Appointment booked" and "Appointment missed" rules as you like, because they do different jobs: text the customer and open a task for the office, say. "Appointment coming up" is limited to one active rule, so two rules can never put the same reminder on one customer's phone twice.

When a reminder is not sent

Reminders go out through the same rules as every other automatic message, so some are deliberately held back:

• A customer who has unsubscribed gets nothing.
• A text needs the customer's permission first: they have to have texted you, agreed on a call, or been recorded as consenting. An email address is enough for an email.
• Texts wait for daytime hours where the customer lives, between 8am and 9pm, so a lead time that lands in the night is not sent.
• A booking taken without a name and contact details on file has nobody to send to.

None of these are silent. The Automations tab shows a plain summary of what was held back in the last 30 days, and why, so you can see "the customer has never texted you" rather than wondering where the message went.

Who can do this

Creating automations is an admin job, and your account needs Team management turned on. Appointment reminders are included on every plan.