Appointment reminders: what you can do today

What 4appointments does and does not do today

When a client books through the public page, the booking stays pending and holds the slot until your team confirms or rejects it. Neither confirming nor rejecting sends the client a message. The same goes for cancellations and changes made by the team. Some plans include SMS and WhatsApp quotas from 4notify, but the booking flow does not use them. So do not assume the client receives anything automatically: if you want them to remember the appointment, you need to contact them yourself.

Give the client the essentials at the moment of booking

The best time to prevent forgetting is the booking itself. Tell the client, in person or on your website, when and how you will be in touch. A few details are worth knowing:

• The link to cancel or reschedule appears on the client's confirmation screen and is not emailed to them. Suggest that they save it.
• For bookings created by your team, the client never sees that screen: copy the manage link and send it yourself.
• The phone number typed into the public form is not stored; ask for their preferred contact when you confirm the booking.

A manual routine for the day before

A short routine done at the same time every day works better than an occasional effort. Here is an example of the steps:

• Open tomorrow's bookings in the panel, or export the list to PDF and print it.
• Contact each client on the channel they gave you: a phone call, a personal message or an email from your own account.
• Ask for a short reply confirming attendance, so you know who to expect.
• If someone cancels, cancel the booking in the panel so the slot becomes free again.
• Repeat the service, date, time and place in your message so the client does not have to look for them.

Reminders for the team, through the calendar

Each provider has their own ICS link, which you can subscribe to from your phone's calendar. The bookings then appear in your personal calendar, and your calendar app can show alerts to the provider. This reminds the team, not the client, and how quickly it updates depends on how often your calendar app refreshes its subscriptions. You generate the ICS link in the panel, in the "External calendar" section (check the exact wording in your account), and then add it through your calendar app's subscribe option. It is useful above all for people who work alone and want to see their day next to personal commitments.

Service messages and promotional communication

Sending a service message, such as reminding someone of an appointment already agreed, is not the same as sending advertising, and the applicable law treats the two differently. Before using your client list for anything else, such as news or promotions, check what the rules on electronic communications and data protection in your country require. A service message should stick to what the client needs to know. In practice, use a short message with the service, date, time and how to cancel, without adding offers or news. General information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions