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, and 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 will receive anything automatically: if you want them to remember the appointment, get in touch with them yourself.

• Confirm each request yourself in the panel, then tell the client directly, as the tool sends them nothing.
• The cancel or reschedule link appears on the client’s confirmation screen only. It is not emailed, so suggest they save it.
• For bookings your team creates, 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, so ask for the best number when you confirm.

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, and repeat the service, date, time and place so the client does not have to look for them.
• If someone cancels, cancel the booking in the panel so the slot becomes free again.

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. This reminds the team, not the client, and how quickly it updates depends on how often your calendar app refreshes its subscriptions. You find the link in the panel’s external calendar section (check the exact wording in your account). It is most useful for people who work alone and want to see their day next to personal commitments. A service message, such as a reminder of an appointment already agreed, is not the same as advertising; before using your client list for anything else, check what the rules on electronic marketing and data protection in Ireland require. General information, not legal advice.

Common questions