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 neither do cancellations or changes made by the team. Some plans include SMS and WhatsApp quotas from 4notify, but the booking flow does not use them. Do not assume the client receives anything automatically: if you want them to remember the appointment, contact them yourself.

• No confirmation email and no reminder by email, text message or WhatsApp is sent to the client.
• The link to cancel or reschedule appears only on the client’s confirmation screen. It is not emailed.
• 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, so ask for the best contact 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 through the channel they gave you: a phone call, a text 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 is 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 and the client’s essentials

Each provider has their own ICS link, which you can subscribe to from your phone’s calendar. Bookings then appear in your personal calendar, and your calendar app can alert the provider. This reminds the team, not the client, and how often it updates depends on your calendar app. At the moment of booking, tell the client when and how you will be in touch, and let them know the cancel or reschedule link is on their confirmation screen and is not emailed, so they should save it. A service message, such as a reminder of an appointment already agreed, is not advertising; before using your client list for promotions, check what the Data Privacy Act of 2012 requires. General information, not legal advice.

Common questions