Setting up customer reminders and appointment messages – Timely

Customer messages are an important part of all successful businesses. Not only do they save businesses hours of time each week, but they add to the overall customer experience, helping them stay organised.

Note: The types of reminder messages you can send depends on your Timely package. To find out more about what is included for your specific plan, head to this article for more information.

The value of customer reminders and appointment messages

Appointment Confirmation and Changes:
Let your customers know what's happening with their appointments with a confirmation.
Appointment Reminder:
Reduce no-shows by automatically reminding customers of their appointment.
Rebooking Reminder:
Reminding your customers to rebook is an important part of your retention strategy.
Pencilled-in Appointment Messages:
Let your customers know you have received their booking request without confirming their appointment.
One-off Messaging:
Stay organised and in control with the ability to send one-time SMS messages to customers from within Timely. We’ll deliver any replies right to your account, so all your communications are in one place.

Appointment Messages

Setting up appointment messages

1 Go to setup > customer messages in the main menu.

2 Click add new message in the top right hand corner.

3 Select the booking change option from the list of messages.

4 Select what type of message you'd like to send SMS or email.

Note: You can set up both email and SMS notifications, but they will need to be set up separately.

5 If you're setting up an SMS, enter your message template. Once you're ready, click save.

6 If you're setting up an email, you won't be able to customise the template, so just click save.

Sending one-off messages to customers

There are a couple of ways to send messages directly to your customers from Timely:

Send a message from the calendar

1 Click on an appointment in the calendar. From the pop up, click the envelope icon.

2 Choose either the send an SMS or send an email option.

3 The customer's mobile number or email address is added automatically. You can now write your message.

4 Click the send button when you are ready.

From the customer record

1 Head to the Customers tab.

2 Search for the customer by entering their name, phone number, etc.

3 Once found, click the messages button on the right.

4 Choose send a message from the options.

5 Then you can choose either the send an SMS or send an email option.

6 Compose your message and click the send button when you are ready.

From the Timely iOS app

1 Head to the customers tab.

2 Search for the customer by entering their name, phone number, etc.

3 Once found, click the view messages button on the right.

4 Click the button in the top right-hand corner that looks like a pen and paper.

5 Create your message and click send.

Clarifications for when booking confirmation messages are sent:

If a Booking changes message has not been set up, customers will not be sent a confirmation message of any kind if the booking has been made manually on the calendar. However, if a customer books online, they will still receive a confirmation email once their booking has been confirmed.

If a Booking changes message has been set up, customers will be sent a confirmation message for a confirmed appointment that's been made manually on the calendar. If a customer books online, they will receive a confirmation email (plus SMS if you have that set up) once the booking has been confirmed.

Customer Reminders

Setting up customer reminders

1 If you would like to add a Consult form to your reminder, tick the box that says automatically send a consult form with this reminder, and then choose from the drop down list which of your templates you would like to send out.

2 Setup your reminder rules by choosing when you'd like to send your customer reminders. There are two options: x hours before or x days before at x time. We recommend using the x hours before option for the best experience for your customers.

Note: If you choose the 1-day prior setting, then only bookings added at least 24 hours before the appointment start time will be sent reminders. If a reminder won't be sent on a booking, we will add an alert to the appointment's history. Check out our how to view appointment history guide
for more information.

3 If you'd like to send reminders to customers that have pencilled in appointments, make sure to check the box. You can also use two-way SMS to confirm appointments by setting up "text Y to confirm".

4 Once your rules are setup, enter your SMS template. Check out our guide on customising SMS templates for more details. If you're selected email, set up your email rules, and click save.

Handy Hint: You will be able to choose any of Timely's pre-made templates, or if you have shared consultations with your business you can use one of your own. You can only add a consult form to an SMS, not to an email.

Rebooking Reminders

Rebooking reminders are a great way to improve your customer retention, especially if they have not booked a service recently. A rebooking reminder will send a message a set number of weeks after an appointment, if the customer does not have a future booking.

Note: Before you start, you will need to make sure that you have two-way messaging enabled. This allows customers to reply to SMS messages and is a requirement for setting up an SMS rebooking reminders. Our how to turn on SMS replies and confirmations (two-way SMS) guide steps you through that process.

Setting up Rebooking Reminders

1 To get started, go to setup > customer messages in the main menu.

2 Click add a new message in the top right corner.

3 Select the appointment pencilled-in option from the list, just like you did with booking change above.