How to set up appointment messages – Timely

Client 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.

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

The value of appointment messages

Appointment Confirmation and Changes:
Let your customers know what's happening with their appointments with a confirmation.
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.

Timely 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 clients

There are a couple of ways to send messages directly to your clients 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.

Timely tips:

We recommend SMS as these are more likely to be opened and viewed by customers.

You can set up the rules for your rebooking reminders.

If you'd like to restrict the rebooking reminder to specific services, choose 'selected services'.

You can find out more about customising message templates here. Your message length can be up to ~ 430 characters - if your message is longer, it may cost you multiple messages.

If you'd like to include a link in this message, then you may like to use a URL shortener like Bitly (https://bitly.com/) or Google (https://goo.gl/).