How to send follow up messages

Follow up messages are an important part of all successful businesses. Not only do they add to a great customer experience through giving you an opportunity to express your gratitude, they are a way to request reviews of your services to see where you can continue improving.

Why follow-up messages are a valuable tool for your business

Follow-up messages are a great way to express your gratitude for clients coming to your salon
They help you collect feedback / reviews to better your business going forward
They are a great way to share aftercare instructions, for example: don't get your lashes wet for 48 hours!
Post appointment reminders, for example: it's been 2 days, you can now do "x"!
They can be tailored to specific services, allowing messages to be customised to your unique clients

Step-by-step instructions

1 Head to setup from your dashboard, and then click customer messages from the drop down menu.

2 Click add new message, and choose follow-up from the list of options.

3 Decide whether you would like to send this as an SMS or email message.

4 Set your message rules depending on the type of delivery method you are choosing. For example:

When: "x" amount of time after an appointment ends
For any appointment containing: any service or selected services
Send to appointments with status of: not started, arrived, started, completed, did not show
Send to customers with no previous appointments
Send to each customer only once

5 Create your message template for the delivery method you have chosen. See below for what options you have when crafting your follow-up message templates.

6 Lastly, give your message a name > then click save to apply your changes.

Important note: when choosing to send follow-up messages immediately after an appointment, you may find it does not send right away as you expected; this is often due to not having marked an appointment as completed prior to the finish time or at the end of the appointment. To ensure your follow-up messages send when you want them to, make sure to mark the appointment as completed as soon as it happens - which will trigger your message to send immediately as the appointment ends.

Timely tip: if marking an appointment finished right at the time you check your client out isn't realistic for you and your business, you can set the message to send an hour or so after the appointment; a bonus of doing this is that it also gives your customer time to get home and properly read the message you've spent time putting together for them!

Sending follow-up messages tailored to your industry/service

Follow-up messages are a great way to share aftercare instructions, and reminders of when they can do certain activities without risking longevity of their service. For example:

Lash Boutiques: Reminders of when your clients are safe to get their lashes wet to increase retention
Hair Salons: Reminders of when your clients are safe to get their perms / keratin treatments wet
Tanning Parlours: Reminders of when your clients need to wash their tan off for the best results
Tattoo / Piercing Studios: how and when to clean their new tattoo / piercing & what to look out for

Why follow-up messages are a valuable tool for your business