Text Message Reminders to Clients

Did you know that you can send text message reminders to your clients’ mobile phones prior to their appointments? Text messages are a great way to reach clients while they are on the go or without access to email. Text reminders can help to reduce your no-show rate and ensure more clients are on time for their appointments.  There is no additional charge for this feature — it’s included in your Full Slate subscription.

To set up text message reminders, go to Messages > Automatic Messages, click ‘Add message’ and select ‘Appointment reminder’ and then select the ‘SMS (Text Message)’ template. You can even customize the language in the text message and include placeholders to dynamically change the message.

Here’s an example of what a text message reminder to your client might look like:

Screenshot_2015-09-14-09-57-20

We recommend setting the text message reminder for one day prior to each appointment, and an email reminder two or more days prior.

Unlike email reminders, clients must opt in to receive text message reminders during the booking process.  Alternatively, if they’ve given permission offline, you can check off that you have received written consent in Clients > Details. For additional information on the feature, please take a look at our help article.

This is the first post of a series focused on how you can get the most benefit for your business from Full Slate – more to come!

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New Number for SMS Alerts & Reminders

Just a heads-up – text message alerts to staff and reminders to clients are now sent from a different number.  In the U.S., automated SMS messages now come from “36070;” this is a short code that is approved by all wirelss carriers.  Outside the U.S., texts are sent from (317) 662-2222.

We had several reports yesterday that Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile were not delivering messages from our previous number, so some clients and staff may not have received the text alerts or reminders that we sent. We apologize for the disruption; the third-party we use (and pay) to send SMS assures us that should not be an issue going forward.

Oh, almost forgot – SMS reminders now show up in the sidebar under Message History on Client > Details!  And if anyone attempts to reply or call the short code, we let them know it’s a robot and that they should contact you instead.  🙂

UPDATE:

Some providers treat short codes differently than regular numbers, so here are measures you can take if you’re on one of the following and not receiving alerts (or your clients can take if they’re not receiving SMS reminders):

T-Mobile — By default, T-Mobile does not enable receipt of SMS’s from short codes, so contact T-Mobile and ask them to enable the receipt of SMS’s from short codes.

Sprint — Sprint will sometimes block short codes, so text “allow 36070” to the number “9999”. You should then receive a response indicating you can now receive SMS’s from our short code.

Google Voice — Google Voice does not support the receipt of SMS’s from short codes, so you’ll need to use your actual mobile number for alerts from Full Slate. Please update your number under Account > My Profile and Setup > Staff.

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Turn Off Email, SMS for Individual Clients

Have a client who doesn’t want to receive automated emails or SMS messages? We recently added new settings to allow you to turn off automated messaging for individual clients.  You can turn off automated emails, SMS messages, or both.

To update these settings, go to Clients > Details and find the client record you want to update. Check ‘No automatic email’ to prevent the client from receiving email reminders and other automated emails. Check ‘No SMS’ to prevent the client from receiving SMS reminders.

Also, notice the ‘Marketing opt-in’ checkbox next to these settings.  You can use this to track which clients have opted-in to receive marketing emails from you.  You can edit this setting yourself, or give clients the option to opt-in by adding the ‘Opt-in’ field under Setup > Booking Details.  When you send a marketing email from Clients > List, just be sure to check the ‘Opt-in only’ to only send to those clients who have opted in.

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