Send appointment reminder texts

Text clients who opted in 24 hours and 1 hour before their session, and turn off the built-in text reminder so nobody gets doubles.

A short text before a session cuts no-shows. This workflow sends two reminders, only to clients who agreed to texts, with your business name and an opt-out line in every message.

Before you start

• Time: about 20 minutes.
• You'll need:
  • Approved texting. See Register your business for texting.
  • A consent field and opt-in checkbox. See Collect text consent and handle opt-outs.
• Shortcut: the Appointment Reminders template in Workflows > Templates has the waits and texts laid out (24 hours and 2 hours before). If you use it, change the second wait to 1 hour and add the consent check in step 3 below.

Steps

1. Go to Workflows and click Create (or use the Appointment Reminders template). Name it "Booking | Text reminders 24h and 1h".
2. Choose the Appointment Status trigger (under Appointments) and filter it to booked. To cover only some session types, narrow it to those calendars too.
3. Add a Condition step: your consent field (for example "SMS Consent (Sessions)") is not empty. If you also tag people who opt in, add an OR rule for that tag. Put everything below on the yes branch. The no branch ends.
4. Add a Wait Until step. Set Delay Mode to Relative to Date Field, the date field to the appointment start time, Offset 24, Unit Hours, Direction Before. Turn on Use Business Timezone. The panel should read "Will wait until 24 hours before the value of appointment.start_time".
5. Add a Send SMS step. Check the From Number, keep Send To as This contact, and write the text: "Maple Coaching: Reminder, your session is {{appointment.date}} at {{appointment.time}}. Need to change it? {{appointment.manage_url}} Reply STOP to opt out."
6. Add a second Wait Until step set the same way, with Offset 1 and Use Business Timezone on, so it waits until 1 hour before the appointment start. If you started from the template, change this wait from 2 hours to 1 hour.
7. Add a second Send SMS step: "Maple Coaching: See you in an hour! Join here: {{appointment.meeting_link}} Reply STOP to opt out."
8. Open the Settings tab. Turn on Allow Re-entry so clients get reminders for every booking. Set Time Window if you don't want texts at night.
9. Click Save, then switch Inactive to Active.
10. Go to Calendar > Settings, turn off SMS Reminders under Notifications, and click Save Changes. The built-in reminder doesn't check consent, so leaving it on means doubles and texts to people who didn't agree.

Check it worked

• Book a session for yourself about 25 hours ahead, using a test contact with your mobile number and the consent field filled in (for example from your intake form, since booking questions aren't showing right now). You get the 24-hour text the next day and the 1-hour text before the session.
• Book a second test with a contact whose consent field is empty. No texts arrive. In the workflow's Enrollment History, that booking ends at the Condition step.

If something's off

• Nobody gets texts: check that consent is actually saving to the field (open a test contact). Also check Enrollment History for errors.
• Clients get two reminders: the built-in SMS Reminders is still on in Calendar > Settings.
• The 24-hour text didn't go out: the session was booked less than 24 hours ahead, so that moment had passed. That's expected.
• Times look wrong: check your workspace time zone in Settings > Workspace Profile, and Use Business Timezone on the wait steps.
• A text failed: see Find out why a text didn't send.
• Want a confirmation email too? See Send branded booking confirmations and reminder emails.