Appointment reminders via text

[EMMA AT ELITE]

Hi All, - (me again)

I just wanted to know if you text your clients the day before or morning of, to remind them of their appointments?

This is something I want to start doing - as some clients seem to forget

Do I / should I ask the client when booking if they would like a text the day before or morning of their appointment as a reminder? Or should I just send one anyway?

If you do this how do you word your texts?

Does this sound ok?
Hi .........., this is Emma from Elite just to remind you that you have an appointment at ..... if you cant make this please let me know ASAP, see you then x

Your thoughts & advice would be great.

Love Emma x:hug:x

 

[Inked_Skin]

Hi, I think a telephone call would be better as it is more direct and they cannot say they didn't get it incase they didn't turn up .At the salon I use to work at I'd ring up a few days before to clarify if they still wanted the appointment and if not to let me know asap other wise you would free up that space for someone else. Hope this helps.

 

[WAX inc]

hi. i text my customers the same day saying " courtacy text from WAX inc confirming your 6pm appoinment today. please call asap if this is no longer convenient"
i dont text everyone , just the ones that have booked weeks in advance, or the ones who mess me about changing appointments a lot. or any new customers.

 

[tanninglass]

including a personal touch in your text such as "see you then x" can be a little scary for some people ... including your name can be a good or bad thing... it can be seen as unprofessional in some cases or being overly friendly ... and what if people don't want text reminders? surely if they make an appointment they will remember in most cases?

in my view the best text would be something like this

"Hi ........., we just wanted to remind you about your appointment at ........ tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you then - the team @ .........."

note that it is no longer one person but the team of people ... makes it more professional whilst still being personable.

-
final note sending the same day means people may miss an 8.30 or 9am appointment .... unless you send them at 3am or something in which case you are waking them up.

maybe saying ... "hi there, we've sent you this text to remind you of your appointment at this time tomorrow with one of the team @ ........"

still very friendly and useful ... problem with not including time like this is if there is a delay in sending or you plan to send the texts in one go ....

if you sending to 30 people the next day unless your automated (some salon software i know does this) then i doubt you will want to type the same message or edit times etc ... so maybe just saying "hi there, we want to remind you of your appointment tomorrow @ ........ . see you tomorrow."


a few options there hope they help

 

[kylieb]

I didnt used to send them but found clients texting me saying 'is our appointment still ok for today' and i'd be driving to the school or something and be panicking to text them back.
So I send them a txt the day before saying 'just to remind you, your (eg) waxing appointment is at 3pm tomorrow' Kylie - BForBeauty

Works well for me x

 

[EMMA AT ELITE]

hi. i text my customers the same day saying " courtacy text from WAX inc confirming your 6pm appoinment today. please call asap if this is no longer convenient"
i dont text everyone , just the ones that have booked weeks in advance, or the ones who mess me about changing appointments a lot. or any new customers.

Yes, thats what I was thinking, not to text everyone.:hug:

including a personal touch in your text such as "see you then x" can be a little scary for some people ... including your name can be a good or bad thing... it can be seen as unprofessional in some cases or being overly friendly ... and what if people don't want text reminders? surely if they make an appointment they will remember in most cases?
I want the texts to come across as friendly & professional, most clients do remember but for those who dont I want to cover myself.
in my view the best text would be something like this

"Hi ........., we just wanted to remind you about your appointment at ........ tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you then - the team @ .........."

note that it is no longer one person but the team of people ... makes it more professional whilst still being personable.
I am one person though :irked: not a team, I rent a beauty room so the text would have to have my name on it. unless I said "beauty by Emma would like to remind you....." but think that sounds weird!
-
final note sending the same day means people may miss an 8.30 or 9am appointment .... unless you send them at 3am or something in which case you are waking them up.
I work from 11-8, but would maybe only send same day texts to those clients that have an evening appointment.
maybe saying ... "hi there, we've sent you this text to remind you of your appointment at this time tomorrow with one of the team @ ........"

still very friendly and useful ... problem with not including time like this is if there is a delay in sending or you plan to send the texts in one go ....

if you sending to 30 people the next day unless your automated (some salon software i know does this) then i doubt you will want to type the same message or edit times etc ... so maybe just saying "hi there, we want to remind you of your appointment tomorrow @ ........ . see you tomorrow."
a few options there hope they help

Thank you all for all your advice :hug:

 

[An*Gel]

I text everyone... even the clients I know will never miss an appointment.

My clients have told me that they love to get a reminder text the day before.... they do sometimes reply by asking if they can change it etc but I don't mind in the least.

I used to have the odd no show or a client coming to me at 2.30pm instead of 2pm... but that never happens now.

I agree with the others about the wording... keep it very professional ... no kisses xx

 

[jes]

I like the idea of texting clients to remind them, but won't they get dependant on these reminders and then make it impossible to ever stop sending them?

 

[An*Gel]

I like the idea of texting clients to remind them, but won't they get dependant on these reminders and then make it impossible to ever stop sending them?

In a word... YES :lol:

I just like to know that when I have a full book, that all of those clients are going to show and show at the time given.

I've just sent my reminders for this week this morning (I only work Thurs Fri and Sat)

Everyone has replied to say thanks see you then. Texting is cheap and you can do it on the pc for free if you really want to save money.... it's well worth it in my opinion and my clients really appreciate it too.

 

[allyballybee]

I have been doing text reminders for over a year now and there has been a dramatic reduction in no shows.

I have salon iris for my appointments and and have it set up with text magic to send out the day before there appointment. It does it automatically.

I buy big bundles of texts from text magic and it's really easy to work. Costs about 7p a text on the package I have. Also it doesn't show a phone no., it shows the name of the salon instead. Think this looks more professional and I've set it so they can't text back, so they'll need to phone us if they want to cancel.

You can use the text magic without the salon iris software, maybe a little more time consuming, because you'd have to enter each one individually (if you want the apt time on it), but it'd probably take less time than actually texting from a mobile.

xxxx

 

[wendy malley]

can you explain,idiots guide please,what salon iris is ,thank you if you can

 

[Ruth Mills]

can you explain,idiots guide please,what salon iris is ,thank you if you can

I think it's one of the salon software systems...

 

[~Jenny~]

I send out text reminder to my clients and it works a treat, really cut down on the no shows.

I get free texts with my phone provider so it only takes my time, which I don't mind at all!

 

[Rapunzel]

I text everyone a comfirmation text the day before all let all my customer know I do this and everyone is fine I have no no-shows at all I also get free texts so its just my time to send and as I only see about 5-6 clients a week its not a problem really.

 

[Rapunzel]

I usually put something along the lines of:

Hi just to confirm our appointment tomorrow @ ...... for your .........................., I look forward to seeing you then, Deb Rapunzel Hair Extensions.

 

[coleen]

when booking i always ask would they like a reminder text .. i send, Hi (name). just a little reminder about your appointment tomorrow at (time)pm, Colleen @ (salon name)

 

[EMMA AT ELITE]

Great, thanks for all the replies,
I do a lot of appointments via text already (& always put a "x" at the end, I never thought of it as unprofessional - just a habit), & its great to hear so many of you send reminders via text.
Just not sure if I should ask the clients before if they would like a text reminder the day before or just send them one?! :irked:
I too get free texts with my network, so its only my time which I dont mind at all.
Love Emma x:hug:x

 

[allyballybee]

Hi Emma,

I would just ask them their mobile no. on their first visit and tell them that they'll get a text reminder the day before their appointment. Some clients might not be good with their mobile (like not turning on etc), so I'll phone them to confirm instead.

xxx

 

[tierra2006]

We use salon advantage and send texts automatically, you can set it for each individual client for however soon, most go for 2 days before. It works a treat. It also highlights on our system who has recieved text reminders and we rarely have no shows anymore, its a great idea.
I'd definatley reccommend if you are mobile as well but obviously would have to be done manually, hth

 

[Ruth Mills]

A lot of SMS message providers provide either an HTTP interface or some other form of API (application programming interface) too - so it should be a relatively straightforward task to be able to integrate a salon software system with an SMS gateway (assuming that one has suitable programming experience)...