Remind customers and ask them to confirm
Your agent reminds customers before their booking, and can ask them to confirm. You see who confirmed on Bookings, and you hear straight away when someone can't make it.
Before you start
- Reminders are on the Pro and Growth plans. On Free, customers get their booking confirmation, and your reminder settings are kept for when you move up.
- Only bookings in Lightspire get reminders, not ones made straight in a connected calendar.
Five steps
Open the Reminders tab
In your dashboard, open Agent, choose Notifications on the left, then Reminders and text-back. With more than one location, pick the agent in the top bar first: each agent has its own reminders.
Choose when reminders go
Switch on Remind customers before their booking and choose When to send reminders: a day before (6pm the evening before for morning appointments), two days before, or two hours before. Reminders never go between 9pm and 8am or in the last hour before the booking, and a booking made less than three hours ahead gets none: its confirmation is fresh.
Add a second reminder
Choose a Second reminder, for example two days before and two hours before. It follows the same rules. When the two would land within three hours of each other (a 9am booking reminded a day before and two hours before would get both the evening before), only the first goes.
Choose how they go
Send reminders by is Text, and email when they gave one to start with. Choose Text only or Email only if you prefer. Reminder emails come from your business's name, carry your logo and the booking's details with a calendar file, and replies reach your own email.
Ask them to confirm
Switch on Ask them to confirm. The reminder text then ends "Reply YES to confirm", and the email has Confirm and I can't make it buttons.
Harbourside Dental: Reminder of your Check-up and clean on Tuesday 13 October at 10am. Reply YES to confirm. To change or cancel, call 03 5550 1234.That's an example. Yours shows your own business name and number.
Press Save changes. You'll see "Reminders and text-back saved".
The grey box under the settings shows your reminder, and a test booking made a few days ahead shows its reminder on the booking once it has gone.
What customers' answers do
- YES (or Y, yes please, a thumbs up, or Confirm in the email) marks the booking Confirmed by customer. Bookings shows a green tick.
- NO, "can't make it" or "cancel" (or I can't make it in the email) marks the booking Can't make it and emails you straight away, with a text too when this agent texts you new bookings. The booking isn't cancelled: call them, then move or cancel it.
- They can change their mind: the latest answer stands, and you hear when someone who couldn't make it now can.
- STOP, START and HELP keep their meaning. Anything else they write reaches you as a reply, as it always has.
Confirmations
Booking confirmations are on every plan. Choose Send confirmations by on the Confirmations tab: text or email as the caller chooses, text only, or email only. See /help/teach-your-agent/text-callers.
Turn it off
Switch off Ask them to confirm, choose None for the second reminder, or switch off Remind customers before their booking, then press Save changes.
If something's not right
A customer didn't get a reminder
Open the booking: it says what happened to each reminder, for example "No reminder needed: booked shortly before" or "No reminder text: no mobile number". Reminder texts go to Australian mobiles only.
A YES didn't mark the booking
A reply is matched to the booking whose reminder asked that number. When the same number has more than one booking asking at once, or the reminder went more than 14 days ago, the reply reaches you as a normal reply instead.
I can't change the reminder settings
On the Free plan they're shown but kept as they are. Move up to Pro or Growth in Billing.