Customer messages

Where to find them

Location settingsCustomer messages. They are set per location, so a branch can send a message on different channels from another. Open a message to see each of its channels, with a preview of exactly what the customer receives.

Needs the permission messages.update (update messages). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.

On the Free plan the settings can be viewed but not changed: every message uses the defaults described below.

Waitlist messages (9)

The one that matters most is “Waitlist visit alerted” — “it’s your turn” — sent when a member of staff presses the Alert bell. Starting to serve somebody sends nothing: they are already standing at your counter.

Booking messages (10)

The reminder is the one that earns its keep here: a message ahead of time is the cheapest no-show reduction available to you.

The wording

Message wording is the same for every business and can’t be edited. WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with wording it has approved in advance, and the other channels are kept in step with that wording so a customer never gets two versions of the same message.

• Every text opens with your business name — “Hair by Sam: It’s your turn!” — so the customer knows who it is from, whichever number it arrives from.
• Most texts about a visit or booking still going on carry a link back to the customer’s status page or booking. On “it’s your turn” the link matters twice over: opening it is how we know a customer who only got the text has seen it.
• Emails sent with the platform template carry a button to the same page rather than a bare link.
• Calls are written to be heard: short, no links, naming your business.

Each message, on each channel

Every channel can be switched on or off separately for each message. A channel switched off is simply not used for that message; switching every channel off stops the message being sent at all, which is the way to silence one you do not want. Beyond the switch, each channel has its own settings:

• Email — which email template to use (below).
• WhatsApp — nothing beyond on or off: it sends the approved WhatsApp template.
• SMS — when to send it, from the conditions below.
• Push — where tapping the notification takes the customer: status page, booking details or location home.
• Voice call — when to call, and how long to wait first (below).

Not every channel is offered on every message. WhatsApp appears only where an approved WhatsApp message exists, so it is missing from “Booking running late”. A call is offered only on “Booking running late”, “Waitlist visit alerted” and “Waitlist visit next in line”. Each channel can be put back to its defaults with “Reset to default”.

Merge tags

The previews show these placeholders filled in with sample data. When a message is sent they are replaced with the real details:

• {{ name }} — Customer name
• {{ business }} — Business name
• {{ date }} — Booking date
• {{ hour }} — Booking time
• {{ link }} — Manage link
• {{ position }} — Waitlist position

The WhatsApp channel shows the name of the approved template and its numbered placeholders instead — {{1}}, {{2}} and so on — with a key saying what fills each one. If a template is marked as not connected yet, customers get the text message instead until it is.

Email: two ways to send it

• Platform template — Place the message body inside the system email template.
• Custom template — Send the email body as a standalone email.

The words are the same either way. The platform template wraps them in a tidy branded email with a button back to the status page or booking; the custom template sends them as a plain email with nothing around them, not even the button.

When to send the text

WhatsApp goes first, and each message decides when its text follows:

• Send SMS only if WhatsApp is not delivered (the default)
• Always send SMS
• Send SMS only if push is not delivered
• Send SMS only if push is not tapped within one minute

The default, “Send SMS only if WhatsApp is not delivered”, is the right choice for almost every message, “it’s your turn” included. Customers whose WhatsApp lands get one message; everyone else gets the text — straight away when WhatsApp can’t be sent to them at all, and within about a minute when it was sent but didn’t arrive. A held text is also dropped if the customer has already seen the alert another way. The full rules, and what “not delivered” can honestly mean for a push, are in channels and fallback.

Voice calls

On the messages that can ring, the voice channel has two settings of its own:

• When to call — “Call only if the customer hasn’t seen their message” or “Always call”. The first is the default: the call waits, and is dropped if the customer has opened their status or booking page, tapped the push notification or read the WhatsApp message by then.
• How long to wait — 1, 2, 3, 5 minutes, 2 unless you change it.

Voice is on by default for “Waitlist visit alerted” and “Booking running late”, but nobody is called until your account holds a voice call pack. Until then the settings page says so, and you can still set the channel up ready. A call is always in addition to the text, never instead of it. More in voice calls.

Languages

Customer messages are written in English, and WhatsApp messages use the English (UK) versions WhatsApp approved. There are no per-language versions to set up, and the languages chosen under localisation don’t change the wording of these messages.

When a message does not arrive

A send that fails never fails the visit — the customer keeps their place and your team sees the change either way. The failure is recorded rather than surfaced as an error, so if a customer says nothing arrived, check troubleshooting rather than assuming the visit went wrong.