Automated messages, channels, and timing

Automated messages, channels, and timing

Every message ResNeo sends your clients is a card under Settings → Communications. You choose which cards are on, whether each goes by email or text, when the timed ones send, and one extra line in your own words. The body of each message is written for you and cannot be edited.

Before you start

• Only an admin can change these settings. A team member can open the tab, but every switch and box is greyed out.
• Set your business email under Settings → Profile first. It is the address clients reply to, and the fallback for your own alerts.
• Open Settings → Communications. The panel is headed Guest communications.
• Changes save on their own. A Saving…, then Saved note appears at the top right. A red Save failed, retrying next change means the last change did not save: check your connection, then change something again to start a fresh save.

One list, not two lanes

On an Appointments plan (Light, Plus or Pro) there is a single list of message cards covering appointments, classes, events and resources. The Table bookings and Appointments & other lane tabs belong to the Restaurant plan, where table wording is kept separate. If you have read about picking a lane, that is the restaurant product, not yours.

The message cards

Fourteen cards sit in this order, each with a one-line description and a switch on the right.

Card	Sends when	Channels offered	New venue starts	Timing box
Booking confirmation	The booking is confirmed	Email, SMS	On, email	None
Confirm or cancel prompt	Before the visit, asking the client to confirm or cancel	Email, SMS	On, email	Send hours before, 24
Pre-visit reminder	Shortly before the booking starts	Email, SMS	On, email	Send hours before, 2
Deposit payment request	A booking needs a separate deposit payment link	Email, SMS	On, both	None
Deposit confirmation	A deposit has been paid	Email	On	None
Deposit payment reminder	An unpaid deposit booking is close to being released	Email, SMS	On, both	Send hours before, 2
Card details request	A booking with a no-show fee needs card details	Email, SMS	On, both	None
Card details reminder	A booking still has no card details	Email, SMS	On, both	None
Booking modification	The booking details change	Email, SMS	On, email	None
Cancellation confirmation	A booking is cancelled	Email, SMS	On, email	None
Auto-cancel notification	An unpaid booking is cancelled automatically	Email, SMS	On, both	None
No-show notification	Staff mark a booking as a no-show	Email	Off	None
Post-visit thank you	After the booking has taken place	Email	On	Send hours after, 4
Custom message	Your team writes to a client by hand	Email, SMS	On, both	None

A fifteenth card, Waitlist invite, sits under its own Waitlist invites heading below the list. It starts switched off, and it only appears when Appointment waitlist is on under Settings → Booking Settings → Optional Booking features.

Tip: two hours is the default for the pre-visit reminder, and it is usually too late to save the slot. Most salons and clinics move it to 24, so a client who has forgotten can still cancel and let someone else in.

Choose the channels

Switch a card on and its options appear underneath.

1. Tick Email, SMS, or both. The tickbox is the only thing that decides whether that channel is used.
2. Three cards are email only, so no SMS box is offered: Deposit confirmation, No-show notification and Post-visit thank you.
3. You cannot untick the last remaining channel. Every message that is on needs at least one way to reach the client, so switch the whole card off instead.
4. A text only goes out when the booking has a mobile number on it.

Set the timing

Only the four cards marked in the table above have a timing box, and the label tells you which way it counts. Enter any whole number from 1 to 168 hours, which is up to a week. Every other card fires off the back of something happening, such as a booking being made, changed or cancelled, so there is nothing to time.

Add your own line, then preview

You cannot rewrite the standard wording, but you can add to it.

1. With the card switched on, find Email optional message, and SMS optional message on cards that allow texts.
2. Type your line, for example "Any problems, just reply to this text or call the shop."
3. Watch the character count under the box, which matters most for texts.
4. Click Preview above the box. A window opens headed Preview: with the card name and channel, showing the finished message built from a sample booking, and a line naming the sample used.

Previews are built from sample data, so after a change that really matters, make a real test booking and read what arrives.

Bookings with more than one service: a text names all of them, so a cut and a colour booked together read "Cut and Colour", and four services read "Cut, Colour and 2 more". The time in the message is the start of the first service, not whichever one happened to trigger the send. Several people booked together instead read "3 appointments". The staff member is named only when the whole booking is with one person.

Business notifications

Below the guest cards, Business notifications covers the alerts that come to you rather than to your clients.

New booking alert emails the business whenever a booking is made. Switch it on and a Notification email box appears. Leave it blank to use the email on your Settings → Profile tab, or type another address, such as a shared inbox. This one is email only.

Ask for a Google review adds a review button to your post-visit thank you email.

1. Paste your review link from your Google Business Profile, or your Place ID, into Google review link. A Maps search link will not work, because it does not open the review box.
2. Click away from the box to save it, then use Test this link to check it opens the review form.
3. Switch Ask for a Google review on.

Each customer is asked at most once every six months. Alongside the review button, the email offers an unhappy customer the chance to tell you directly instead. Walk-ins with no saved contact details are never asked, and the thank you email still goes out either way.

Tip: for one daily summary of new bookings and cancellations rather than an email per booking, use the Daily booking log email panel under Settings → Reports.

Messages your team sends by hand

The cards above are the automatic messages. Your team can also write to a client on the spot.

• From a booking. Open it from the bookings list or the calendar, expand SMS / email guest, type your note, set Send via, and click Send.
• Several bookings at once. Tick them in the bookings list, then click Message in the bar that appears. Anyone without the contact method you chose is skipped. Marketing permission is not needed here: these are notices about a booking those people have already made.
• From one contact. Open the client in Contacts and use Send a message. This always sends.
• Several contacts at once. Tick them in the Contacts list and click Message. This one counts as a broadcast, so it only reaches contacts who have given marketing permission, and the rest are skipped with a count in the confirmation. If none of them has permission, nothing is sent.

Everything sent shows in that client's Message log.

Under the box you type in, a line reminds you that Enter starts a new line and a blank line starts a new paragraph, and counts your characters. When SMS is one of the channels it also says roughly how many texts it will take, and turns amber with (SMS will be cut short) as you approach the limit. A custom text can run to three segments, about 459 characters including your venue name at the front. Email has no such limit.

A custom message email is its own plain design: your logo and venue name, "Hi Sam,", your words with the paragraphs you typed, and your address, phone and website underneath. It never carries booking details, even when you started it from a booking.

Marketing permission means Marketing consent is recorded and Opt out of marketing is not, both on the contact's Preferences. An old consent never outlives an unsubscribe: if someone opts out, they stay out until they opt in again.

Note: all of these ride on the Custom message card. Switch that card off, or untick its SMS box, and your hand-written messages stop going out by that channel too.

What texts cost

Email is included on every plan and is never charged. Texts come out of a monthly allowance.

Your plan	Texts included each month
Appointments Light	100 segments
Appointments Plus	250 segments
Appointments Pro	500 segments

A segment is up to 160 characters. Longer messages are split and each part counts. Emoji and accented characters drop the limit to 70 per segment, so one emoji can double what a message costs.

Running out does not stop your texts. Past the allowance they keep sending, and each extra segment is added to your next bill at 6p. Check SMS usage under Settings → Plan, or SMS segments this period at the top of Settings → Reports.

On Appointments Light, texts only start going out once you have a card on file. Until then a blue SMS on Appointments Light note sits at the top of the Communications tab, and ResNeo quietly sends the email and skips the text.

Common problems & fixes

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Every switch is greyed out	You are signed in with a team member login	Ask an admin to make the change
Clients are not getting texts	No mobile number on the booking, SMS is not ticked on that card, or you are on Light with no card on file	Check the number, tick SMS, and add a card under Settings → Plan
A red Save failed, retrying next change appears	The last save did not reach ResNeo	Check your connection, then change something again
I cannot untick the last channel	Every message that is on needs one way to reach the client	Switch the whole card off instead
I cannot find where to edit the wording	The body of each message is fixed	Add your line in Email optional message or SMS optional message
Messages my team sends by hand are not arriving	The Custom message card is off, or its SMS box is unticked	Switch it back on and tick the channels you want
There is no Waitlist invite card	Appointment waitlist is switched off	Turn it on under Settings → Booking Settings → Optional Booking features
No review button in the thank you email	The Google review link is missing or is a Maps search link, or that client was asked in the last six months	Paste the proper review link and use Test this link
My text bill is higher than expected	Long messages split into several segments, and emoji drop the limit to 70	Shorten your extra line, drop emoji, and watch SMS usage under Settings → Plan

Next steps

• Guest communications (email and SMS)
• SMS messages not sending
• Reports, exports, and the Clients directory
• Managing your plan and billing