Guest communications (email and SMS)

Guest communications (email and SMS)

Keep clients in the loop without lifting a finger. ResNeo sends confirmations, reminders and follow-ups automatically. You decide which messages go out, by which channel, and when.

Good to know: the body of every message is written for you and cannot be edited. What you control is which messages send, by email or text, when they send, and one extra line of your own wording.

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 first under Settings → Profile. It is the address guests reply to, and the fallback for your own booking alerts.
• Open Settings → Communications. The panel is headed Guest communications.

Good to know: changes save on their own. A small Saving…, then Saved note appears at the top right. If you see a red Save failed, retrying next change, check your connection and change something again, which starts a fresh save.

Step 1: Find your way around the cards

Every guest message is a card, in one long list, with a switch on the right. On an appointments plan that is the only list there is. (The Table bookings and Appointments & other tabs only appear on the Restaurant plan, where table wording is kept separate.)

Each card carries a one-line description of when it sends:

• Booking confirmation, sent as soon as the booking is confirmed
• Confirm or cancel prompt, asks the guest to confirm or cancel before the visit
• Pre-visit reminder, a reminder shortly before the booking starts
• Deposit payment request, used when a booking needs a separate deposit payment link
• Deposit confirmation, confirms a deposit has been paid
• Deposit payment reminder, for unpaid deposit bookings before they are released
• Card details request, asks the guest to add card details to secure a booking with a no-show fee
• Card details reminder, for bookings that still need card details added
• Booking modification, sent when the booking details change
• Cancellation confirmation, sent when a booking is cancelled
• Auto-cancel notification, sent when an unpaid booking is cancelled automatically
• No-show notification, an optional notice when staff mark a booking as a no-show
• Post-visit thank you, a follow-up after the booking has taken place
• Custom message, the one-off notes your team sends by hand from a booking or a contact

If you use the waitlist, a separate Waitlist invites heading sits below the list with a Waitlist invite card. It only appears when Appointment waitlist is switched on under Settings → Booking Settings → Optional Booking features.

Step 2: Check what is already switched on

You are not starting from nothing. A new venue begins like this:

Message	On to start?	Channels to start	Timing box
Booking confirmation	Yes	Email	None
Confirm or cancel prompt	Yes	Email	24 hours before
Pre-visit reminder	Yes	Email	2 hours before
Deposit payment request	Yes	Email and SMS	None
Deposit confirmation	Yes	Email	None
Deposit payment reminder	Yes	Email and SMS	2 hours before
Card details request	Yes	Email and SMS	None
Card details reminder	Yes	Email and SMS	None
Booking modification	Yes	Email	None
Cancellation confirmation	Yes	Email	None
Auto-cancel notification	Yes	Email and SMS	None
No-show notification	No	Email	None
Post-visit thank you	Yes	Email	4 hours after
Custom message	Yes	Email and SMS	None
Waitlist invite	No	Email	None

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

Step 3: 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. The New booking alert further down the page is email only too.
3. You cannot untick the last remaining channel. Every message that is on needs at least one way to reach the client, so turn the whole card off instead.

Step 4: Set the timing

Only four cards have a timing box, and the label tells you which way it counts:

• Confirm or cancel prompt, Pre-visit reminder and Deposit payment reminder show Send hours before.
• Post-visit thank you shows Send hours after.

Enter any whole number from 1 to 168 hours, which is up to a week. The other cards send off the back of something happening, such as a booking being made, changed or cancelled, so there is nothing to time.

Step 5: Add your own line

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

1. Find the card you want and make sure it is switched on.
2. Look for Email optional message, and SMS optional message on cards that allow texts.
3. Type your line, for example "Any problems, just reply to this text or call the shop."
4. Watch the character count under the box, which matters most for texts.
5. Click Preview above the box to see the finished message, built from a sample booking, as a client would receive it.

Business notifications

Below the guest cards, under Business notifications, are 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 a different address, such as a shared inbox your whole team reads. 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, so your regulars are not pestered. 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, because there is no record to count the six months against. The thank you email itself still goes out either way.

Tip: for a daily summary of new bookings and cancellations rather than an email per booking, use the Daily booking log email panel under Settings → Reports. You choose the address and which days it sends.

Sending a message yourself

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

• One client, from a booking. Open the booking from the bookings list or the calendar, expand SMS / email guest, type your note, then set Send via to Email & SMS (if available), Email only, or SMS only, and click Send.
• Several bookings at once. Tick the bookings in the list, then click Message in the bar that appears. Choose a Channel, write the Message, and click Send. The same message goes to each one, and anyone without the contact method you chose is skipped.
• One client, from Contacts. Open the client 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 marketing, so only the clients who have given marketing permission receive it. The rest are skipped, and the confirmation says how many. If none of them has given permission, nothing is sent.

Everything you send shows in that client's Message log.

Marketing permission means Marketing consent is ticked on the client's Preferences and Opt out of marketing is not. Messages about a booking somebody has actually made, from the booking or from the bookings list, are not marketing and always go.

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

What texts cost, and where to check

Email is included on every plan and 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.

To see where you stand, open Settings → Plan and look at the SMS usage panel, which shows segments used against segments included.

Warning: running out does not stop your texts. Past the allowance, messages keep sending and each extra segment is added to your next bill at 6p. There is no cut-off, so check the Plan tab after you turn SMS on for a busy message.

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. Add a card under Settings → Plan to switch texts on.

Common problems & fixes

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
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 client's phone number, tick SMS, and add a card under Settings → Plan
Every switch is greyed out	You are signed in with a team member login	Ask an admin to make the change
My text bill is higher than expected	Long messages split into several segments, and emoji drop the limit to 70	Shorten your extra line and drop emoji. Check SMS usage under Settings → Plan
A red Save failed, retrying next change appears	Your connection dropped mid-change	Check your internet, then change something again to start a fresh save
I cannot untick the last channel	Every message that is on needs at least one way to reach the client	Turn the whole card off instead
I cannot find where to edit the wording	The main body is fixed and cannot be edited	Add your own 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 the card back on and tick the channels you want
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
There is no Waitlist invite card	Appointment waitlist is switched off	Turn it on under Settings → Booking Settings → Optional Booking features

Next steps

• Reading your reports
• Using the bookings list
• Your contacts (CRM)
• Using the waitlist