Confirmations and reminders

Booking Orbit tells customers about their appointments by itself:

• Confirmation, within a minute of booking.
• Reminders, at the times you choose, such as a day before and two hours before.
• Moved and Cancelled, when an appointment changes, with any refund.
• Thank you, a few hours after the visit, with a link to book again.
• Time to book again, for services people come back for, such as a ski service each season.
• A time came free, to people on the waitlist.

Every message has a link to change or cancel, so a time someone can't use goes to someone else.

Choose the channels

Open Reminders.

• Email works in every plan. Emails come from the location's name and your sending domain under Email sending.
• Text message and WhatsApp go through your own Twilio account, so you pay Twilio's prices and keep your numbers. They are in the Growth plan and up.

To set up Twilio, paste the Account SID and auth token from the Twilio console, the number or sender name texts come from, and optionally your WhatsApp Business number. Choose the Ireland region to keep message data in the EU. Then set the address shown under Twilio as the incoming message webhook on your Twilio number, so STOP replies opt people out.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp only allows approved templates for messages a business starts. Create them in Twilio's Content Template Builder with these variables, then paste each template's SID (it starts with HX) under WhatsApp templates:

1. First name
2. Service
3. Date
4. Time
5. Link to change, cancel or book

WhatsApp messages only go to customers who said yes to WhatsApp when booking. Anyone who replies STOP gets no more.

Times and quiet hours

Add up to four reminders. Services can have their own times under Services, such as a week before for a long guided climb.

Quiet hours keep texts and emails away at night, in the location's time zone. A reminder that would land in quiet hours goes out just before them instead, so it still arrives before the appointment. Reminders that would already have gone, for an appointment booked at short notice, are skipped. Daylight saving changes are handled for you.

When you change these settings, upcoming appointments follow the new plan.

Change the wording

Each message is an email template under Email templates, in every language the location uses. Words in curly brackets, such as {service} and {time}, are filled in for each appointment. Keep {manageUrl} in confirmations and reminders, so customers can change or cancel without calling.

See what went out

Latest messages on the Reminders page shows each message, its channel and whether it arrived. When something didn't, it says why, such as a customer who opted out.