Reminders and messages

Clients hear from you two ways: by email, which eKard sends under your business's name, and by WhatsApp, which you send from your own phone in one tap. There are no text messages. A client who books without an email gets no emails, only the link to their booking on screen, which offers "Want a reminder? Add your email". Until they add one, WhatsApp or a call is how you reach them.

What clients get

Booking emails come from your business's name, and a client who replies reaches you. A client with an email gets:

• The confirmation. The details, a calendar invite attached (an .ics file for Apple Calendar, Outlook and the rest), a link to add it to Google Calendar, and "Manage booking": their own page to reschedule or cancel until your cutoff.
• Changes. A new-time email with an updated invite when a booking moves, and a cancellation email, with your reason, when it's cancelled.
• Requests. For services you approve: "Request sent", then "You're booked", or word that you can't take it.
• Two reminders, below.
• A review request. About 2 hours after a visit ends, if it's marked "Completed": once per visit, asking for a short review on Google. It goes only when one of your Kards has a Google Business link.

Bookings you make at the desk email the client too, when they have an email; walk-ins get no messages.

Reminders and the confirm link

"Email 24 hours before" and "Email 2 hours before", in Settings → Reminders, are both on to start. The 24-hour reminder asks the client to confirm: "Confirm I'm coming" opens a page where they tap "Yes, I'll be there", and the appointment shows "Confirmed" at your desk. Until they do, it shows "Not confirmed", and your morning summary lists them, since unconfirmed bookings are the likeliest no-shows. The 2-hour reminder is a short "See you today", with directions when your address is set or the video link for a video meeting, and it asks anyone who hasn't confirmed once more.

A booking made less than a day ahead gets no 24-hour reminder, so it never shows "Not confirmed"; requests get reminders once you approve them. When a client confirms by phone instead, open the appointment and press "Mark confirmed".

Your words in the messages

• A service's "Confirmation note": the confirmation, the reminders and the client's booking page. What to bring, say.
• "A note in every reminder", in Settings: both reminders and their booking page. Where to park, say.
• "Your policy, in your words": the confirmation, new-time and reminder emails, the booking form and their booking page.

WhatsApp from your phone

Each appointment with the client's mobile number has a WhatsApp button that opens WhatsApp on the phone or computer you're using, with the message written: you press send. Inside an appointment, the first button names the message that fits: "WhatsApp confirmation" after booking, "WhatsApp reminder" in the two days before, "Running late?" once the start has passed and they haven't arrived, and "WhatsApp about the request" for a request, which also asks for any advance. In Today's list (on a phone, or "List" on a computer), "Remind" stands out on the row of anyone who hasn't confirmed after their reminder. After you book, move or cancel, the message on screen offers to tell the client on WhatsApp as well.

Nothing goes out on WhatsApp by itself: each message is one you send. A team member's login has these buttons on their own appointments only.

Emails to you

• "Email me when a client books online" (with your word for clients, such as "an invitee" for a consultant). Each new online booking, with a calendar file, goes to you; in an organization, to its admins and to the team member booked, if their details have an email. Off, you still get requests to approve and the changes clients make.
• "Morning summary". The day in one email at the time you choose: how many appointments and the first one, requests waiting, who hasn't confirmed and where there's free time, with "Open today". Nothing comes on a day with no appointments and no requests waiting. It starts at 8:00 AM for salons, spas and clinics, and off for everyone else.

Open your calendar →