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. They're in the language the client booked in, with times written as that language writes them (07:00 in German, 07.00 in Indonesian). 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.
• Waitlist offers. With the waitlist on, someone waiting gets "A time you're waiting for opened up" when a time that suits them frees up, or when you send one from the desk: a link that opens it, ready to confirm. Each email links "Leave the waitlist".
• A review request. About 2 hours after a visit ends, or after it's marked Came (Completed on your day view), whichever is later: once per visit, asking for a short review on Google. Only a visit marked within a day and a half of its end gets one, and a no-show never does. It goes only when one of your Kards has a Google review link or a Google Business link; with a review link, its button opens Google's review form straight away.

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. For a "Phone call" service it asks them to confirm the call: "Confirm the call" opens a page that asks "Will you be free for the call?", and they tap "Yes, I'll be free". 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 visit booked after a reminder's moment skips that one: booked three hours ahead, it gets no 24-hour email. The confirmation the client sees names only the reminders that will go, such as "with reminders the day before and two hours before".

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; on a team's calendar, 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, where there's free time and who's on the waitlist for today, with "Open today". Nothing comes on a day with no appointments, no requests waiting and no visit from yesterday to mark. It starts at 8:00 AM for salons, spas and clinics and on a personal calendar, and off for a team's other calendars. A personal or front-desk calendar without it offers it on Today (Upcoming, for a consultant): "Get a morning summary at 8:00 AM?", with "Turn it on" and "Not now".

Who came yesterday

The morning summary opens with the visits that ended and nobody marked: "Did they come yesterday?", each with "Came" and "No-show". Tap one in the email: its page opens without signing in, with that answer ready, and its button marks the visit (opening the link changes nothing by itself). Came marks the visit Completed, so its client gets the review request above; No-show never sends one. A visit you don't answer is asked about again on the next summary that goes, for up to a week (the heading then says "Did they come?" and names each day), and one marked once leaves every summary. The email's links work for 7 days, and only for you. On your day view, a visit that's over and nobody marked says "Not marked", with Completed and No-show first.

Notifications on your phone

Turn notifications on and new bookings reach your phone the moment they happen, without opening your email. Each phone or computer is turned on by itself: press "Turn on notifications" in Settings → Notifications, or "Turn on" where Today (Upcoming, for a consultant) offers it once, and allow notifications when your browser asks. Every login can do it from Notifications in the account menu, which also lists the devices they're on.

• What notifies. A booking made online or through the API (a repeating one once, for all its visits), a request waiting for your approval, a client cancelling or moving their own appointment, and a freed time to send on WhatsApp to someone on the waitlist who gave no email. What you or your team do in the calendar notifies no one, and a booking made through the API notifies everyone but the login whose key made it: whoever did it already knows.
• "Everything" or "Requests and cancellations only". Each device chooses for itself; the second leaves out new bookings, moves and waitlist offers to send.
• What one shows. The client's first name, the service and the time, and in a team who it's with; a request also says until when its time is held. Tapping it opens the appointment.
• Who gets them. The owner, a team's admins and the front desk hear about every appointment; a team member's login only about their own.
• On an iPhone or iPad (iOS 16.4 or later), notifications work once eKard is on your Home Screen: tap Share in Safari, then "Add to Home Screen", open eKard from your Home Screen and turn them on there.

"Send a test" shows what one looks like. To stop them on a device, press "Turn off" on it, or "Remove" it from your devices in Notifications; signing out of a browser stops its notifications too.

Open your calendar →