Appointment reminders: how many, how far ahead, and what they say

Two reminders: one far enough ahead that a cancellation is still useful to you, and one the day before. Both should make cancelling a single tap, because a cancelled slot can be filled and an empty one cannot.

The counter-intuitive part

Timing the first one

Far enough ahead that you could still fill the slot. For a salon that is a couple of days; for a clinic with a waiting list it might be a week. Ask yourself how long you need to refill, and send it then - the number is about your operation, not about their memory.

What each says

Two days before:
Hi Peter - you're booked with us Thursday 11am for a
service, about 90 minutes. Still good?
[Yes, I'll be there]  [I need to change it]

The day before:
See you tomorrow at 11am, Peter. We're at River House,
4th floor - parking is behind the building.
[I need to change it]

The first asks a question and gets a confirmation. The second gives practical detail and gets out of the way. Both keep the cancel path one tap away.

The detail that reduces lateness

• How long it will take. People plan around the end as much as the start.
• Where to park, or which entrance. The most common cause of a late arrival that was not a late departure.
• What to bring. Especially anything that would make the appointment pointless without it.
• Who they are seeing. A name makes an appointment harder to skip.

Handle the reschedule in the conversation

"I need to change it" should be answerable by a person, in the same thread, with two or three offered times - not by a link to a booking system requiring a login. The whole advantage of the channel is that the rebooking happens in the same thirty seconds as the cancellation.

Templates and the window

A reminder for an appointment days away is outside any open conversation, so on the Cloud API it needs an approved utility template - see how to get one approved. Their reply opens a window, which is why asking a question in the first reminder is worth more than it looks.