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Setup Appointment Notifications

Clients should hear from you when they book, when something changes and the day before they come. Whautomate gives you two ways to do this. The built-in notifications work as soon as you switch them on. Automation rules let you write your own messages, choose the timing of reminders, add buttons such as confirm, reschedule or cancel, and send to WhatsApp with your own template.

Available withBookingsIncluded in the Complete plan.Plans and modules
Prerequisites

Option 1: built-in notifications​

  1. Go to Settings > All Settings, and under Schedule click Notifications.
  2. Open the External Notifications tab.
  3. For each card, tick SMS or WhatsApp:
    • Client Appointment Confirmation: when an appointment is booked.
    • Client Appointment Updates: when it is rescheduled or cancelled.
    • Client Appointment Reminder: 1 day before the appointment.
  4. Click Update.
Notification Settings on the External Notifications tab with SMS and WhatsApp checkboxes for client appointment confirmation, updates and reminder

The same tab has cards for your team; see Appointment Notifications for Staff.

Option 2: automation rules​

Use automation rules when you want your own wording, a different reminder time or extra steps. Untick the matching built-in notifications first (and click Update), or clients get two messages.

Appointment confirmation notification​

  1. Go to Engage > Automations and click Add Rule.
  2. Click Create rule from scratch.
  3. Choose the trigger Appointment Updates. It runs whenever an appointment is created or updated.
  4. Click Add Condition and set Appointment Status equals Booked.
  5. Add the action send a WhatsApp template message (or Send Email).
  6. Pick the Message Template and fill each parameter. Type # in a parameter to pick a variable such as {{client.name}} or {{appointment.date}}.
  7. Click Save.
Automation rule with the Appointment Updates trigger, an Appointment Status equals Booked condition and a send a WhatsApp template message action

To use the ready-made Whautomate template, pick whauto_appointment_confirmation_message. To use your own, create it first and wait for Meta to approve it.

Appointment reschedule notification​

Create another rule the same way with Appointment Status equals Rescheduled, and a template such as whauto_appointment_rescheduled_message. Use {{appointment.previousDate}} and {{appointment.previousTime}} to show the old time.

To react only to some changes, add the condition Appointment Reschedule Type: Date & Time Changed, Staff Changed or Service Changed.

Appointment cancellation, visited and no-show messages​

Use the same pattern with Appointment Status equals Cancelled, Visited or No-Show. Post-visit rules are a good place for review requests and follow-ups.

Appointment reminder notification​

  1. In your confirmation rule (and your reschedule rule), add another send a WhatsApp template message action.
  2. Click Add wait & Schedule time and choose how long before appointment to send it, for example 1 day before at 09:00 AM.
  3. Pick a reminder template such as whauto_appointment_reminder_message and fill the parameters.
  4. Click Save.
warning

When an appointment is rescheduled, its pending reminder is cancelled. Add the reminder action to your reschedule rule too so the new time also gets a reminder.

Tip: put {{appointment.confirmURL}} in the reminder so clients can confirm with one tap. See Appointment Double Confirmation.

Useful conditions​

ConditionUse it to
Appointment StatusPick Booked, Rescheduled, Cancelled, Visited, No-Show, Pending and more
Appointment TypeSend different messages for Location Visit, Home Visit and Virtual/Online Session
Appointment ServiceSend service-specific instructions
Appointment Booked FromAdmin Portal, Online Portal, WhatsApp, API or Bulk Import
Appointment FrequencyIndividual for single bookings, Bulk/Repeat for appointments booked as a series
Booking several appointments at once

Recurring and multi-slot bookings send one message per appointment. To send one summary instead, add the condition Appointment Frequency equals Individual to these rules and set up a bulk appointment notification.

Available personalisation variables​

Client: {{client.name}}, {{client.preferredName}}, {{client.age}}, {{client.gender}}, {{client.email}}, {{client.phone}}, {{client.calendarSyncURL}}, {{client.photoURL}}, {{client.address}}, {{client.emergencyRelationType}}, {{client.emergencyContactName}}, {{client.emergencyContactPhone}}

Business: {{business.name}}, {{business.address}}, {{business.phone}}, {{business.mapDirectionUrl}}, {{business.operatingHours}}

Appointment: {{appointment.practitioner}} (team member), {{appointment.practitionerRole}}, {{appointment.date}}, {{appointment.time}}, {{appointment.previousDate}}, {{appointment.previousTime}}, {{appointment.clientName}}, {{appointment.location}}, {{appointment.service}}, {{appointment.addons}}, {{appointment.price}}, {{appointment.timezone}}, {{appointment.businessTimezone}}, {{appointment.dateInBusinessTZ}}, {{appointment.timeInBusinessTZ}}, {{appointment.previousDateInBusinessTZ}}, {{appointment.previousTimeInBusinessTZ}}

Links: {{appointment.detailsURL}}, {{appointment.cancelURL}}, {{appointment.rescheduleURL}}, {{appointment.confirmURL}}, {{appointment.addToCalendarURL}}, and the partial versions ({{appointment.partialdetailsURL}} and so on) for WhatsApp template buttons whose link starts with a fixed address.

Online sessions: {{appointment.guestMeetingUrl}}, {{appointment.hostMeetingUrl}}, {{appointment.meetingPassword}}. See Virtual/Online Session Notifications.

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