How can I edit email, SMS, and push notifications?
Calendesk sends your customers and employees messages about their bookings on its own: a confirmation, a change, a cancellation and a reminder. This article shows which notifications exist, how to turn them on or off and how to change what they say. You'll find all of it under Notifications in the Calendesk panel.
Which notifications does Calendesk send?
Notifications go out through three channels: email, SMS and push, which is a message in the mobile app on a phone. Emails and text messages use the notification package on your account. Push notifications are free.
Notifications to your customer
These are about bookings and go out by email and SMS:
- Booking confirmation - payment required: the booking is waiting for a prepayment. Read more in How to set up prepayments for bookings?
- Booking confirmation: the booking has the "Approved" status or the customer has paid for it,
- Booking change: the date, time, status, employee, service, location or customer changed,
- Booking cancellation: the booking was deleted or canceled,
- Booking reminder: sent at the time you set before the appointment.
The last four can also go out as push notifications if your customer mobile app is turned on.
The other customer notifications are email only:
- Account activation - welcome email: the customer created an account on your website,
- Reset password: the customer used the password reminder on your website,
- Email address change - confirmation: a confirmation link sent to the customer's new address. The change only takes effect after they click it,
- Email address change - notification: a notice sent to the old address after the change,
- Newsletter subscription: someone signed up for your newsletter on your website,
- Store - product purchase confirmation: the customer bought a product on your website. If they buy it together with a booking, this email isn't sent, because the booking notification already lists the product.
Notifications to your employee
Employees get Booking confirmation, Booking change, Booking cancellation and Booking reminder by email, SMS and push in the mobile app. Emails go to the employee's own address. If the employee has no email address, they go to the account's main address from Settings → Your company. The Store - product purchase confirmation email also goes to that main address.
How do I turn notifications on or off?
Go to Notifications → Settings. You'll see two cards: Email notifications and SMS notifications. Each notification type has two switches, one in the Customer column and one in the Employee column. A switch that's on means that person gets the notification through that channel.
When you're done, click Save under the card. Each card has its own button, so you save email and SMS settings separately.
On a new account, every email notification is on, and SMS is on only for the booking confirmation.
How many notifications do I have left?
The top of each card shows how many email and SMS notifications you have left. Your plan gives you a new allowance every month. When it runs low, click Purchase and pick a package. Purchased notifications never expire, and Calendesk only uses them once your monthly allowance is gone.
To buy a package you need billing details and a payment method in the Billing tab. If either is missing, the panel shows a message with a button that takes you there.
Keep an eye on the counter. Once your allowance is used up and you haven't bought more, emails and text messages stop going out. To see how much of your balance a text to a foreign number uses, check this PDF.
When do reminders go out?
Further down the same page is the Manage reminder send times section. In Time before a booking, pick how long before the appointment the reminder goes out, or type your own time, then click Save.
On the Pro and Enterprise plans you can tick I want to set different send times for different types of reminders. You then add each reminder separately by choosing the Recipient, the Notification type and the time. For example, the customer gets an email a day before the appointment and a text message two hours before. Add more with Add new reminder. The pencil icon (Edit text) gives a reminder its own wording.
Once you set up separate reminders, the Booking reminder row disappears from the email and SMS cards, because the reminder list now controls them.
Changes also apply to bookings already in your calendar. After you save, Calendesk reschedules the reminders for every upcoming booking, which can take a few minutes.
You can also turn off specific notifications for one customer in their profile, on the Settings tab. See How can I access and manage customers?
How do I change what a notification says?
- Go to Notifications → Templates.
- Find the notification under Notifications to your customer or Notifications to your employee.
- Click Edit email, Edit SMS or Edit Push. The editor opens.
- Change the text on the left. The preview on the right shows it with sample data.
- Click Ready and confirm with Change notifications. The new text works right away.
A green check mark on a button means that notification already uses your own text instead of the default.
Cancel closes the editor without saving. Restore default content at the bottom of the editor brings back the text Calendesk wrote.
What can I change in an email, a text message and a push notification?
- An email has a Subject and a Text. Format the text with the buttons above the field: bold, italics, headings, lists and links.
- A text message only has a Text. Below the field you'll see a character counter and the Number of SMS messages, which is how many texts from your package one send uses.
- A push notification has a Subject and a Text.
The counter shows the recommended length. The panel won't stop you from writing more, but a long text message is split into several messages and uses more of your package.
How do I add variables?
Variables are words in square brackets, such as [CUSTOMER_NAME]. Before sending, Calendesk swaps them for details from the booking: the customer's first name, the date and time, the service name, the employee's name, the online meeting link and many more.
Insert a variable with Click here to add a variable under the text field, or with the blue "+" button next to the subject. Pick one from the list and it lands where your cursor is. The full list of variables, conditions and custom buttons is in Advanced Notification Editing.
How do I add text for one service to the booking emails?
You can add your own text to the emails about a specific service, for example directions to your office or what to bring to the first session:
- Go to Offer → Services and open the service.
- Tick Show advanced settings.
- In Texts for clients, fill in Additional information in booking emails and save the service.
The text is added to the emails about a new, changed or upcoming booking. If you've changed the wording of those emails, add the Additional information in booking emails variable to them. Without it, the text won't show.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Why didn't my customer get a notification?
Check these in order: is the switch for that notification on in Notifications → Settings, is it turned off in the customer's profile, have you run out of emails or text messages, and was "Don't send notifications after creating the appointment" or "Don't send notifications after changing/deleting the appointment" ticked when the booking was added or changed? The sending history is on the Activity tab, described in Where can I find the messages sent to customers?
Do special characters make a text message cost more?
They can. Characters outside the basic SMS alphabet, such as some accented letters and emoji, shorten each message, so the same text splits into more messages. The editor then shows This notification contains special characters with a list of them. In Settings → Platform you can turn on Remove special characters in SMS notifications.
Can I change the sender name?
Yes. The email and SMS editors have a Change Sender Name button that takes you to your company settings. For a custom SMS sender name, see How to personalize the sender name for SMS messages?
How do I send customers a message that isn't about a booking?
You send those by hand from your customer list or newsletter list. See How can I send notifications to customers via email, SMS, and push?