Do you continue to check the agenda every day to write one by one to your clients and remind them that they have an appointment?
When you have few bookings, it can seem simple. But as your business grows, manually sending each confirmation and reminder means time, interruptions and the risk of a notice going unsent.
Using a program to send appointment reminders via WhatsApp allows you to automate these communications and keep your customers informed without having to keep an eye on every booking.
With Wilapp you can connect the management of your appointments with automatic reminders by WhatsApp to simplify the whole process.
What is a WhatsApp appointment reminder program?
It is a tool that uses the information recorded in your agenda to automatically send appointment-related communications.
Instead of checking who is coming tomorrow, looking up their phone number, opening WhatsApp and writing the message, the system takes care of making the configured notifications.
This is especially useful for businesses that work continuously by appointment, such as:
- Hairdressers.
- Barbershops.
- Beauty centers.
- Clinics.
- Physiotherapy centres.
- Tattoo studios.
- Dog grooming salons.
- Wellness centers.
- Other professionals by appointment.
Why automate appointment reminders?
A missed appointment can become a difficult gap to fill.
If a client does not show up and does not notify in advance, the professional has reserved time that could have been allocated to someone else.
Automatic reminders help keep the appointment present for the customer while also preventing the team from having to manually manage all those reminders.
Among its advantages we find:
- Save time on repetitive tasks.
- Keep the customer informed.
- Reduce forgetfulness and confusion.
- Avoid having to constantly check the agenda.
- Professionalize communication.
- Facilitate daily organization.
If you want to know the economic impact that these absences can have, check out our calculator of losses due to missed appointments.
When to send an appointment reminder on WhatsApp?
Not all messages serve the same function.
Good communication can accompany the customer from the moment they make the reservation until the moment they go to the establishment.
Confirmation at the time of booking
The first message is used to communicate to the client that their appointment has been successfully recorded.
It is important to differentiate between confirming a booking and remembering it later.
If you want to go deeper into this process, you can check out our guide on how to confirm an appointment with clients.
Reminder a day before
When an appointment was booked days or weeks ago, there’s a higher chance that the customer has forgotten it.
A reminder the day before allows you to put the booking back in your mind well in advance.
Reminder one hour before
A notice close to the appointment works as a last reminder before it’s time to go.
In Wilapp you can automate these communications so that you don’t have to send them manually.
How many appointment reminders should you send?
Sending too many messages may be unnecessary, while making a single prompt too soon may not be enough.
The strategy must find a balance between keeping the customer informed and avoiding excessive communication.
That’s why we’ve developed a specific guide on how many appointment reminders to send and when to do it.
In this post, we focus specifically on the tool and how to automate the process, while in that guide you can take a closer look at the frequency and times of sending.
How automatic reminders work with Wilapp
Wilapp allows you to link communications with appointments registered in the system.
In this way, you can automate different moments of the process:
- Confirmation when booking is made.
- Reminder one day before.
- Reminder one hour before.
- Communication when the appointment is modified.
- Communication when the appointment is cancelled.
- Ticket submission.
This allows the system to accompany the customer throughout the process without relying on a worker to remember to send each message.
What happens if an appointment changes?
Reminders aren’t useful if they contain outdated information.
Imagine that a client had an appointment at 5:00 p.m. and finally changes at 6:30 p.m.
If appointment management and communications work independently, the risk of errors increases.
That’s why it’s important to use a solution where the agenda and notifications are connected.
With Wilapp, communications can also accompany modifications and cancellations of reservations.
WhatsApp reminders and digital agenda: better together
Using only one tool to send messages solves part of the problem.
However, the process is much simpler when bookings, customers and communications are part of the same system.
An appointment is recorded.
The customer receives the confirmation.
As the date approaches, he gets his reminders.
If the booking changes, the information is updated.
And it all starts from the same management.
If you are looking for a complete solution to centralize not only the notifications, but the entire organization of your reservations, you can learn about Wilapp’s management program.
In this way, this post focuses exclusively on automatic reminders by WhatsApp, while the main page includes the comprehensive management solution.
Can I also allow customers to book online?
Yes. Automating reminders is only one part of the appointment digitization process.
You can also make it easy for customers to make bookings without needing to call or wait for a manual response.
If this is your main need, we recommend you consult our guide to online bookings without commission.
This way you can learn specifically about the advantages of incorporating online bookings into your business.
Appointment reminders or WhatsApp marketing campaigns?
It is also important to differentiate between the two concepts.
An appointment reminder is related to a specific booking: it confirms or reminds the customer that they have an appointment.
A marketing campaign has another objective: to communicate promotions, news, new treatments or to recover customers who have not come for a long time.
Wilapp also has Marketing Pro to work on this type of communication through WhatsApp and email.
If you’re looking to capture new bookings or reactivate your customer base, you can learn more in our guide on how to automate WhatsApp messages for customers.
Stop sending reminders one by one
Imagine you have 20 dates a day.
If you want to send a confirmation, a reminder the day before and another before the appointment, the volume of communications increases rapidly.
Doing it manually implies continuously reviewing the agenda.
With an automated system, those processes can be executed from the bookings recorded, reducing daily administrative work.
And the higher the volume of citations in your business, the more time you can save.
Which businesses can use automatic reminders on WhatsApp?
This type of tool is especially useful for any activity in which a part of the income depends on making the right use of the available hours.
For example:
Hairdressers and barbershops: to remember cuts, colors, treatments and other services.
Beauty centres: to manage treatments and scheduled sessions.
Clinics and consultations: to keep the patient informed about their upcoming appointments.
Physiotherapy: especially useful in treatments that require several sessions.
Tattoo: to remember sessions booked in advance.
Dog grooming: to arrange recurring appointments and scheduled services.
Frequently asked questions about appointment reminders on WhatsApp
Can appointment reminders be sent automatically?
Yes. With a program connected to the address book you can automate communications to avoid making each shipment manually.
When does Wilapp send reminders?
Wilapp allows you to work with confirmation when making the reservation, reminder one day before and another one hour before, as well as communications associated with modifications and cancellations.
Do I need to check daily who I should write to?
The purpose of automating the process is precisely to avoid this repetitive task. The notices are related to the registered appointments.
Are reminders only for hairdressers?
They can be used in different businesses that work by appointment, such as aesthetics, barbershop, physiotherapy, clinics, tattooing, dog grooming or wellness.
Is a reminder the same as a WhatsApp campaign?
No. The reminder is related to a specific appointment. Marketing campaigns allow you to work on other objectives, such as promotions, news, loyalty or customer recovery.
Automate your appointment reminders with Wilapp
A program to send appointment reminders on WhatsApp can help you leave behind one of the most repetitive tasks of businesses that work with reservations.
Instead of going through the agenda and manually writing to each client, you can automate communications related to their appointments.
With Wilapp, the agenda, clients, and reminders are all part of the same system.
Fewer messages sent manually.
Less time checking the agenda.
More time to serve and grow your business.
