Appointment reminders

Why text and not email

A reminder only works if it is seen before the appointment. Email reminders sit unread in a promotions tab; a text is read within minutes. The measurable difference is not the reminder, it is the reply: a text reminder gets answered, so you find out about a conflict the day before instead of at the appointment time.

Consent

Reminders for an appointment the person booked with you are transactional, sent under prior express consent, which is a lower bar than marketing. Do not attach an offer to them. The moment a reminder carries a promotion it becomes a marketing message and needs marketing consent, per the compliance guide.

The build

Two sends per appointment: 24 hours before, and 2 hours before.

// scheduled job
for (const appt of await crm.appointmentsStartingIn({ hours: 24, window: 15 })) {
  await send(appt, `Hi ${appt.firstName}, it's Sam from Northside. You're booked in for ${appt.timeLabel} tomorrow with ${appt.staffName}. Still good, or want to move it?`);
}

for (const appt of await crm.appointmentsStartingIn({ hours: 2, window: 15 })) {
  if (appt.confirmed) continue;
  await send(appt, `Hi ${appt.firstName}, see you at ${appt.timeLabel} today. ${appt.locationHint}`);
}

async function send(appt, content) {
  await fetch("https://api.bluereacher.com/v1/messages", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.BLUEREACHER_API_KEY}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      to: appt.phone,
      message: content,
      send_mode: "instant",
      metadata: { crm_id: appt.recordId, recipe: "appointment-reminder" }
    })
  });
}

The question that does the work

"Still good, or want to move it?" is the whole recipe. A reminder that only informs gets no reply and changes nothing. A reminder that asks gets one of three useful answers: yes (confirmed, and now they have committed out loud), no (you recover the slot with a day's notice instead of losing it), or silence (a signal worth acting on with the 2-hour message).

Handle the reply:

if (e.event === "message.received") {
  const text = e.data.content.toLowerCase();
  const recordId = await crmIdForPhone(e.data.phone_number);
  if (/^(yes|yep|yeah|confirmed|see you|👍)/.test(text)) {
    await crm.update(recordId, { confirmed: true });
  } else {
    await notify(`Appointment reply needs a human: "${e.data.content}"`);
  }
}

Auto-confirm only on unambiguous replies. Anything else goes to a person, because "yes but can we do 3 instead" is not a confirmation and a bot that treats it as one causes the no-show it was meant to prevent.

Include what they need to show up

Address, floor, parking, what to bring, who to ask for. A reminder that says only the time assumes the person still has the booking email, and many do not. One extra line here removes a real cause of no-shows.

Do not over-send

Two reminders. A third is noise, and reminders go to your best relationships, which are exactly the ones not worth annoying. If the appointment is more than a week out, add one confirmation at booking time and keep the 24-hour and 2-hour pair.

What to measure

No-show rate before and after, confirmation reply rate on the 24-hour message, and how many appointments get moved rather than missed. Moved appointments are wins, not losses, and reporting them as losses hides the value of the whole build.