Using SMS reminders

SMS (text messages) are an excellent way to send your bookers a confirmation or reminder before the booking and can help keep your bookers engaged, reducing no-shows.  

Paid and free users can add SMS notifications to their booking pages. 

In this guide you'll learn how to setup SMS notifications on your booking page that send to your booker or yourself. 

Purchase SMS credits on your account

SMS credits can be purchased by both free and paid accounts, as the credits are purchased outside any monthly subscription costs. 

1 SMS credit is 160 characters. SMS credits can be purchased on the Your Account page by clicking SMS credits.

SMS Credits are 7¢ (US) / €0.07 (EUR) / £0.05 (GBP)

Purchasing 200 credits or more will qualify for volume discount. Select from the dropdown how many you'd like to purchase. 

Add an SMS question to your booking form

For YouCanBook.me to send SMS messages, we must validate that the number entered on the booking form is a mobile number. 

To successfully send SMS messages on your booking page, add a new question to your booking form, and select Phone Number as the question type. 

Set a shorthand code for the question, and ensure the box Mobile Phone is checked. You can decide if you want the question required on your booking form.

Add a SMS Message to your Notifications

You can trigger SMS to yourself or your booker at any of the action triggers under Notifications > Actions. 

For each SMS notification you set up, decide:

When will this SMS be triggered? 

Set how many minutes after the action is taken will you or your booker will receive this SMS

Recipient

In the Send to field, select the Phone number question from your booking form. If you are sending the SMS to yourself, select Enter a custom phone number from the dropdown and enter your mobile phone number in the field below.

If sending the SMS to a custom phone number, the phone number should be entered in the format  +XXXXXXXXXXX, with the number starting with a plus sign and your country code. Incorrectly formatted phone numbers will result in the SMS not sending.

The SMS message can send to multiple recipients. Select   Enter a custom phone number, and enter multiple shorthand codes from your booking page or multiple phone numbers, separated by a comma.  

SMS Message

Personalize the SMS message that will send after the appointment ends. Use the curly brackets in the styling toolbar to add shorthand codes from your booking page.

Do not format links in your SMS message - your link will become automatically hyperlinked when delivered to your client's SMS application.

Keep this message brief - 1 credit allows for 160 characters. Shorthand codes may expand to longer text, resulting in more than 1 credit being used in a single message. Use the counter on the top right corner of the message box to estimate how many credits your SMS will take. 

• This link will tell you if you have any unicode characters in your text message.
• This link will tell you how many segments your text message will be. 

How SMS replies are routed on your account

When a booker replies to an SMS message they receive, that reply is turned into an email. 

On a team booking page

The SMS reply will go to the team member's email that received the booking

With Gmail integrated

The SMS reply will go to the Gmail address integrated with YouCanBook.me

If the Contributor or Administrator on your account received a booking

The SMS reply will go to the account email address of the Contributor or Administrator

All other SMS replies will go to the Account Owner email address. All SMS replies will send from notifications@youcanbook.me. Clicking Reply on the email will send the response to the bookers email address. 

View sent messages on your account

On your Account page, click View Messages to see the status of sent SMS messages on your account.

The status page will show you if an SMS succeeded or not. If it shows failed, please ensure:

• The number they entered on the booking form was a valid mobile number
• The booker did not leave the phone number field blank
• You have sufficient credits on your account
• The question type on your booking form is correctly set to "Phone number" with "Mobile phone" checked.

Other FAQ about SMS

What happens when my client replies to the SMS message?

When your client replies to an SMS message, that reply is turned into an email. Where the email is sent depends on the factors listed above. 

How can I reply back to my client via SMS?

To respond to the client via SMS, you would need to copy their mobile number into your personal mobile device and send a reply via text.

Can I personalize the number that sends the SMS?

It is not possible to personalize or customize the number that sends the SMS to your bookers. YouCanBook.me we offer region specific numbers, based on the location of your booker - otherwise the sending number defaults to a US number. You may want to first identify yourself in the beginning of the SMS message you configure. 

Can my client opt-out from receiving future SMS from me?

Bookers can opt-out from SMS messages by replying to SMS with any of these words: STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT

My status page says an SMS succeeded, but my client didn't receive any message?

Some mobile providers have begun filtering out unknown numbers in an attempt to reduce spam SMS. YouCanBook.me has no control over regulations set by individual mobile phone companies. Please reach out to YouCanBook.me support to confirm if this has happened with your client.