Each message follows a template, filled in from the booking, and goes by text, email or both. Texts need SMS, which comes with Business Pro, Flex and Max. The five journey guides at the end follow one customer through each path, message by message.
Messages at each stage
Notifications lays the messages out in the order a booking moves, one card per stage. The first four cards show straight away, and the rest sit under Advanced options.
| Stage | To the customer | To your business |
|---|---|---|
| Booking Created | A confirmation email, one version for a booking your team makes and one for an online booking, and a confirmation text, or a request-received text for an online request | A copy of each online booking by email, a new booking text, and an email to each team member assigned |
| Booking Updates | An email and a text when the booking is rescheduled, and a text when the price changes | An email, and a text if you want one, when the customer adds a note to their booking |
| Booking Accepted / Declined | An email and a text when you accept or decline a booking request | Nothing |
| Pre-Appointment Reminders | A reminder email and text at the time you set, an optional second reminder, the Friday email of next week's bookings, and the pre-auth heads-up email when pre-hold funds is on | Nothing |
| Vaccination Expiry Reminders | An email and a text when a vaccination is expiring, and when you reject a certificate | Nothing |
| Card Expiry Reminders | An email before their card on file expires | Nothing |
| Rebooking Reminders | A text when a pet is due for its next visit, once you turn it on. It needs a dedicated number | Nothing |
| Payment Events | A receipt email when a payment goes through, and an email and a text when a card hold or a payment is declined | An email and a text when a card hold or a payment is declined |
| Booking Cancelled | An email, worded for whether you or they cancelled, and a text | Nothing |
| Post-Appointment | A refund email when you issue a refund | Nothing |
| Abandoned Bookings & Incomplete Profiles | A text when they start a booking and leave, while Auto Recovery SMS is on | Hourly emails, and a text if you want one, about bookings started and left and profiles left unfinished |
| Intake Forms | An email or a text when a form is sent to them | An email each time a client fills in a form |
| Daily Run Sheet | Nothing | The day's run sheet by email at 6:30am, and a summary text if you want one |
| Membership Notifications, once you have a membership plan | Emails when they join, pause or resume, pay, cancel, when a payment fails, and when they near their benefit limits | An alert when a member joins or cancels, an email and a text when a payment fails, and a weekly summary |
There is no Friday text. After a visit, Petboost sends the receipt, any refund email and, if you turn it on, the rebooking reminder, and nothing else of its own. Anything after a problem or a cancellation is a message your team writes. The full wording of each message is in Pet Owner Communications and Business Communications.
Choose the messages sent when a booking is made
Set these first, because every new booking sends them.
- Open Notifications in Settings.
- Under Booking Created, switch Email the customer: booking updates on or off. The same switch sends the change, cancellation, receipt, refund and payment-failure emails.
- Switch Text the customer: booking confirmation on or off.
- Choose the alerts for your team: Email you: new booking copy, Text you: new booking alert and Email assigned team members.
- To read a message as it is sent, select Preview on its row.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Each message sits under the switch that controls it. Rows marked To your customer go to the pet owner and rows marked To you come to you.
Set when reminders go out
Reminders go out before each appointment, at the time you choose.
- Open Notifications in Settings.
- Under Pre-Appointment Reminders, switch on Email the customer: reminders, Text the customer: reminders, or both.
- Set the Reminder Time under First Reminder.
- Optional: under Second Reminder, switch on Email the customer: reminders (2nd) or Text the customer: reminders (2nd), and set its time.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Reminder Time takes weeks, days, hours and minutes, with minutes in 5-minute steps. A reminder time longer than 72 hours shows This reminder may not land in time to be effective. Common settings are 2 hours for a same-day appointment, 24 hours as the standard reminder, and 48 hours for two days' notice.
Email the customer: Friday reminder emails the customer on Fridays at 2pm, business time, with their bookings from Saturday to the following Friday. It follows the first reminder email until you change it. With Reminders for frequent Daily and Weekly Recurring appointments off, reminders are skipped for frequently recurring appointments.
The timeline of one booking
These messages go out at fixed points around an appointment.
| When | What goes out |
|---|---|
| When the booking is made | The confirmation email and text, and your alerts |
| 74 hours before the appointment | The pre-auth heads-up email, when pre-hold funds is on |
| 72 hours before the appointment | The pre-authorisation hold is placed on the card. If it is declined, the customer and your business are told |
| At the reminder time you set | The first reminder, then the second if it is on |
| Fridays at 2pm, business time | The Friday email of the customer's bookings from Saturday to the following Friday |
| When a payment goes through | The receipt email |
| When you issue a refund | The refund email |
What can stop a message
A switch on Notifications is the default, and a few things can override it:
- A service can keep its own setting. The switch then shows a badge such as 2 services use their own setting
- A customer can have their own settings on their Settings & Overrides tab
- On a trial, Petboost sends no appointment, Friday, vaccination or rebooking reminders until the trial ends. Booking confirmations follow their switches
- Petboost does not send texts to a landline, and a customer who replies STOP gets no more texts from that number
Texts and emails
Texts are short and suit time-sensitive messages: reminders, payment alerts and last-minute changes. Emails carry the full details with your branding and action buttons, and suit confirmations, receipts and service summaries.
Petboost fills in the details from the booking. With Communications Booster and an active number you can write your own wording for the booking texts.
| Detail | Filled in as |
|---|---|
| The pet's first name | {{PetFirstName}} |
| The pet type emoji | {{PetAnimalTypeEmoji}} |
| The service name | {{ServiceLabel}} |
| The start time | {{StartTime}} |
| The start date | {{StartDate}} |
| The assigned team member | {{TeamMemberName}} |
| Your business name | {{BusinessName}} |
| Your business phone number | {{BusinessPhone}} |
| A link to the booking in the pet owner app | {{AppointmentLink}} |
The text you write yourself is the Pre-Appointment Message under Custom Messages, which goes into confirmation and reminder emails. The full list of details is in Pet Owner Communications.
The five customer journeys
Each journey guide follows one customer through a path, message by message.
| Journey | What it covers |
|---|---|
| First-Time Customer Journey | A new customer signs in with a code sent to their mobile, adds their pet and books online, and Petboost messages them at each stage of the booking |
| Returning Customer Journey | A returning customer books, reschedules or cancels from their own app, is reminded before each visit and, once you turn it on, told when a pet is due to book again |
| Problem Resolution Journey | A card hold or a payment is declined, or a booking moves. Petboost sends the first message to the customer and to you, and your team writes the rest |
| Cancellation Journey | Your team or the customer cancels a booking. Petboost sends a fixed cancellation email and text, and your team writes any follow-up |
| Business-Managed Journey | Your team books for a customer. Petboost confirms the booking if you notify them, reminds them before the visit and emails a receipt once paid |
Related
- Notifications: message timing and content
- Automatic Actions: automated workflows
- Branding: how your emails look
- Appointments: send a message to a customer from a booking