WhatsApp appointment reminders for your salon
When to send the reminder, what it should say and how to let clients confirm or cancel with one tap. With templates you can copy.
By the Citauno team 7 min read
The best time to remind a client about an appointment is usually 24 hours before: they can still rearrange their day, and you have time to offer the slot to someone else. A good reminder says what, when and where, and lets the client confirm or cancel without typing a message. WhatsApp works because it’s the first thing your clients check; email is the backup.
When to send it
With 24 hours’ notice, the message arrives at a useful moment. If the appointment is on Thursday at 10, the reminder shows up on Wednesday morning, when the client can still move things around or let you know. If they cancel, you have a whole day to fill the gap.
Sending it the same morning feels safer, but it leaves little room. If a client cancels an 11 o’clock appointment at 9, it’s hard to get someone else in.
There are two special cases:
- Same-day bookings. There aren’t 24 hours to work with. A reminder a few hours before is enough, and if the booking is only a short while away, you don’t need one: it’s fresh in the client’s mind.
- Very early appointments. For an 8 a.m. appointment, a reminder the day before beats one at dawn that nobody reads.
One well-made reminder does more than several. If a client gets three messages about the same appointment, they stop reading them.
What a good reminder says
Keep it short, with everything the client needs so they don’t have to ask:
- Your business name, so it doesn’t look like a message from just anyone.
- Day and time, with the weekday: “tomorrow, Friday the 16th at 3 pm” is clearer than “16/10 15:00”.
- Service and professional, especially if several people work with you.
- Address or a landmark, if your place is hard to find.
- How to confirm or cancel, with a simple reply or a button.
What to leave out: promotions, price lists and long texts. The reminder has one job.
Three templates for your manual messages
These are your own texts, to send from your WhatsApp when you do it by hand. They aren’t Citauno’s automatic messages. Change what’s in square brackets.
Reminder the day before
Hi [name], this is [business].
Just a reminder of your appointment tomorrow, [day] at [time], for [service] with [professional].
Reply YES to confirm or NO if you can't make it, so we can give the slot to someone else.
Confirmation when they book by chat
All set, [name]. You're booked in:
[Service] with [professional]
[Day] [date] at [time]
[Address]
If you can't make it, please let us know at least 3 hours ahead.
Reply when someone cancels
Thanks for letting us know, [name]. Your slot is free again.
Whenever you want to book again, pick the day that suits you here: [your booking link]
Manual or automatic
Manual reminders work well when you have only a few appointments a day and someone with time to send them. The trouble starts in busy weeks: messages are sent late, at night, from a personal phone, and one day they get forgotten.
Automatic reminders are sent at the lead time you set, even while you’re with a client. In exchange, they lose some of the personal touch. A mix that works well is automatic reminders for most appointments and a message of your own for new clients or long services.
How reminders work in Citauno
When it’s sent and how many
Citauno sends one reminder per booking. By default it’s sent 24 hours before, and you can change the lead time in WhatsApp → Reminders. If the booking was made with less notice, the reminder moves to 3 hours or 1 hour before. A booking made less than an hour and a half before the appointment gets no reminder.
There’s no second reminder. If you want an extra nudge for a long service, send a manual message using the templates above.
Which channel
The reminder is sent by email, if the client has an email address on file, and by WhatsApp, if they left a WhatsApp number. You switch each channel on or off separately on that same screen.
The WhatsApp message comes from Citauno’s number, not your business’s number. That’s why it helps to have your own WhatsApp visible on your profile: if a client wants to talk to you, they know where to write.
What happens when the client taps a button
The WhatsApp reminder has two buttons:
- Confirm: the booking is confirmed and you see it in your calendar.
- Cancel: the booking is cancelled and the slot opens up for someone else to book online.
There’s no button to change the time. If the client wants another day, they cancel and book again, or message you and you move it with Reschedule.
Whatever the client types in reply to the reminder doesn’t show up inside Citauno: there’s no message inbox. For conversations, your own WhatsApp is still the channel.
The included messages
The plan includes 50 WhatsApp messages per professional per month. They renew every month, and the ones you don’t use don’t carry over. If you need more, you can buy extra packs, which don’t expire.
If the messages run out, WhatsApp reminders stop until the next month or until you buy a pack. Email reminders are still sent to clients who have an email address. The difference between plan messages and packs is explained in WhatsApp: Citauno’s number or your own.
Email as a second channel
When a client books, they get a confirmation email with a calendar invitation and buttons to add the appointment to Google, Outlook or Apple. No WhatsApp message is sent at that point: the first WhatsApp they receive is the reminder.
The email reminder has a button to cancel and, if the booking is still pending, one to confirm as well. It’s a good backup for clients who don’t use WhatsApp, or for when you’ve run out of messages for the month. Every message and when it’s sent is in the notification templates, and the business settings are in the settings reference.
An example
Picture a small spa with two treatment rooms and a massage therapist who helps out three days a week. Until now, the owner sent reminders at night from her phone, checking a paper diary.
With automatic reminders she leaves the lead time at 24 hours and both channels switched on. In the morning she opens the calendar and sees which appointments are already confirmed and which were cancelled, without having written a single message.
She still uses her own WhatsApp for whatever needs a personal touch: the new client asking what to wear, or the one who booked a full spa day and deserves a message of her own. She no longer stays up late sending reminders.
Frequently asked questions
Does the reminder come from my business’s number?
No. It comes from Citauno’s WhatsApp number, with the details of the appointment at your business. If the client wants to write to you, they use the WhatsApp number on your profile.
Can I send a second reminder?
Not from Citauno. It sends one per booking, at the lead time you choose. If you want a second message for a particular case, send it yourself by hand.
What happens if the month’s messages run out?
WhatsApp reminders stop until the messages renew the next month or until you buy an extra pack. Email keeps working for clients who have an email address on file.
Can the client reschedule from WhatsApp?
No. They can confirm or cancel. For another time, they cancel and book again from your link, or message you so you can move it.
If you want to stop sending reminders by hand, try Citauno free for 15 days, no card needed. See how the online booking system for hair salons works, the one for spas or for nail studios, or go straight to pricing.