Please Note: This guide is only applicable to users accessing our new Express v2 system. If you have not had your system updated to this version of Express you can contact support@rushcliff.com to see if you are eligible for an upgrade.
To access your Confirmation and Reminders in Express navigate to the System Settings and then select Confirmations & Reminders.
Section 1 - Setting up Confirmations and Reminders
This section will allow you to set up the email and/or SMS message text that you wish to be sent to clients to confirm the booking of their appointment and then remind them of their appointment the day before the appointment.
This section is sorted into two tabs:
a. Confirmations: These are sent at the time an appointment is made in order to confirm the details of the booking.
b. Reminders: These send, by default, the day before the appointment is due to take place. They're scheduled as long as the appointment is more than three full days in the future. These settings can be altered for you if requested with an email to support@rushcliff.com
For both sections, you have the option to enable Email and/or SMS which will send as long as clients have the appropriate contact information in their client details. Toggle the on/off switch to enable or disable each option.
Add or modify a subject that will make your correspondence identifiable to the client and then you can type up the content of your message in the Text field.
Use the Merge Fields drop-down menu to get access to fields you can paste into the template that will auto-populate client and appointment information each time the activity is sent. You can read more about merge fields and how they work in this guide.
Choose Save once you're happy or enter an email address/mobile number in the Send a test field and press the button to send a test to yourself so you can see exactly what your clients will be receiving.
Before sending an SMS message you will need to ensure that your SMS account is set up and you have purchased SMS credits. You can consult this guide for your SMS settings.
Tip: SMS templates can use merge fields in the same way as other formats but 1 SMS message is limited to 160 characters. Beyond this limit, each instance of the message being sent will cost further credits. Take into consideration how merge fields can alter the size of your message. When using <<TITLE>> <<SURNAME>> for example, sending a message to Mr Lee will total fewer characters than sending to Mrs Jefferson. The final character limit, and thus the cost, is calculated based on what actually sends, not by the limit before any merge fields are generated.
Section 2 - Contact Preferences
Contact Preferences can be used to determine how you choose to send correspondence via PPS Express. You can choose to send email confirmations or SMS confirmations or both. As well as email reminders or SMS reminders or both.
For your clients to receive correspondence in a particular format (E-Mail or SMS) you'll need to make sure that the system preferences allow for it.
a. Set preferences for new clients
Use the toggle switches in the email and SMS templates for Confirmations and Reminders to choose which communications you want to send to your clients.
For example, if you want to send an email confirmation when the appointment is booked followed by an email and SMS reminder the day before the appointment the settings would look like this:
These settings would apply to any NEW clients that are added to the system after these changes are made.
b. Update preferences for existing clients
If you make a change to these settings by turning on or turning off any of the options you can apply the preferences to existing clients in the system too.
For example, if you choose to turn off SMS reminders you can click the 'On' toggle switch to 'Off' and then click Update Now towards the bottom of the screen to change the preferences for each of the existing clients in the system.
