Follow-ups: automatic emails and texts
Something happens, you wait, and a message goes out.
A follow-up is a sentence: something happens, you wait, and a message goes out. "Two days after an appointment, ask how it went." "Four weeks later, unless they have already rebooked." You build them under Follow-ups, on a board that shows the whole sequence at once.
Ends here
Send a text
Business name: your booking is still…
The follow-up board, with the Chase an unfinished booking template. The cards say what each step is; the panel is where you write.
- 1Its name — just for you. Customers never see it.
- 2The board — the whole sequence, top to bottom. Click any card to edit it.
- 3A split — asks a question and sends people two different ways.
- 4The panel — whatever card you have selected. This is where the writing happens, in the same editor as Messages: booking details as named tags, + Add a detail for details and ready-made sections, and Show only when… for conditions.
What can start one
| Somebody books | The moment the booking is made. |
| An appointment is marked done | After they have been in. The usual start for a review request or a rebooking nudge. |
| Somebody does not turn up | Marked as a no-show. |
| A booking is cancelled | However it was cancelled — by you or by them. |
| Somebody starts booking and stops | They got as far as leaving an email address but never finished. Needs Unfinished bookings switched on under Features. Checked once a day, for attempts left for at least an hour. |
| A customer has not been back | Nothing booked for a number of months you choose (6 to begin with). Checked once a day. |
| A pass is running low | Down to a number of credits you choose on a package. Once per pass. |
| A pass is about to run out of time | A pass with something left on it expires within a number of days you choose. |
| A date they gave you comes round | Counted from an answer on their record. See Messages timed from a date. |
The four kinds of step
- Wait — hours, days, weeks or months (a month counts as 30 days), counted from the step before it. Almost every sequence should start with one: sending the instant something happens reads as automated.
- Send an email — a subject and a message, in the same editor as your other emails. See below.
- Send a text — the same tags and menus in a plain box, with a count of how many texts it will cost. Needs texts on your subscription and switched on. See below.
- Split — asks a question and forks into a Yes and a No branch. The questions: They have booked again since, They have an appointment coming up, This was their first visit, They have spent more than an amount, and The service was a service you pick.
Details and conditions in a message
Email and text steps are written the way every Booked message is. Booking details show as named tags such as First name or Service, in the subject too; pick one from + Add a detail to add it, and hover over a tag to see its code. The Ready-made sections — Video call, Payment summary and the rest — are filled in from the booking, each empty when it does not apply, and nothing is added that you did not put in. Words you put in a condition with Show only when… are judged when the step sends: a group headed if a video call only goes to a video appointment. Passes add tags of their own, such as What’s left on the package. See merge tags and editing your emails and texts.
Somebody starts booking and stops, A customer has not been back, the two pass starts and A date they gave you comes round are about a person, not a booking. In those, their name and phone come from their customer record — or, for somebody who stopped booking, from what they typed — and every condition counts as not true. For somebody who stopped booking, Service, Branch, Date, Short date and Start time are whatever they had picked, if they got that far. Every other booking detail, and every ready-made section, comes out empty, so write these messages to read well without them. Their email, Business name, Business email and Business phone are always there, as are the package tags for a pass and the answer codes for a date (see messages timed from a date).
Marketing, or not
Every follow-up says which it is, with the This is marketing switch on its first card, and Booked does the right thing either way. The same card can limit it to certain services (or, for the pass triggers, certain packages).
- Marketing — anyone who has opted out is skipped, and every message carries an opt-out: emails end “You are getting this because you have booked with” your business, with a Stop these emails link that works in one click; texts end “Reply STOP to opt out.” Use it for offers and win-backs.
- Not marketing — sent to everybody it applies to, no unsubscribe link. Use it for aftercare, reminders and review requests: things that continue an appointment they already had.
- This is private — a separate switch for anything somebody might not have told the people around them. Booked then refuses to save an answer from their record in an email subject or the opening of a text. See messages timed from a date.
Nothing sends until you switch it on
New follow-ups are drafts. The list shows Off against them and the switch on each row turns them on. Switching one on cannot lose your work — the steps are left alone. The Follow-ups feature itself must also be on under Features (it is, to begin with); switched off there, nothing starts and nothing already queued is sent.
Let Sidekick write it
The Let Sidekick build it box on the Follow-ups screen takes a sentence — "four weeks after a travel consultation, ask how they got on, unless they have rebooked" — and, when you press Build it, drafts the whole sequence, waits and wording included. The credits it costs are shown beside the box. It always arrives as a draft, so you read every word before anything can send.
If you cannot add a text step
"Send a text" is greyed out unless three things are true: your licence is active, texts are on your subscription (in your plan or as the add-on), and they are switched on under Messages › Text messages. See setting up texts. Hover the greyed-out option and Booked tells you which of the three is missing. A sequence that already contains a text step cannot be saved while texts are unavailable — remove the step, or switch texts on.