Who sends appointment reminder texts?
Any business that loses money to an empty slot: clinics and dental offices, home services with visit windows, and anyone else who books people into a calendar.
Clinics and dental offices remind patients before each visit and rebook anyone who misses one. Home services teams remind homeowners of the visit window so someone is home when the van arrives.
Keep reminders to the business name, the date, the time and how to reply. Leave out the reason for the visit and anything about care; the clinic reminder guide covers what clinics can include.
What does an appointment reminder sequence look like?
Two texts: one 3 days before with a way to confirm or reschedule, and one the day before. Any reply ends the sequence for that person.
- Text · Day 1, 3 days before
{{Business}}: {{First name}}, you're booked for {{Date}} at {{Time}}. Reply C to confirm, or R and we'll find you a new time.
118 characters with the fields filled in, one segment. With the opt-out line: 2 segments.
- Wait
2 days
- Text · Day 3, the day before
See you tomorrow at {{Time}}, {{First name}}. Running late or need to move it? Reply here and we will help.
95 characters with the fields filled in, one segment. With the opt-out line: 2 segments.
Every text in a sequence ends with: Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. A reply ends the sequence, so the line is on each automated text, and your team’s answers from the inbox go without it. Names are made up.
- A reply ends the reminders. Someone who answers C to the first text gets no day-before text. If you want everyone reminded the day before, run that text as its own one-step campaign instead, pushed or scheduled the afternoon before.
- Ask for R, never CANCEL. On its own, CANCEL or END is an opt-out word, so it would stop every text from your workspace to that person. “Can I cancel my appointment?” in a sentence is read as an ordinary reply.
- Fields such as {{Date}} and {{Time}} come from your list, written the way you want them to read. If a field is empty for someone, they pause at that step with the missing column named, so nobody gets a text with a gap in it.
When should appointment reminders go out?
Three days before and the day before, inside your sending hours on the person’s own clock, with recall reminders on a quieter day of the week.
Textually doesn’t read an appointment date and count back from it. Each morning, push the bookings 3 days out into the reminder campaign, or schedule the launch the evening before. Waits count whole days, from 1 to 30, and Business days only skips Saturdays and Sundays. To start a batch at a set time, use Schedule on the Launch tab and pick the date and time.
Each campaign has its own sending days and hours. With Send in each lead’s local time on, those hours follow each person’s time zone, read from the area code of their number, and Textually never sends a campaign text before 8 AM or after 9 PM on their clock, the window US federal rules set for telephone solicitations (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)). A text that falls due outside the hours waits for the next allowed time.
What consent do appointment reminder texts need?
The person’s agreement to get texts from you, asked on the intake or booking form and recorded with the date. Keep offers out of reminders.
Carrier guidance treats reminders as informational texts that need express permission (CTIA, 2023). In Canada, a message that solely confirms a booking skips CASL’s consent requirement (s. 6(6)(b)); a text about a new paid service is promotional and needs consent. The reminder text guide has templates and timing for each kind of visit. This is a summary of public rules as of October 2026, not legal advice.
In Textually each person needs a consent record, the source and the date they agreed, carried from columns on your list or your CRM, or you confirm consent for the whole campaign at launch. A text step skips anyone without one and saves the reason on the lead.
What happens when someone replies C, R or STOP?
Every reply lands in the shared inbox for the front desk, and an auto-reply can answer a C at once. STOP or clear stop wording opts the person out across your workspace.
- A reply of any kind ends the sequence for that person, and no later step goes out. The thread lands in the shared inbox with a label such as Interested or Declined, and whoever answers sends from the number the person already knows.
- Auto-replies. In Settings, under Auto-replies, set a fixed answer for C, such as “Thanks, you’re confirmed. See you then.” It goes out when the whole text is C, at most once a day to the same person, and uses texts like any reply. The C still waits in Needs reply so someone marks the visit confirmed. YES can’t be a keyword, because it is kept for opting back in.
- STOP, or clear wording such as “please stop texting me” or “remove me from your list”, opts the person out across your whole workspace: this campaign, every other campaign that holds their number, and any you run later. The inbox won’t send to them, and a later text from them does not undo it.
Every member of the workspace sees the reply in the bell inside Textually, and each person can turn on email or browser alerts. A thread that has waited more than 4 hours is marked overdue in Needs reply.
An R deserves a person: offer two new times from the inbox, from the same number the reminder came from.
How do I get bookings into Textually?
Export the day’s bookings from your scheduling or practice software as a CSV, use a shared Google Sheet, connect HighLevel, or send them through the API.
HighLevel adds a note on the contact for each reply and opt-out, and Google Sheets imports a shared sheet with Refresh from sheet for rows added since. Scheduling and practice software without an integration works through a CSV export or the API.