Automatically reminding clients about upcoming jobs

In this article, you'll learn how to set up reminders that go out by themselves before a job. They cut down on no-shows and "was that today?" calls, and once a rule is on you don't have to think about it again.

Reminders live in Automations, which every account has. There's nothing to switch on in Features first.

To open Automations:

  1. On the web, click Automations in the main menu.
  2. On the phone app, tap the bolt at the top of the Home screen, next to search. It's also in the menu as Automations.

Picking a reminder template

Automations has two tabs: Discover, with ready-made templates, and My Automations, with the rules you've added. Until you add your first rule, it opens on Discover.

  1. Click the Discover tab.
  2. Find the Reminders group. It has four templates:
  • 1 Day Notice / Client Reminder emails the client one day before the job. It comes with a message already written, including the date, time, address, assigned tech and a link to their customer portal.
  • 4 Hours Notice / Client Reminder texts the client four hours before the job.
  • Immediate Notice / Client Reminder texts the client as soon as the job is created.
  • 2 Hours Notice / Tech Reminder texts your team two hours before the job.
  1. On the web, hover over the card you want and click Use. On a phone, tap the Use button under the card.
Choosing the 1 day reminder template

Adjusting the rule

The template opens in the rule editor, written as a sentence. Every underlined word is something you can change. Click it to pick a new value. On a phone, tapping a word opens a sheet at the bottom of the screen.

  • Text or email: click the medium (for example an email) and pick a text message, an email or a text and email.
  • Who gets it: click client to switch to your team. When it goes to your team, pick people under the sentence next to to:. If you don't pick anyone, it goes to the account owner.
  • When it goes out: click the timing (for example 1 day ahead of) to choose immediately, ahead of or after, then the number and whether it's minutes, hours or days. The word after it, schedule date or end date, is what the timing counts from.
  • Only some jobs: click Add condition to limit the rule, for example only when the job type is a certain type.

At the bottom, Automation will be sent sets the hours a reminder is allowed to go out. It starts at 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. A reminder that would land outside those hours waits until they open.

The rule editor, with the parts you can change underlined
The rule editor, with the parts you can change underlined

Writing the message

  1. Click Preview/edit message.
  2. Type the message in the box. For an email, there's a Subject line above it.
  3. Click any of the short codes under the box, like client_first_name or job_date, to drop that job's details in where your cursor is.
  4. Click Save and close.
Warning: Only the 1 day email comes with a message written for you. The 4 hour, immediate and tech templates start blank, and a rule with an empty message sends nothing. Write a message before you add the rule.
Writing the reminder message

Saving and turning it on

  1. Click Add automation.
  2. The rule now sits under My Automations with an on/off toggle on its card. It's on as soon as you add it.

To pause a reminder, flip its toggle off. To see what it has sent or has lined up, click Activity on the card. Each entry reads Sent, Scheduled, Skipped or Failed, with the reason when something was skipped.

Note: A reminder checks the job again before it goes out. Cancel the job and the reminder is dropped. Reschedule it and the reminder moves to the new date. Turn the rule off while a reminder is waiting and that reminder doesn't go out either.
Note: These templates start when a job is created. If you create a job with no date, the reminder is skipped and adding a date later doesn't bring it back. For jobs you book first and schedule later, click is created in the sentence and pick is scheduled instead.
Tip: You can run more than one reminder on the same job, like the 1 day email and the 4 hour text together. Add each template as its own rule.
Note: On the free CRM, a reminder text doesn't send on its own. It shows up as ready to send, and you send it from your phone with one tap.

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