Appointment reminders

Your customers can get a reminder before their appointment, by WhatsApp or by email. We ask them in the chat right after they book, and they only get it if they say yes.

You switch them on yourself in Integrations → Google Calendar, on the Reminders tab: by email from the Basic plan, and by WhatsApp too on Pro and E-commerce.

Who can use them

• Your Google Calendar has to take the assistant's appointments: calendar connected and The assistant books into your calendar on, in the Settings tab of Integrations → Google Calendar (from the Basic plan). See Google Calendar appointments.
• By email, from the Basic plan. You don't need WhatsApp.
• By WhatsApp, on the Pro and E-commerce plans, with your WhatsApp Business connected and the assistant on in Channels → WhatsApp. On Basic, the tab tells you and takes you to the plans. More in Connect WhatsApp Business.
• With Restoo connected they aren't available: your bookings go to Restoo.
• They aren't available for healthcare providers or businesses that offer health services (clinic, dentist, physio, psychologist, aesthetic medicine…): a reminder would reveal that the person has a medical appointment, which is health data. Before switching them on you tick a box confirming it; only the account holder can tick it. If your business name or your assistant's instructions look like a healthcare provider's, the tab asks you to message us and we review it with you.

Which appointments get a reminder

• Only appointments the assistant booked itself in your Google Calendar, in a WhatsApp conversation, in your website chat or on your direct link.
• These get no reminder: appointments that come in through a form (such as Request an appointment), ones you confirm by hand in the list, ones from Instagram, Messenger or Telegram, and bookings in Restoo, Jobber or Let's Book.

Which channel it goes by

• If they book on WhatsApp, the reminder goes by WhatsApp. Only if it can't go by WhatsApp (you have that switch off, or the WhatsApp message isn't approved or is paused), you have email on and your customer gave you their email when booking, it's offered by email.
• If they book in your website chat or on your direct link, it goes by WhatsApp to the phone they type when booking, if you have WhatsApp reminders on and it's a valid number (if they type it without a country code, it's taken to be from your WhatsApp number's country). If not, it goes by email, if you have email on and your customer left theirs.
• Each appointment gets only one reminder, never on both channels.
• With email reminders on, in your website chat and on your direct link the assistant asks for an email when booking (or a phone, if your customer prefers).

Switch them on

In the Reminders tab:

1. Tick the box "My business isn't a healthcare provider and doesn't offer health services". Until you tick it, the switches can't be turned on. It's saved with your first switch-on, and after that you see the date in its place.
2. Turn on Send reminders by WhatsApp. When you do, we create the reminder message in your WhatsApp Business account with your business name (the name your WhatsApp shows; the tab shows it to you before you switch on) and Meta reviews it: that can take up to 24 hours. Until Meta approves it, no reminders go out by WhatsApp, and the tab tells you where it stands.
3. Turn on Send reminders by email, if you want them by email. Right there you see where your customers' replies will reach you: the first address in Forms → Notification emails or, if you have none, your account's email.
4. Choose When they're sent (in your business's time); it applies to WhatsApp and to email. Under each option you see its rule:

• The day before at 10:00, at 13:00 or at 18:00. For appointments from the day after tomorrow on, and for tomorrow's appointments booked today up to three hours before that time (until 7:00, 10:00 or 15:00). If they're booked with less notice, the reminder isn't lost: it goes out about 3 hours after the booking (at 8:00 if that falls at night), as long as the appointment is still more than 12 hours away. With 13:00 there's no reminder for appointments at 1:00 or earlier; with 18:00, for appointments at 6:00 or earlier. And the booking always has to be made at least 12 hours ahead.
• 24 hours before. For appointments between 8:00 and 20:45. If they're booked less than 27 hours ahead, it goes out about 3 hours after the booking (at 8:00 if that falls at night), as long as the appointment is still more than 12 hours away. If that isn't possible, with at least 25 hours' notice it goes out 24 hours before.
• 4 hours before. For appointments from 12:00 on, booked at least 5 hours ahead (the reminder never goes out before 8:00). On WhatsApp it uses a second message that Meta has to approve: when you choose it with WhatsApp on, the tab tells you and asks you to confirm; until Meta approves it, new appointments get no WhatsApp reminder.

If you change the hour of "the day before", it applies to reminders accepted from then on. If you switch between "the day before", "24 hours before" and "4 hours before", it applies to reminders offered from then on: anyone already asked gets it as they were asked. Reminders already scheduled keep their time and how they're sent.

You can always turn a switch off: while it's off, no reminder goes out on that channel, including ones already accepted. The same happens if you disconnect your Google Calendar.

The WhatsApp message

We create it in your WhatsApp Business account when you switch reminders on, with your business name, and Meta reviews it (up to 24 hours). The tab shows its status:

• we're preparing it… — it's being created.
• under review by Meta — waiting for Meta; until it's approved, none go out by WhatsApp.
• approved by Meta — ready.
• Meta hasn't approved it as a reminder — none go out by WhatsApp; message us and we'll go through it with you. We don't send it back for review on our own.
• Meta has paused it for now — it usually resumes by itself; if not, message us.
• We couldn't prepare it yet — we try again automatically; if it stays like this, message us.
• To prepare it we need to go through it with you — message us and we'll do it together.

The email

We send it from ChatME (info@chatme.es) on behalf of your business, with its name in the subject and in the text. It needs neither WhatsApp nor Meta's review. It's your business name (your account's, or your WhatsApp's if you have it connected), never your assistant's; the tab shows it to you before you switch it on. If we don't have one we can use, the tab asks you to message us, and it can't be switched on until then. Your customers' replies reach you, at the email the tab shows you: never ChatME. If there's no address where they can reach you, the tab asks you to add one in Forms → Notification emails, and until then none go out.

To protect email delivery:

• If a reminder email doesn't arrive because the address doesn't exist, or your customer marks it as spam, no ChatME business sends reminder emails to that address again.
• If within 7 days two people mark your assistant's reminders as spam, or three don't arrive because the address doesn't exist, we switch your assistant's reminders off (by WhatsApp and by email) until we go through it with you. The tab tells you; message us.
• There's a daily limit on reminder emails for each account (lower in its first two weeks) and another for all of ChatME. If it's reached, that reminder isn't sent and the appointment shows Reminder: not sent.

See the messages

In See the messages, inside the tab, you read the questions and the reminders (by WhatsApp and by email) exactly as your customers will get them, in Spanish or English, depending on the language they write in. In your website chat, the question appears in their language.

How your customer is asked

When the assistant confirms the appointment on WhatsApp, your customer gets a message right after with two buttons: "Yes, remind me" and "No, thanks". The message carries your business name, the day and time of the appointment, when the reminder will arrive (the day before, 24 hours before or 4 hours before; if they booked at short notice, the exact moment, for example "today at 20:30"), and explains they can reply STOP (BAJA in Spanish) if they change their mind. If the reminder goes by email, the question carries their email and the button says "Yes, by email". ChatME sends it, not the assistant: the assistant never offers, promises or confirms a reminder on its own.

In your website chat and on your direct link, the question appears under the appointment confirmation, in your customer's language, with your business name and the phone or email it will go to, and two buttons: "Yes, by WhatsApp" or "Yes, by email", and "No, thanks". There, only the buttons count. The question shows only once: if your customer reloads the page or moves to another page of your website without answering, it doesn't come back and no reminder is sent. If they tap "Yes", Cancel the reminder stays under the "Done" in case they change their mind before it's sent.

• If they tap "Yes" (on WhatsApp, typing "yes" right after the question works too), the reminder is scheduled. If by then reminders are switched off or paused, the WhatsApp message is no longer approved by Meta, or it's too late, they're told it can no longer be scheduled.
• If they tap "No, thanks", they get none for that appointment.
• If they don't answer, nothing is sent.

What message your customer gets

By WhatsApp, it comes from your connected WhatsApp number, with their name (if they booked on WhatsApp), the day and time of the appointment, and a last line to unsubscribe.

• If your customer has written to you on WhatsApp in the last 23 hours and the appointment is more than 14 hours away, the reminder goes as a normal message in that conversation.
• If not, it goes as the message approved by Meta (the template with your business name). If Meta can't deliver it within 12 hours (for example, with the phone off), it drops it, so it doesn't arrive late.
• With "4 hours before" it always goes as a message approved by Meta (the second one, which says "today"), and if it isn't delivered within 1 hour, it's dropped.
• Only one reminder is sent per appointment.

By email, it comes from ChatME with the subject "Reminder: your appointment at your business on day". It reminds them of the day and time, and tells them that if they need to change it or can't make it, they should reply to that email: the reply reaches you. At the bottom it has Unsubscribe and says ChatME sends it on behalf of your business. It's in Spanish or English, depending on the language your customer writes in.

If the appointment changes or is cancelled

Right before sending the reminder, ChatME checks in your Google Calendar the event the assistant created (only whether it still stands, its time and whether it repeats; it never reads your other events).

• If you delete or cancel the event in Google Calendar, the reminder isn't sent.
• If you move the event to another time, it isn't sent either (so we don't remind them of a time that's no longer right).
• If you turn the appointment into a repeating event, it isn't sent either.
• If you mark the appointment as Declined in the list, the reminder is cancelled.

How your customer unsubscribes

• By replying BAJA, STOP, PARAR or UNSUBSCRIBE in the WhatsApp chat. It works even if your assistant is off at that moment.
• By saying so in their own words in that WhatsApp conversation, for example "I don't want the reminder".
• In the email: by tapping Unsubscribe and confirming on the page that opens, or with the unsubscribe option their email program shows them. Marking it as spam works too.
• By asking you (by phone, at your place…): in the Appointments tab, open their appointment (the arrow on the right) and tap Don't send reminders. Don't use Decline for this: the appointment still stands.

In every case, your business never sends reminders again to that number or that email, not for future appointments either. Unsubscribing always works, even if you have reminders switched off.

In your website chat, before it's sent, your customer can also cancel that appointment's reminder: by tapping Cancel the reminder (while they're still on that page) or by writing it in the chat in Spanish or English, for example "cancel the reminder". That cancels only that reminder; for another appointment they'd be asked again.

If your customer replies to the reminder

If they reply to the WhatsApp reminder, their reply reaches that conversation like any other message, and you see it in Conversations. If they ask to change or cancel the appointment, the assistant tells them you see that conversation and gives them your contact details. Only if "Let your customers move or cancel their appointment from the chat" is available on your account (Settings tab) and you've turned it on can the assistant move or cancel it itself, and only after the person who booked it confirms. With your number on your phone (coexistence), the reply also reaches your phone.

If they reply to the reminder email, the reply reaches your email, the one the tab shows you: it doesn't go through the assistant and doesn't appear in Conversations.

What you see in the appointments list

In the Appointments tab, each appointment with a reminder carries one more label:

• Reminder: asked — we asked them and they haven't answered yet.
• Reminder: accepted — they accepted it; it will go out when you chose (the day before or a few hours before; if it was booked at short notice, about 3 hours after the booking or the change, at 8:00 if that falls at night).
• Reminder: declined — they tapped "No, thanks" or asked not to get reminders.
• Reminder: no answer — they didn't answer in time.
• Reminder: sent / Reminder: delivered — it went out to their WhatsApp or their email / it reached them.
• Reminder: not delivered — it couldn't be delivered (for example, an email to an address that doesn't exist).
• Reminder: not sent — it wasn't sent; open the appointment's details (the arrow on the right) and you'll see why (the appointment is no longer in your calendar, its time changed, it's now a repeating event, the reminder would fall on another day or at night, they asked not to get reminders, you had them switched off…).

If they're paused

If Meta puts a notice on your WhatsApp Business account or changes the status of the approved message, WhatsApp reminders pause by themselves and the Reminders tab shows it. Email reminders keep going out, unless Meta restricts your WhatsApp Business account: then they pause too until we go through it with you. If it's the reminder message you use, we also let you know by email. If it's a notice on your WhatsApp Business account, the tab tells you and we write to you to sort it out together.

If you need help

In the Reminders tab, Need help? Message us on WhatsApp opens a chat with ChatME with the message already written (it carries your business name and nothing else). You read it before sending it, and a person answers.

Privacy

• Your customer's WhatsApp number or email is kept with their reminder until 90 days after the appointment; then it's deleted. If they ask not to get more reminders, we keep a code computed from their number or their email, never the number or the email itself, so we never message them again.
• If a reminder email is marked as spam, doesn't arrive because the address doesn't exist, or our email provider already blocks that address, ChatME keeps a code computed from that address on its block list, never the address itself, so no ChatME business sends it reminder emails again.
• For reminders, the only thing we read in your Google Calendar is the event the assistant created, right before sending the reminder. Never your other events.
• Mention appointment reminders in your business's privacy policy: our data processing agreement (DPA) asks for it. On your own website, the DPA also makes you responsible for the reminder question being answered by the person who booked, and not by a program of yours or of a third party on your page.

Something doesn't match what you see in your dashboard? Email us at info@chatme.es.