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Appointment reminders

Appointment reminders for med spas that are never wrong

Every confirmed appointment gets a reminder at the time you choose, by email, and by WhatsApp or text for patients who want them. Moved or canceled visits never trigger an old one.

Demo clinic Β· illustration

Reminders are easy. Getting them right isn't.

Most reminder tools can send a message. Fewer know when not to.

  • Forgotten, not canceled

    Most no-shows aren't people who meant to skip. They forgot, or remembered too late to let you know.

  • The wrong time, confidently

    A patient reschedules on the phone, but the reminder tool still sends the old time. Now they're confused, and so is your front desk.

  • Reminders for requests you never confirmed

    Tools that remind every request tell patients about appointments your team hasn't agreed to yet.

How it works

Three channels, one set of rules

Reminders are built into booking, so they always know the real state of every appointment.

  1. You choose the timing

    In settings, set how many hours before an appointment reminders go out. The same timing applies across channels.

  2. Patients choose their channels

    Every confirmed booking gets an email. On the booking form, patients can also opt in to WhatsApp messages and a text message reminder.

  3. Only confirmed visits are reminded

    A request waiting for your team never triggers a reminder. Once confirmed, the reminder is scheduled.

  4. Changes cancel old reminders

    If an appointment is canceled, moved or has already started, its old reminder is dropped automatically.

A booking's history: reminder sent, canceled, slot released, old reminder dropped. Demo clinic, illustration.

Email, WhatsApp and text

Each channel has a clear job. Email covers every confirmed booking. WhatsApp, through Meta's official WhatsApp Business Cloud API, sends booking messages and reminders to patients who opt in. SMS, through Twilio, sends the reminder only, to patients who ask for texts and when your clinic switches SMS on.

Read more about SMS reminders, WhatsApp reminders and email notifications.

The right time, in your time zone

Appointments are kept in your clinic's own time zone, whether that's Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific, and availability accounts for daylight saving time changes. The time in every reminder is the time the patient actually booked, on both sides of the clock change.

Patients' mobile numbers are checked against your country's format when they book, so WhatsApp messages and text reminders go to a number that can actually receive them.

Messages that are never late

A message that arrives too late to be useful is skipped instead of sent. That rule runs across all automatic messages, not just reminders, so patients never get something that makes your clinic look out of date.

Reminders that help patients cancel properly

Every reminder links to the patient's private manage page. A patient who can't make it cancels within your cancellation window, and the slot becomes available for someone else.

That turns a likely no-show into a slot you can fill. It's the core of reducing no-shows, alongside booking deposits on the treatments where they make sense.

Watched, retried and pausable

Failed sends are retried automatically. If a channel keeps failing or isn't connected, the Velvet Lead team is alerted. Your admin panel's system status shows whether email, WhatsApp and background jobs are healthy.

When you need quiet, for a closure or a system change, one switch pauses every automatic message. They queue up and go out when you switch back on.

Beyond the appointment reminder

The same message system sends the rest of the patient journey: a prompt to fill in the medical and consent form before the visit, a review request afterward, and a rebooking reminder when it's time to come back.

Honest limits

What reminders don't do

Worth knowing before you plan your patient messages.

  • SMS is reminders only: no confirmations by text, no two-way texting and no SMS marketing.
  • WhatsApp is for booking messages and reminders, not a two-way chatbot, and there's no booking inside WhatsApp.
  • No email marketing, newsletters or campaign sending to patients.
  • WhatsApp (Meta) and SMS (Twilio) charge their own fees, paid by your clinic.

FAQ

Questions clinics ask

Which channels do reminders use?

Email for every confirmed booking, WhatsApp for patients who opt in, and SMS for patients who ask for a text when your clinic switches SMS on.

Can we choose when reminders go out?

Yes. Your clinic sets how many hours before the appointment reminders are sent.

Do unconfirmed requests get reminders?

No. Reminders only go to confirmed appointments.

What happens to a reminder when an appointment changes?

If the appointment is canceled, moved or has already started, the old reminder is dropped automatically.

Can we stop all messages for a while?

Yes. One switch pauses all automatic messages. They queue up and go out when you switch them back on.

Can we send marketing messages to patients?

No. Velvet Lead sends appointment and care messages only. There's no email marketing, newsletters or SMS campaigns.

Reminders you never have to check

Book a 15-minute demo and we'll show you a booking's full message history on our demo clinic.

Book a demo