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Appointment Confirmations & Reminders

Once a lead books an appointment, the system takes over the confirmation and reminder process automatically. No-shows are expensive. Automated reminders significantly reduce them without requiring any follow-up from your office.

How Confirmations and Reminders Work​

When an appointment is created in your calendar, the system sends:

  1. Booking confirmation — Sent immediately when the appointment is booked. Confirms the date, time, and service type. Includes your business phone number in case the customer needs to reach you.

  2. 24-hour reminder — Sent the day before the appointment. Reminds the customer of the time and address. Includes a prompt to confirm or request a reschedule.

  3. 2-hour reminder — Sent the morning of or 2 hours before the appointment window. A short "we're on our way / see you soon" message that reduces last-minute no-shows.

All three messages go out automatically. They use the customer's contact information from the booking and your business details from your portal settings.

What the Messages Say​

The exact message content is configured at setup by TechForce and uses your business name and phone number. The general format is:

Booking confirmation (SMS):

Hi [First Name], your appointment with [Business Name] is confirmed for [Date] at [Time]. Questions? Call us at [Phone]. Reply STOP to opt out.

24-hour reminder (SMS):

Reminder: [Business Name] is scheduled for tomorrow, [Date] at [Time]. Reply CONFIRM to confirm or call [Phone] to reschedule.

2-hour reminder (SMS):

[Business Name] reminder: your appointment is today at [Time]. See you soon! Call [Phone] if you need to reach us.

Email versions of each message are also sent for customers who provided an email address.

Handling Reschedule Requests​

If a customer replies to a reminder asking to reschedule, that message appears in your Conversations inbox as an active thread. The system does not automatically reschedule appointments — you need to handle those manually.

When a reschedule request comes in:

  1. Open the conversation in your Conversations inbox
  2. Respond directly and offer two or three available time slots
  3. Confirm the new time with the customer
  4. Update the appointment in your calendar to the new date and time

Once the appointment is updated in the calendar, the reminder workflow will automatically fire for the new appointment date.

What Happens With No Reply​

If a customer receives the 24-hour reminder and doesn't reply at all, no action is needed. The 2-hour reminder still sends. The appointment stays on the calendar.

If a customer consistently no-shows without warning, contact TechForce — we can add a deposit-required link or a confirmation gate to the booking flow for certain appointment types.

Cancellations​

If a customer replies to cancel, their message lands in Conversations. Handle the cancellation manually by removing the appointment from the calendar and responding to confirm the cancellation. The system will not send further reminders for appointments that no longer exist on the calendar.

note

Reminders only send for appointments that exist in your TechForce portal calendar. If you manage appointments in a separate system (like ServiceTitan or Jobber), those appointments are not visible to the reminder workflow unless they're synced into the portal. Contact TechForce to discuss sync options.