Messages: The Basics

Learn how to customize your SMS texts and email messages that are sent to your customers.

Lindsey Gagnon avatar
Written by Lindsey Gagnon
Updated over a week ago

Waitwhile supports powerful SMS and Email capabilities with personalized and automated ways to keep your customers informed. In this post we'll explain how you can take full advantage of this and make your customers smile!

What messages are you able to send out?

Most of your guests have a smartphone, and at Waitwhile, we think using SMS is the perfect way to communicate with them. Customize which messages you want to send out to your Guests and what you want them to say. They are as followed:

  1. Confirmation (Waitlist & Bookings): This is automatically sent to the Guest once they have been added to the waitlist or created a booking. This message is also sent upon booking approval when the Booking Approval setting is enabled.

  2. Alert (Waitlist & Bookings): This message is sent when you press the bell icon while a Guest is on the waitlist. In most business setups, it's used to manually notify a customer when it is their turn.

  3. Next-In-Line (Waitlist only): This message is used to automatically notify a customer when they reach a specific point in line. You can set a different line point for SMS vs Email.

  4. Reminder (Bookings only): This message is sent at a set time before a Booking (Ex. 1 hour or 24 hours before). It is typically used to remind a guest about their appointment.

  5. Served (Waitlist & Bookings): This message is sent automatically when a customer is marked as “Serving.” This takes place when the guest is moved to the Serving queue via the green check icon .

  6. Completed (Waitlist & Bookings): This message is sent when a guest has been moved from Serving to Completed. This can be used to thank a guest or send a survey link to gather guest feedback.

  7. No-show (Waitlist & Bookings): This message is sent when a staff member marks a Guest as a No Show.

  8. Cancellation (Waitlist & Bookings): Sent when a Guest cancels their visit or Booking to let them know that it's been processed. This can also be triggered by a staff member manually cancelling the visit or a visit being auto-cancelled.

  9. Follow Up (Waitlist & Bookings): Sent at a set time period following a visit having been marked as Completed. This is typically used as an alternative to the Completed message.

  10. Booking Request Confirmation (Bookings): This is only available when Booking Approval is enabled. It is sent automatically following your staff approving a booking.

  11. Booking Request Rejection (Bookings): This is only available when Booking Approval is enabled. It is sent automatically following your staff rejecting a booking.

  12. Visit/booking changed (Waitlist & Bookings): This message triggers automatically when a customer's visit has been rescheduled or otherwise updated. Whether it's a change in service, party size, resource allocation, or adjustments in booking time/duration, you can send a tailored message to keep your customers informed.

  13. Saved Reply: You can set up Saved Replies to allow your staff to quickly send pre-configured customized messages to guests via the icon in the Chat area. These are frequently used to answer FAQs from customers.

  14. One Off: You can send any custom SMS message to a Guest from within your waitlist - just click on the Guest's name while they are on the list, select chat, and type the message you want to say.

How to Customize your Texts

All the above texts are fully customizable for both Waitlist Messages and Booking Messages. Just edit the text field for each message type (SMS & email) and click save.

You can also add “variable placeholders” to personalize your messages with any collected data from your Guest to personalize the visit - like name, order in line or estimated wait. You can also include Location, Service, and/or Resource information to help tailor your message to each Guest. To add these, just click the + icon and select which variable you would like to insert.

Costs for sending SMS messages

All SMS messages, sent AND received, count towards your SMS Message credits in your Waitwhile plan. Please reach out to our Support team if you have questions about your plan.

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