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. But, you can also choose to send the messages via email. This is easily configurable on a per-message basis.
Customize which messages you want to send out to your guests and what you want them to say. They are as followed:
Automated messages for your Waitlist and Bookings flows
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.
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.
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.
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.
Serving (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 .
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.
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.
Cancelled (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.
No-show (Waitlist & Bookings): This message is sent when a staff member marks a guest as a No Show.
Visit changed (Waitlist & Bookings): SMS and email sent automatically if the visit has significantly changed.
Saved replies
You can set up saved replies to allow your staff to quickly and manually send pre-configured customized messages to guests via the icon in the chat area. These are frequently used to answer FAQs from customers.
Custom chat
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 Messages, and type the message you want to say. You can choose if you want to send the message as an SMS, email, or as a chat message that is delivered to the guest's Status page or Confirmation page. To read more about the latter, check out our article on Chat and messaging on the Status page.
Please note that you can only send messages to a guest via a certain channel if you have their contact information. E.g. if you have not collected their phone number, you will not be able to select SMS as a channel.
How to customize your messages
All the above messages are fully customizable for both Waitlist messages and Booking messages. Just edit the text field for each message type (SMS and 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.
Have additional questions or need assistance? Reach out to us via chat or at support@waitwhile.com.