For businesses who want to reduce no-shows and prepare for upcoming appointments, Broadly Appointment Reminders automatically reminds customers of upcoming appointments, asks them to confirm, and engages them through messaging for any questions or reschedules.
This feature is only available to customers that have their Shop-Ware, Mitchell Manager, R.O. Writer or Tekmetric integrated with Broadly.
Enabling Appointment Reminders
If you're integrated with one of the business systems listed above, you will have an Appointments option in your app "Settings." This is editable for Admins and read-only for Managers. By default, Appointment Reminders are disabled.
Once enabled, you will have the ability to determine how far in advance an appointment reminder is sent - 24 or 48 hours. You can choose to send appointment reminders with:
- The exact appointment time, as it appears in your business system (this is the default, pictured below)
- A drop-off window, if you prefer all customers to drop off their cars at a certain time regardless of the scheduled appointment time in your business system.
How it Works
When an appointment reminder is sent to a contact, this is how the activity appears in the conversation view in the Broadly app Inbox.
The actual text your customer will receive says:
In compliance with TCPA regulations, appointment reminders will only be able to be sent out between the hours of 8am - 8pm.
If there isn't a textable number included in your customers' contact information, Broadly will send an email version. Just like review requests, the email version will include your business’ banner at the top and your name, address, and phone number in the footer.
Upcoming Appointments
Any contacts with appointments scheduled in your business system will have a calendar icon with the date of their appointment at the top of the conversation in Broadly.
Our sync for appointment reminders is in real-time, meaning we should be able to pick up any changes to the appointment including reschedules or even cancellations.
Responses to Appointment Reminders
If a customer replies to your appointment reminder with questions or the need to reschedule, this reply will appear in the Broadly app just like any new message.
If a customer confirms their appointment by replying with a C (text) or by clicking the Confirm button (email), we will communicate that confirmation in the following ways:
- An email notification
- An update in the contact’s conversation view
- An update to the appointment in your business system (available only for Shop-ware and Mitchell Manager)
In Shop-ware
When a customer confirms their appointment, Broadly will automatically mark the appointment as "Confirmed by Broadly" in Shop-ware.
You can find this on the Calendar View, in the appointment notes and on the "Near Term" list view, in the Notes column:
In Mitchell Manager
When a customer confirms their appointment, Broadly will automatically mark the status will update to “Confirmed” on the appointment calendar preview, the status is in parenthesis.
Please note that you must have a “Confirmed” status available in your Mitchell Manager database in order to have Broadly confirm your appointments in Mitchell. If you don’t have this status, you will need to add a “Confirmed” status with the status code CONFIRMED (this status code is case sensitive and must be in all caps).
There is currently no way to show "confirmed" status within R.O. Writer or Tekmetric. Be advised to view who has confirmed their appointments within the Broadly app Inbox.
FAQs
Will this send an appointment reminder for every type of appointment or just certain types?
All appointments!
Can I customize the message that goes out to my customers depending on the appointment type?
No, the message copy customization is limited to the exact time or appointment window setting.