Problems with Appointment Communications
We're delighted that you're using SMS or Email messaging to improve communication with your clients. We send out thousands of messages every day all over the world and in the vast majority of cases there are no issues. However, on some occasions there are problems and if you're reading this, it's likely that one or more of the following situations has arisen for you:
You have been contacted by a client who says they have not received a reminder/confirmation
You have been contacted by a client who has received a confirmation/reminder for a date/time that they weren't expecting
You have been contacted by a client who says the message that they have received contains errors or incorrect information
Before we go any further we want to be clear that some issue are down to us and if that's the case we're generally the first to put our hands up. However, the majority of issues that we see are:
Client-related
User-related
With this in mind here are a few scenario-based checks that you should do before you get in touch with us.
Check that their mobile number or email address is correct in the Client Summary
Check that they have opted into SMS/Email communications
Check the Messages tab of the Client Summary to see what messages have been sent to them
Check the Appointment History information on the Appointments tab of the Client Summary
If it relates specifically to SMS, check that you have enough text credits
Check your notifications for any information on failed email or sms messages
This most commonly occurs when a member of the team mistakenly books an appt for the wrong client, which triggers a confirmation. As the confirmation is sent immediately, it will already have been sent once this is noticed and the appointment deleted from the diary.
If an appointment is completely deleted from the diary, the history of the appointment on the Appointments tab of the client summary is also deleted, so it's sometimes quite difficult to track down exactly what happened. The only way an appointment confirmation can be sent from WriteUpp though, is if an appointment is booked. We do retain information on messages sent on the Messages tab on the client summary, so if a confirmation (for example) was sent for an appointment that has since been deleted, you should still see this:
If you have a situation like this and you can't identify what has happened, the team here are happy to help investigate for you. If you can provide the clients WUID number and the mobile number or email address that received the confirmation, we can check for messages.
In most cases there will be few minutes between when the appt was booked in error and the new appt was booked. Although this is not 100% conclusive it generally indicates that the appt was booked in error.
Get some evidence, if possible. A screenshot of an SMS, or ask them to forward an email received.
Corroborate the evidence by going to the Messages tab of the client's summary and seeing what they were sent
If it looks like something is wrong go to Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Communication to check the message template.
Click on the three dots menu, then "Edit -> Manage templates" for the appropriate message and make sure that the template is correct
If you are unsure and you'd like to revert the template to the default text, you can find the SMS default content here and the email default content here. Just copy and paste the text into your template in WriteUpp, making sure you paste and match style/formatting, depending on your operating system.
Select a client who you think should have received a message
Check that they have a valid mobile number and/or email address
Check that they have opted-in to communications
Check that you have communication triggers set up OR that one of your colleagues hasn't accidentally deleted the relevant one
Check that you have enough text credits
Having checked the above go to the Messages tab of the client's summary and see if there are messages listed. If there are click on the row and you will see the detail of the message
Having worked through the suggested checks if you feel that there is still something amiss please don't hesitate to contact us via the chat icon at the bottom right of your screen,
When you submit your request please drop us the WUID of the client (experiencing problems) so that we can check our logs and investigate further.
Thanks for reading!
You have been contacted by a client who says they have not received a reminder/confirmation
You have been contacted by a client who has received a confirmation/reminder for a date/time that they weren't expecting
You have been contacted by a client who says the message that they have received contains errors or incorrect information
Before we go any further we want to be clear that some issue are down to us and if that's the case we're generally the first to put our hands up. However, the majority of issues that we see are:
Client-related
User-related
With this in mind here are a few scenario-based checks that you should do before you get in touch with us.
Client hasn't received a confirmation/reminder
Check that their mobile number or email address is correct in the Client Summary
Check that they have opted into SMS/Email communications
Check the Messages tab of the Client Summary to see what messages have been sent to them
Check the Appointment History information on the Appointments tab of the Client Summary
If it relates specifically to SMS, check that you have enough text credits
Check your notifications for any information on failed email or sms messages
Client has received a confirmation/reminder for a date/time that they weren't expecting
This most commonly occurs when a member of the team mistakenly books an appt for the wrong client, which triggers a confirmation. As the confirmation is sent immediately, it will already have been sent once this is noticed and the appointment deleted from the diary.
If an appointment is completely deleted from the diary, the history of the appointment on the Appointments tab of the client summary is also deleted, so it's sometimes quite difficult to track down exactly what happened. The only way an appointment confirmation can be sent from WriteUpp though, is if an appointment is booked. We do retain information on messages sent on the Messages tab on the client summary, so if a confirmation (for example) was sent for an appointment that has since been deleted, you should still see this:
If you have a situation like this and you can't identify what has happened, the team here are happy to help investigate for you. If you can provide the clients WUID number and the mobile number or email address that received the confirmation, we can check for messages.
In most cases there will be few minutes between when the appt was booked in error and the new appt was booked. Although this is not 100% conclusive it generally indicates that the appt was booked in error.
Client says that the message they have received contains errors or incorrect information
Get some evidence, if possible. A screenshot of an SMS, or ask them to forward an email received.
Corroborate the evidence by going to the Messages tab of the client's summary and seeing what they were sent
If it looks like something is wrong go to Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Communication to check the message template.
Click on the three dots menu, then "Edit -> Manage templates" for the appropriate message and make sure that the template is correct
If you are unsure and you'd like to revert the template to the default text, you can find the SMS default content here and the email default content here. Just copy and paste the text into your template in WriteUpp, making sure you paste and match style/formatting, depending on your operating system.
You don't think confirmations or reminders are being sent
Select a client who you think should have received a message
Check that they have a valid mobile number and/or email address
Check that they have opted-in to communications
Check that you have communication triggers set up OR that one of your colleagues hasn't accidentally deleted the relevant one
Check that you have enough text credits
Having checked the above go to the Messages tab of the client's summary and see if there are messages listed. If there are click on the row and you will see the detail of the message
Having worked through the suggested checks if you feel that there is still something amiss please don't hesitate to contact us via the chat icon at the bottom right of your screen,
When you submit your request please drop us the WUID of the client (experiencing problems) so that we can check our logs and investigate further.
Thanks for reading!
Updated on: 07/07/2022
Thank you!