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Configuring Appointment Reminders

Learn how to send appointment reminders via SMS or email in Zanda. Set up automatic or manual reminders, customize templates, and allow clients to confirm or cancel appointments via SMS.

You can send appointment reminders to your clients to notify them of their upcoming appointments. This practice is essential for increasing attendance rates and minimizing the likelihood of no-shows. Reminders can be delivered through SMS, email, or a combination of both methods. Furthermore, you have the flexibility to send these reminders either manually or automatically, depending on your needs. 

Important

A dedicated Toll-Free Number (TFN) is required to send/receive SMS messages in the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Barbados. For more details, please click here. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to do all this. Let’s get started.

In this article:

Setting Up Automatic Appointment Reminders

Automatic appointment reminders are enabled by default when you create a trial account. However, if they are disabled or if you wish to modify any settings related to automatic appointment reminders, follow these simple steps:

  1. Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders.
  2. Turn on the switch next to the label Automatically send Appointment Reminders to Clients on the top-left corner of your screen.
  3. Select a template and the number of days before the appointment for each reminder you want to send.
  4. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
  5. When Zanda asks Would you like to update all your existing clients to use these reminders?, choose the option that matches what you want to happen:
    1. Select Yes to apply the account reminder settings to existing clients and their future appointments.
    2. Select No to keep existing client reminder preferences as they are. New clients and clients without individual reminder settings can still use the account-level settings.

You can send a maximum of three reminders to your clients for each appointment.

Which appointments receive automatic reminders?

Automatic reminders are sent to appointments with a Pending or Confirmed status only. Appointments in any other status (Arrived, Completed, Rescheduled, Cancelled, Late Cancellation, or No Show) will not receive automatic reminders.

What happens when an appointment is rescheduled?

If a client reschedules an appointment through the Client Portal, Zanda moves the same appointment to the new date and time and sets the appointment status to Pending. Automatic reminders can then be sent for the new appointment time if reminders are enabled and the appointment meets the reminder timing rules.

If your team changes an appointment status to Rescheduled, automatic reminders are not created for that appointment while it has that status.

To enable a reminder, you need to do two things:

  1. Select a template for that reminder.
  2. Select how many days before the appointment you would like the reminder to be sent.

You can schedule reminders to be sent between 7 and 1 days before the appointment start date. The reminder setup uses days before options only; there is no separate time-of-day field to edit on the appointment reminder settings page. 

Zanda automatically sends these reminders every day from 9 am to 10 am and from 4 pm to 5 pm, based on the local time zone you set in Business Info.

If you turn on Appointment reminders that would be sent on the weekend are sent on Friday, reminders that would normally be sent on Saturday or Sunday are sent on Friday instead. This setting affects the day the reminder is sent; the reminder still uses the standard local delivery windows above.

It is not possible to send an automatic reminder on the same day that the appointment starts.

You can use the Notify Now button on an appointment panel to send an appointment reminder manually on the same day, if needed.

If you wish to turn off a reminder, simply click Choose Template when selecting a template from the drop-down menu.

Once you’ve added the settings you want, simply click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to activate Automatic Appointment Reminders.

💡 Turning reminders on for an existing account. If you are enabling automatic reminders after clients and appointments already exist, use the update all existing clients prompt that appears when you save the Reminders page.

💡 Appointments due tomorrow. Automatic reminders are generated during the daily reminder windows above. If you do not want a specific upcoming appointment to receive an automatic reminder, open that appointment and turn its Reminder switch off before the reminder is generated.

If you want to disable reminders for specific appointment types or locations, use the pre-appointment automations. With this automations, you can send reminders for some appointment types only, using automation conditions. This means that automation messages will not send for appointments which don't meet the conditions you configured. See the full setup guide here. 

Setting Up Manual Appointment Reminders

In addition to the automatic appointment reminders, you can also manually send appointment reminders whenever you want. 

By default, SMS and Email reminder templates will already be selected, but you can change these if desired. 

Here’s how:

1. Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders.

2. On the right side settings, under 'If I manually send an appointment reminder, use these templates' section, you can choose templates for SMS and email reminders using the drop-down menu.

3. After you set the templates, click on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page. 

Once this is done, you can manually send an appointment reminder in two ways, as described in the following article Sending Appointment Reminders Manually.

Automatically Sending New Appointment Creation Confirmation Notifications

Zanda allows you to automatically send a message to clients as soon as a new appointment is created in their schedule. This feature is helpful when you want clients to receive an immediate appointment confirmation for bookings added by your team, separate from your regular reminder messages, so they know their appointment has been successfully scheduled.

This setting is available under: User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders
Look for the section titled “Automatically send this message to clients when a new appointment is created.”

Enable this by selecting a New Appointment Template. Once a template is chosen:

  • The message is automatically sent every time a new appointment is created by your team.
  • This message is sent for every appointment your team creates—whether the client is brand new or a returning client. It is triggered by the appointment being booked, not by whether the client is new, so there is no option on the New Appointment Template to limit it to first-time clients.
 💡 Want a welcome or intake message for first-time clients only? The New Appointment Template can't be limited to new clients, because it sends whenever any appointment is created. Instead, set up a New Client automation under User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Automations. A New Client automation runs once, when a client profile is first created—choose the 'Only clients created by users' condition so it sends only to clients your team adds, and not to returning clients you re-book. See Setting Up New Client Automations. 
  • When your Client Portal is enabled, separate Client Portal notification settings can also send booking messages for appointments clients create online. If your Client Portal is disabled, use the New Appointment Template setting on the Reminders page for staff-created appointments.

  • You can choose any existing SMS or email template for this purpose. Note: You can only select one template from the dropdown. It is not currently possible to send both an SMS and an Email confirmation simultaneously for a new appointment.

  • Clients receive instant confirmation, helping reduce uncertainty and follow-up questions.

Use this option if you want clients to be notified right away when a new appointment is added by your team.

Which appointments this applies to: The confirmation is sent for any appointment that has a client attached. This covers individual client appointments as well as group appointments — when you add a client to a group appointment, that client receives the message. It is not sent for personal appointments (for example staff meetings, breaks, or admin time) or for any appointment that has no client linked to it, since in those cases there is no client to notify. 

Important Notes:

  • If you also use the client portal notifications, make sure you select a different new appointment booked notification template for client in User Menu > Account Settings > Client Portal > Notifications to avoid sending duplicate messages to your clients. 

  • Updating the details of an existing appointment does not trigger the appointment creation confirmation notification, as the system does not treat it as a new appointment. In such cases, mark the existing appointment as “Rescheduled” and create a new appointment at the updated date/time for the “New Appointment Template” to be triggered.

Automatically Notifying Clients When an Appointment Is Cancelled

You can automatically notify a client when their appointment is cancelled by a user, so you no longer need to send a cancellation message by hand each time. Once this is set up, Zanda sends your chosen template to the client whenever a team member changes a future-dated appointment to Cancelled or Late Cancellation.

How this differs from the SMS reply setting below: the Setting Up Automatic Appointment Confirmation/Cancellation section further down controls the incoming direction — a client replying to an SMS reminder to cancel their own appointment. This setting is the outgoing direction — notifying the client after a team member cancels the appointment in Zanda. They are separate settings and can be used independently.

Setting it up:

  1. Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders.
  2. Under the Appointment Cancellation Template dropdown, select the email or SMS template you want to send.
  3. Click Save Changes. Cancellation notifications will now be sent automatically.

The dropdown lists all your active email and SMS templates. To turn automatic cancellation notifications off, leave the dropdown set to Select a Message Template….

When notifications are sent:

A cancellation notification is triggered whenever a team member cancels a future-dated appointment, however they do it:

  • Right-clicking an appointment and selecting Cancelled or Late Cancellation.
  • Updating the status from the appointment panel.
  • Changing a participant's status in a group appointment.
  • Opening a participant's full appointment details in a group appointment and updating the status.

Who receives the notification:

  • Individual clients — the notification is sent to every contact who has Receives Reminders enabled.
  • Shared Profiles — the notification is sent to each member of the Shared Profile who has Receives Reminders enabled.

Good to know:

  • Only future-dated appointments trigger the notification; past appointments are not affected.
  • The notification is sent only when a team member cancels the appointment. It is not sent when a client cancels by replying to an SMS reminder (that is the incoming direction described in Setting Up Automatic Appointment Confirmation/Cancellation below).

Setting Up Appointment Reminders For Specific Clients

You also have the option to create personalized appointment reminders tailored specifically for individual clients. Individual client reminder settings will override the settings you made in User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders, and will be used any time you create a new appointment for this specific client.

Here’s how: 

  1. Use the Quick Search bar located at the top of the Zanda dashboard to find the specific client for whom you wish to configure appointment reminders.

  2. Once you’re in the profile of your client, go to Profile > Appointment Reminders.

  3. Configure the reminders for the client. You can send a maximum of three reminders to your clients for each appointment.

  4. To enable a reminder, you need to do two things:

    1. Select a template for that reminder. 

    2. Select how many days before the appointment you would like the reminder to be sent.

      1. You can schedule reminders to be sent between 7 and 1 days before the appointment start date.

      2. It is not possible to send an automatic reminder on the same day that the appointment starts. 

      3. You can use the Notify Now button on an appointment panel to send an appointment reminder manually on the same day, if needed. 
    • If you wish to turn off a reminder, simply click on Choose Template when selecting a template from the drop-down menu. 
    • Once you’ve added the settings you want, simply click on Save Changes at the bottom of the page to activate Automatic Appointment Reminders for this client.

    Adding or Editing Appointment Reminder Templates

    Your account comes pre-configured with both an email and an SMS template for appointment reminders.

    If you wish to modify an existing template or create a new one from scratch, follow these simple steps:

    1. Go to Tools > Communication > Templates.

    2. Here, you will see the '+ New Template' button at the top of the page. Click on it to create a new template.

    3. Start by choosing the 'Message Type' i.e. is this new template an email, SMS or a letter?

    4. Then, name the template and describe its purpose in the description box.

    5. If you’ve chosen the 'Message Type' as 'Email', enter your business name and email address

    6. Type in the email subject i.e. title of the email.

    7. Once done, scroll down until you see the content text editor. Here, type in your template and click Save.

    If you want to attach an invoice pdf file to your reminder emails, you can use the {InvoicePDFAttachment} merge field in your communication email templates to generate and add an invoice pdf attachment to the reminder email.

    Use the Available Merge Fields and Hints buttons at the bottom of the text editor to see ways to personalize your template.

    8. After saving your template, go back to Tools > Communication > Templates. Here, you’ll find your newly created template under the Template List.

    9. If you’d like to edit a template, just click on its name.

    10. It is possible to deactivate the template to remove it from the list of active templates. Click the Actions gear icon next to the template in the list of all templates and select Deactivate.

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    Setting Up Automatic Appointment Confirmation/Cancelation

    Use automatic and manual SMS appointment reminders to automatically confirm or cancel client appointments.

    💡Automatic and manual EMAIL reminders CANNOT be used to automatically confirm or cancel appointments.

    1. In User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders, enable automatic and manual reminders and set up an SMS reminder. When clients reply to this reminder using confirmation key words, the system will automatically reset their appointment status to 'Confirmed'
    2. On the same settings page, enable the 'Automatically cancel the appointment when clients reply 'No' or 'Cancel' to an appointment reminder' switch. When clients reply to an SMS reminder using cancellation keywords, the system will automatically reset their appointment status to 'Cancelled'

    User Pro Tips:

    • You can view client responses by accessing the Messaging Panel on the Zanda dashboard. Whenever you receive a new reply from a client, a notification bubble will appear, indicating the number of unread messages awaiting your attention.
    • When clients respond to your SMS reminder with a cancellation request, and if cancellation is enabled in your account settings, any existing invoices for those appointments will not be automatically deleted. This approach ensures that you can manage cases where a cancellation fee may apply or when it is necessary to keep a record of appointments that have already been invoiced or paid prior to the cancellation.
    • Here is the list of keywords Zanda looks for in a client’s reply after sending them an SMS appointment reminder. 

    Key Words to Confirm and Cancel: 

    Confirmed: 

    • Y
    • Yes
    • Yep
    • Confirm
    • Conf
    • No Worries

    Cancelled:

    • N
    • No
    • Sorry
    • CXL
    • Cancel
    • Cancelled

    Important

    • Please be aware that CANCEL is a keyword for automatic unsubscribing according to regulatory USA/Canada requirements. If your account is based in the USA or Canada, please recommend your clients reply with N or No when they wish to cancel their appointment.
    • When clients reply to SMS reminder to cancel, it must be N on it's own, otherwise if it's part of a string (such as N. ) it won't be detected and the appointment status will not be updated to canceled
    • Some clients who use iOS phones may react to a reminder SMS with emoji (e.g., by liking, hearting, or giving a thumbs up). In this case, a copy of the original message will be sent back to your Zanda account letting you know that a client reacted to your message. If the reminder message contains a confirmation or cancellation keyword, this automatic response can unintentionally trigger a cancellation.

    • Limitation with Multiple Appointments on the Same Day: If a client has multiple appointments booked on the same day and receives multiple SMS reminders at the same time from the same number, they will generally only be able to reply once. This single reply will typically confirm only one of the appointments. This is a known limitation with a feature request available for voting.


    Enabling/Disabling Appointment Reminders For Specific Appointments

    You can enable/disable appointment reminders for individual appointments in Zanda. 

    1. To do that, go to your appointments calendar on the Zanda dashboard. Here, click on the appointment whose reminder you want to enable/disable. 

    2. Once the appointment settings panel opens up on the right side of your screen, click on the 'Reminder will be sent' or the 'Reminder will not be sent' switch to toggle appointment reminders on or off for that appointment.

    The appointment panel also shows the current reminder status:

    • Sent means an automatic reminder has already been sent for the appointment.
    • Will be sent means an automatic reminder is scheduled for the appointment.
    • Will not be sent means the appointment is not set to receive an automatic reminder.
    • Was not sent means the appointment has passed and no automatic reminder was sent.

    On the calendar, hover over the bell icon to see the reminder status tooltip. Use the tooltip or the appointment panel status as the source of truth rather than color alone.

    Note 💡If there were any future-dated appointments in the inactive practitioner's calendar, their automatic reminders will not go out after the practitioner is made inactive. 

    Frequently Asked Questions

    ❓ Why did a client receive an appointment message when automatic reminders are turned off?

    Start by checking the message type and where it was configured. Standard automatic appointment reminders are controlled in User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders, but other appointment-related messages can also be sent from Zanda.

    Check these areas:

    • Account-level reminder settings: Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders. If you change the account-level reminder settings and Zanda asks whether to update existing clients, choose Yes when you want the change to apply to current client profiles.
    • Client-specific reminder settings: Open the client profile and go to Profile > Appointment Reminders. Client reminder settings can be configured separately from your account-level reminder settings.
    • Individual appointment reminders: Open the appointment panel and check whether the appointment is set to Reminder will be sent or Reminder will not be sent.
    • Pre-appointment automations: Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Automations and review any Pre-appointment automations. These can send targeted SMS or email messages before appointments based on conditions such as service, location, practitioner, appointment status, appointment flag, client type, client classification, or telehealth status.
    • New appointment confirmation messages: In User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders, check whether a New Appointment Template is selected in the section for messages sent when a new appointment is created. This is separate from scheduled reminder messages.
    • Appointment cancellation notifications: In User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders, check whether an Appointment Cancellation Template is selected. When one is set, a message is sent automatically whenever a team member changes a future-dated appointment to Cancelled or Late Cancellation.
    • Manual reminders: If a team member used Notify Now or the appointment context menu, the reminder was sent manually rather than by the automatic reminder schedule.

    If the message came from a pre-appointment automation, review the automation conditions and template. Pre-appointment SMS actions can be useful for targeted reminders, but they do not include the same reminder-specific features as standard appointment reminders, such as automated reply handling to update appointment statuses.

    ❓ Can I automatically notify clients when I cancel their appointment?

    Yes. Select an Appointment Cancellation Template under User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Reminders. Once set, your chosen email or SMS template is sent automatically whenever a team member changes a future-dated appointment to Cancelled or Late Cancellation. See Automatically Notifying Clients When an Appointment Is Cancelled above for who receives it and when. This is the outgoing notification for team-initiated cancellations, and is separate from clients cancelling by SMS reply (covered by Setting Up Automatic Appointment Confirmation/Cancellation).

    ❓ Can I customise appointment reminders by appointment type?

    You can customise appointment reminder templates, reminder timing, client-specific reminder preferences, location details in reminder messages, and whether reminders are sent for an individual appointment. Appointment reminders do not currently use the appointment type to choose a different reminder template automatically, so the best supported options are to adjust the reminder templates used by your practice, set client-specific reminder preferences where needed, include location details with merge fields, or turn reminders on or off from the appointment itself. You can also use the pre-appointment automations to send appointment type-specific messages.

    ❓ Can I send the new-appointment or welcome message to new clients only?

    Not through the New Appointment Template—that message goes out every time your team creates an appointment, for new and returning clients alike. To send a welcome or intake message to first-time clients only, use a New Client automation instead (User Menu > Account Settings > Communication > Automations) with the 'Only clients created by users' condition. It runs once when the client profile is created, so returning clients being re-booked won't receive it. See Setting Up New Client Automations.

    ❓ Do ACMA or other SMS rules change how appointment reminders work in Zanda?

    Zanda gives you controls to manage SMS appointment reminders, but your practice is responsible for confirming how ACMA or other SMS rules apply to your communications. For appointment reminders, you can choose the SMS reminder template, manage whether a client receives SMS messages, and use unsubscribe handling when a client opts out.

    Before sending SMS appointment reminders, confirm the client has agreed to receive SMS communication from your practice. If a client asks to stop receiving SMS messages, go to their profile and set Receives SMS to Unsubscribed. Clients can also opt out by replying stop, unsubscribe, or opt out to an SMS, and Zanda will mark them as unsubscribed from SMS communication.

    ❓ What does Pending mean for an appointment reminder?

    If the appointment pop-up says Appointment Reminder scheduled to be sent, the automatic reminder has not been marked as sent yet. After it is sent, the pop-up changes to show Appointment Reminder sent on: followed by the sent date and time.

    In the client's Communication Activity, a reminder message can show Pending while the SMS or email is queued and prepared to send. For email reminders, Pending can also mean delivery is delayed and Zanda will retry automatically.

    If the status stays pending longer than expected, check the client's mobile number or email address and their reminder settings. You can also review the Communication Activity or Email Activity report for the latest message status.

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