Appointment reminders and WhatsApp replies

What reminders go out, when, and what a sales person or client can reply to confirm, move or close an appointment.

Help CentreOrchestration

Appointment reminders and WhatsApp replies

Automize reminds both the sales person and the client about an upcoming appointment over WhatsApp, and acts on what they reply. Nobody has to open the platform to confirm a meeting.


Table of Contents

  1. What goes out, and when
  2. What the client is told
  3. Replies that do something
  4. Who a reply is attributed to
  5. After the appointment
  6. Checking reminders were delivered
  7. Troubleshooting

What goes out, and when

Reminders are sent automatically, without anyone scheduling them:

WhenWho is messaged
Two days beforeThe sales person and the client
One day beforeThe sales person and the client
After the appointment dateThe sales person, asking for the outcome

Cancelled appointments, and appointments already marked won or lost, are skipped.


What the client is told

The client's reminder carries the appointment date, time and address exactly as they appear on the card. If the card has no time, the reminder falls back to 09:00 – so an appointment saved without a time will tell the client nine o'clock. Always set the real time.


Replies that do something

Replies are read automatically. Case does not matter.

ReplyWhat happens
CONFIRM, YES, CONFIRMEDMarks the appointment confirmed for whoever replied
CANCEL, CANCELLEDCancels the appointment
DEAL, WON, SALERecords a sale
NODEAL, NO DEAL, LOSTRecords no sale
NOSHOW, NO SHOWRecords a no-show
RESCHEDULE, REBOOKSignals the appointment needs moving; reply with a date next
A date, e.g. 2026-08-14 or 14/08/2026Moves the appointment to that date

Anything the system does not recognise is logged and left alone – it never guesses.


Who a reply is attributed to

A reply is matched to the appointment by the phone number it came from. If the number matches the appointment owner's cell number, the reply counts as the sales person confirming; otherwise it counts as the client. When both have confirmed, the appointment shows as fully confirmed.

This is why every sales person needs their cell number on their user profile – without it, their replies are read as the client's.


After the appointment

Once the date has passed and no outcome has been recorded, the sales person is asked for one over WhatsApp. They can answer straight from the message with DEAL, NODEAL or NOSHOW rather than opening the board.

Until an outcome is recorded, the appointment stays on the Awaiting outcome list on the sales dashboard.


Checking reminders were delivered

The Reminder delivery widget on the sales dashboard shows how many messages were sent per template and how many failed. A failed send means a client was never told about their appointment, so it is worth glancing at daily.


Troubleshooting


No reminders are going out at all

Check with your administrator that the workspace has an active WhatsApp number and that its message templates have been approved. Until both are in place, sends are skipped silently.


The client got the wrong time

The appointment probably has no time set, so the reminder used the 09:00 fallback. Set the time on the card; the calendar entry and the reminder always agree.


A reply did nothing

Either the wording was not one of the recognised replies above, or the number it came from is not attached to any open appointment. Replies only act on appointments that are still open – not on cancelled, won or lost ones.


See also

See it working on your own data

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