Clients not showing up for their scheduled appointment is bad for many reasons. To hold their reservation, you may have had to turn away other customers, or maybe you even scheduled additional staff to accommodate a full schedule. At the end of the day, it costs you money when clients are a no-show. When customers don’t show up, you miss out. But often, when customers miss their scheduled drop-off time, they don’t do it on purpose.

Rather than just relying on walk-in availability, many pet owners prefer scheduling their services days or even weeks/months in advance. Consider a family who books a kennel spot for their dog because they’re planning a vacation; they might book their kennel reservation several months in advance (and may book multiple locations), along with their plane tickets and hotels. Or consider a dog owner who booked their next grooming appointment for the poodle at the end of a groom; they may not remember. Scheduling so many things at once and/or far in advance can be really overwhelming for people, so it’s no wonder they forget to drop off their dog on time.

Pet owners book your services in advance to give them the security of knowing that they have a spot reserved. On the flip side, the business owner does not get the luxury of knowing all their reservations will remember to show up. But ProPet has a solution to gently remind forgetful clients that they have booked a fast-approaching reservation.

What are Reminder Texts

Similar to reminder emails, which can be found under the setting tab on the ProPet dashboard, reminder texts are text messages sent to customers who have scheduled service with your business through ProPet.

Unlike email reminders, which get sent to your customer’s cluttered inbox, text reminders get sent from your ProPet dashboard, through a phone number and right to your customer’s smartphone. It pops up on their screen just like a regular text message, meaning it’s clearly visible and difficult to ignore.

Automated Text reminders are the best way to get in touch with your clients without having to actually check in with them, one by one. You just write up a customizable text message template and use ProPet’s variable substitutes to personalize the text using the customer’s name and information. From there, you set the date and time which you’d like the text, and you’re done.

Why Reminder Texts are so Useful

Reminder texts are useful because you now have an easy way to reach all of your scheduled customers and remind them they booked a service online. You no longer have to take the time to call up your customers individually to make sure they remember to drop off fluffy.

Reminder texts are a perfect example of the set-it-and-forget-it functionality that saves pet businesses so much time. With reminder texts, you can quickly reach out to your clientele in a noticeable way without needing to invest too much time. You can take all the time you would have spent making administrative phone calls and instead focus on running your business.

Why are Reminder Texts Better than Reminder Emails

While they both have their benefits, reminder texts are often more effective at getting your customer’s attention than a reminder email. Texting is a much more direct way of getting in touch with your customer because people are always on their phones. Just think about how often you check your text messages compared to your email inbox.

Some people do enable push notifications from their email apps, but many people don’t, so why risk sending an email reminder that won’t be read in time, when you know you can send a text reminder, that will be?

When you use reminder texts, you increase the likelihood of your customers seeing your message. Meaning they are significantly less likely to forget about their scheduled service, keeping your business on schedule and putting money in your pocket.