Client contact details, reminders, marketing and feedback consent

Each client has a mobile, an email and an address on their card, and four choices about what you send them: appointment reminders, marketing texts, marketing emails and feedback requests. You decide which team members see the contact details, and clients can change their own choices.

#Who can see clients' phone numbers and emails

Seeing a client's mobile, email and address takes the permission "See clients’ phone numbers and email addresses". It's on by default for managers and staff, and owners have every permission. To take it away from someone, change their permissions in Settings (roles and permissions).

A shared device set to Front desk doesn't hold this permission back, so whoever's at the desk can call and text clients if they have it (shared devices).

#What team members without contact access see

Without "See clients’ phone numbers and email addresses", contact details are hidden everywhere in FullColumn: the client list and profiles, the calendar and appointments, checkout and sales, messages, forms, the waitlist and reports.

• Mobiles show the last three digits only: •••• ••• 678.
• Emails show the first letter and the domain: s•••@gmail.com.
• Addresses show as "Hidden".
• Phone numbers and emails written in text are hidden the same way: in a client's notes and alert, formulas and notes, appointment notes, text replies and form answers.

#What team members without contact access can still do

Hidden details don't stop the day's work. Without contact access, a team member can still:

• Find a client by their mobile: typing the number in search finds them, even though it shows hidden.
• Message a client with Message on their profile: FullColumn sends it to the number or email on file (sending a one-off message).
• Add or replace a client's mobile, email or address by typing a new one. Leaving a hidden one as it is keeps what's on file.

What they can't do:

• Change notes, an alert or a formula with a hidden number or email in it. These are read-only for them, marked "Has a phone number or email hidden from you, so only someone who can see contact details can change it."
• Export the client list or download everything: both need contact access (exporting your client list).

#A client's reminder and marketing choices

Each client's details have four switches:

• Appointment reminders: "The automatic reminder before each visit (confirmations and service notes still go). Replying STOP to an appointment text turns it off." Off means no automatic reminder before their appointments. Confirmations, cancellations and the notes you've set up for particular services, such as aftercare, still go, as messages about appointments they've booked (messages for particular services).
• Marketing texts: "Promotions and news by SMS": campaigns and automatic marketing by text.
• Marketing emails: the same, by email.
• Feedback requests: being asked how their visit went, with your feedback forms. It isn't marketing, so it's on unless they've said no (a client's choice about feedback requests).

Their profile's Details card shows Reminders as On or Off, Marketing as Texts, Emails, both, or Opted out, and Feedback requests as On or Said no. Marketing only goes to clients who've agreed to it and have a mobile or email for it (marketing campaigns, automatic marketing).

To change them for a client, edit their details, flip the switches and press Save. Everyone on the team can.

#How a new client's choices are set

What a client starts with depends on how they came to you:

• Added by your team (in Clients, while booking or on the waitlist): reminders and both kinds of marketing are on. Turn marketing off if they haven't agreed to it: while booking or on the waitlist, untick Texts or Emails beside Marketing under their details.
• Booked online: reminders are on. Marketing is on only if they ticked "Send me the occasional offer or news from" your salon when they booked. The box starts unticked.
• Imported from your old booking system: reminders are on. Marketing follows the file's marketing columns if you matched any (yes, y, true, 1, subscribed or opted in is yes; anything else is no), a "no" in any of them for a channel turning it off. With no marketing column, marketing is on (bringing your clients across).

However they came to you, Feedback requests starts on.

#How clients opt out themselves

Clients can change their own minds, and FullColumn updates their card:

• Replying STOP to a marketing text turns off Marketing texts.
• Replying STOP to a feedback request turns off Feedback requests only.
• Replying STOP to an appointment text (a confirmation or reminder) turns off Marketing texts, Appointment reminders and Feedback requests. FullColumn then stops their automatic reminders, marketing texts and feedback requests. Messages about appointments they've booked still go: confirmations, cancellations, service notes, texts you send them yourself, form and deposit requests, and answers to booking requests (replies and STOP).
• The unsubscribe link at the bottom of a marketing email turns off Marketing emails and Marketing texts; the one in a feedback request turns off Feedback requests only.
• In their client area, clients can tick or untick offers and news By email and By text, and Ask me how my visit went (the client area).

Opt-outs by text show on the client's Messages tab as "Opted out by text" (replies and STOP).

When a client opts out of marketing, no marketing goes to that mobile or email address at all, even for another client record that shares it, such as a family member booked on a parent's details. Saying no to feedback requests works the same way.

#A client's choice about feedback requests

Feedback requests on a client's details ("Asked how their visit went, with your feedback forms. Not marketing, so on unless they've said no") decides whether the After the visit message asks them for feedback, when it carries a feedback form (sending a feedback form after each visit). It's separate from marketing: a client who's opted out of marketing is still asked for feedback, unless they've said no to that too.

• It starts on for every client, whether your team added them, they booked online or they were imported.
• Your team can change it: edit the client's details, flip Feedback requests and press Save. Everyone on the team can.
• Clients can say no themselves: by replying STOP to a feedback request, with the unsubscribe link in a feedback request email ("Stop feedback requests?"), or by unticking Ask me how my visit went in their client area. Replying STOP to an appointment text turns it off too.

Their profile's Details card shows Feedback requests as On or Said no. Once someone says no on a mobile or email, no feedback request goes to it, even for another client record that shares it. A feedback form your team sends by hand is a feedback request too, so it can't be sent to a client who has said no; it can still be filled in at the salon (sending feedback by hand).

#Common questions

#A client asked us to stop texting them. What do I turn off?

Edit their details and turn off Marketing texts and Feedback requests, and Appointment reminders too if they don't want reminders. Messages about appointments they've booked still go: confirmations, cancellations, service notes, texts you send them yourself, form and deposit requests, and answers to booking requests. If they want no texts at all, take their mobile off their details: those messages then go by email, if you have one.

#Does turning off reminders stop confirmations?

No. With Appointment reminders off they still get confirmations and cancellations, and notes for their services, whatever their marketing choices. Only the automatic reminder stops.

#What happens to their choices when I merge two clients?

The stricter choice wins: if either record had turned something off, it's off on the record you keep (merging duplicate clients).

#Can I hide contact details from one person only?

Yes. Permissions are set per person: turn off "See clients’ phone numbers and email addresses" for just that team member (roles and permissions).