docs

Automatic messages: welcomes, birthdays, feedback, reviews, rebooking

Messages that go by themselves: a welcome after a first visit, birthday wishes, a feedback form or Google review request after a visit, and rebooking.

Automatic messages send what you'd send yourself if you had the time: a thank-you after a new client's first visit, birthday wishes, a nudge for clients who haven't been back, a feedback form or Google review request after a visit, and a "time to rebook" reminder. Switch on the ones you want in Messages → Automations, and they go out by themselves, at sensible hours. They're marketing, so they only go to clients who've agreed to it, except the After the visit message when it asks for feedback.

Rules every automatic marketing message follows

  • Only to clients who've agreed to marketing: Marketing texts for a text, Marketing emails for an email, with a mobile or email on file. Never to archived clients, or anyone who's opted out or replied STOP. The After the visit message with a feedback form in it is the exception: it goes to clients who haven't said no to feedback requests (sending a feedback form after each visit).
  • It says who it's from: texts start with your salon's name unless the message already has it, and every message ends with a way to opt out ("Opt out: Reply Stop", or an unsubscribe link in emails).
  • Only in your sending hours, and never more than one automatic message a day to the same client.
  • Never twice for the same thing: one welcome per client, one birthday message a year, one After the visit message per visit, and so on.
  • Only visits that were checked out count, never the history brought across from your old booking system (except for "Not seen for a while", which looks at every last visit).
  • It's marketing: texts use your SMS credits and stop once your monthly limit on extra texts is reached (SMS credits). Feedback requests' texts stop there too.

Setting up automatic marketing needs Send campaigns, set up automatic marketing, and make promo codes (with "Give discounts" too); owners have every permission.

Setting the hours automatic messages go out

At the top of Messages → Automations: "Automatic messages go out between" a start time (6am to 12pm) and a finish time (1pm to 10pm), salon time. It's 9am to 7pm to start with, and it saves as soon as you change it. Messages for particular services (before the appointment and aftercare) keep to these hours too, and people who can change services can also change them in a service's Client messages, once it has a separate note or aftercare.

Switching on an automatic message

  1. Open Messages → Automations and press Edit on the one you want.
  2. Choose Send as (Text, Email or Text & email), the timing, and check the wording and preview.
  3. Switch it On. A box explains who'll get it and when; press Switch on.

Switching on saves the wording on screen, so what you see is what goes out. If something's missing (the message, your Google review link, a feedback form), FullColumn says what to add first. With Text & email, clients get it both ways when they can be sent both, so it reaches the most people.

Welcome new clients

A thank-you after a new client's first visit, once ever. When sets how long after the visit (once it's checked out): straight after, 1, 2, 3 (to start with) or 6 hours after, the next day, or 2 days after. Only visits from when you switch it on count, so clients who've already been in won't suddenly get one, and clients brought across from your old booking system aren't new.

When After the visit is on too, a new client's first visit gets the welcome instead of a Google review request. If After the visit sends a feedback form, they get both, on different days.

Default: "Hi {first_name}, thanks for choosing {business}! Lovely to meet you. Book again any time: {book_link}"

Birthday wishes

A message on each client's birthday, once a year, from the start of your sending hours. When can be on their birthday, or 1, 2, 3 or 7 days before. Clients need a birthday on their client card; a 29 February birthday is celebrated on 28 February in other years.

Default: "Happy birthday {first_name}! Everyone at {business} hopes you have a wonderful day. Treat yourself: {book_link}"

Not seen for a while

A nudge for clients whose last visit was a while ago and who have nothing booked (a booking request waiting for you counts as booked).

  • When it's been: 6, 8, 10, 12 (to start with) or 16 weeks, 6 months or a year since their last visit.
  • Most per day: 20 to start with (up to 500), so a backlog goes out a few at a time and you're not flooded with bookings or replies. The most recently lapsed go first.
  • Leave out anyone not seen for: 1 year, 18 months, 2 years (to start with), 3 years, or Never – include everyone. Clients gone that long probably aren't coming back.

Unlike welcomes, After the visit messages and rebooking reminders, this one counts visits from before you switched it on, and history brought across from your old booking system, so clients already away start getting it straight away, a day's worth at a time. While appointments are being imported, it waits until an hour after the import finishes. A client gets it once each time they lapse: if they come back and drift away again, they'll get it again.

Default: "Hi {first_name}, it's been a while! We'd love to see you back at {business}. Book online any time: {book_link}"

After the visit: a feedback form or a Google review request

After the visit asks clients how it went once their visit is checked out. What it sends depends on its wording:

When is straight after, 1, 2, 3 (to start with) or 6 hours after, the next day, or 2 days after the visit is checked out. Either way, each visit gets one at most, only visits from when you switch it on count, and visits brought across from your old booking system never do.

The editor's Google review link shows your link from Settings → Business, with Add it in Settings → Business or Change it in Settings → Business (adding your Google review link). The message doesn't have to include {review_link} or {form_link}: {review_link} only needs your link to be set before it can be switched on.

Default: "Thanks for visiting {business}, {first_name}! If you have a minute, we'd love a Google review: {review_link}"

Sending a feedback form after each visit

Put {form_link} in the After the visit message (Feedback form under Insert adds it) and it becomes a feedback request: it asks how the visit went, with a link to one of the feedback forms you've built in Settings → Forms, under After the visit (feedback forms). To ask for a Google review as well, put a review button on the form's thank-you page.

  • Who gets it: only clients whose checked-out visit a feedback form is due for. Each form's Who's asked (After certain services, First visits or Every visit) and How often (Once, Every visit or At most every few months) decide, so the card says "as often as its feedback forms say" and the message's months limit doesn't apply. Forms set to Only when sent don't count.
  • First visits too: a new client's first visit is asked about as well. With Welcome new clients on, they get the welcome and the feedback request on different days.
  • Not marketing: it goes to every client with a mobile or email for it who hasn't said no to feedback requests (Feedback requests on their client details, on unless they've said no), whatever their marketing choices, but never to archived clients. Replying STOP to it, or the unsubscribe link in the email, stops feedback requests only (a client's choice about feedback requests).
  • The link: {form_link} opens the visit's feedback form; if more than one is due, the others follow on from it. The link closes once the form's How long the link works is up.
  • No other links: a feedback request only asks for feedback, so saving refuses {review_link}, {book_link} or a web address typed into its wording or email subject: "With {form_link}, this is a feedback request, so it can't have other links. Your review link can go on the feedback form's thank-you page."
  • A feedback form first: it can't be switched on until a feedback form is asked for automatically (not Only when sent): "Make a feedback form first (Settings → Forms), or take {form_link} out of the message".

Feedback requests show in Messages as Feedback request, whether After the visit sent them or you did. Who gets them isn't decided by marketing choices, but their texts count as marketing for your SMS credits: they stop once your monthly limit on extra texts is reached or while FullColumn has paused your marketing texts, and they wait behind appointment messages. The Marketing report leaves them out.

In Settings → Forms, a feedback form that's asked for automatically says Not going out while the After the visit message is off or doesn't include {form_link}. For people who can set up automatic marketing, Switch it on or Add it shows the wording first, then fixes it, with this wording unless yours already has {form_link}: "Thanks for visiting {business}, {first_name}! We'd love to hear how it went: {form_link}"

Asking for a Google review after a visit

Without {form_link}, the After the visit message is a Google review request, and it's marketing: it only goes to clients who've agreed to marketing, like the other automatic messages.

  1. Add your Google review link in Settings → Business: in your Google Business Profile, choose "Ask for reviews" and copy the link (it starts with https://).
  2. Keep {review_link} in the message (the default wording has it), or add it with Review link under Insert.
  3. Choose When, and Ask each client at most once every month, 3 months, 6 months (to start with) or 12 months.

If Welcome new clients is on, a new client's first visit gets the welcome instead of a review request. With {review_link} in the message and no link in Settings → Business, switching on says "Add your Google review link in Settings → Business first". Review requests show in Messages as After the visit (automatic).

Time to rebook

A reminder when a service is due again and the client hasn't booked since. It's timed by each service's Rebooking reminder in Settings → Services, so it can't be switched on until at least one service has one. The card lists the services it covers.

  • When: as soon as it's due, or 3 days, a week or 2 weeks after.
  • Most per day: 20 to start with (up to 500), so a backlog goes out a few at a time.
  • {book_link} opens your booking page with the services already picked, and the stylist they saw when one person did them all and still takes online bookings. The message must include it. {services} names the services.

Each visit gets one reminder. Only reminders that come due from the day you switch it on count, and one that's waited more than two weeks behind the daily limit is skipped. A service can be left out, or given its own wording (messages for particular services).

Default: "Hi {first_name}, it's time for your next {services}! Book at {business}: {book_link}"

Changing the wording of an automatic message

Press Edit, then change the Message (and the Email subject for emails). Insert adds {first_name}, {book_link} and {business}, plus Review link ({review_link}) and Feedback form ({form_link}) for After the visit, and Service ({services}) for "time to rebook". {business_phone} works in all of them too. With {form_link}, the After the visit message can't have any other link, so Insert offers only First name, Salon name and Feedback form (sending a feedback form after each visit).

Preview for shows the message with one of today's clients' names, and says who'd get it today. If it runs to more than one text for each client, you're told; the count includes your salon's name and the opt-out. Restore default wording brings back FullColumn's wording; press Save changes to keep your changes, or Discard.

Sending yourself a test automatic message

Send me a test sends the message to your own mobile or email, exactly as clients would get it with your first name filled in, unsaved changes included. A test email's subject starts "Test:", and a test feedback request's {form_link} is a sample that opens no client's form. You can send up to 20 tests an hour.

Seeing what automatic marketing has sent

Each card shows how many clients are due today (or would get it today, when it's off), how many are waiting behind the daily limit, how many were sent today, and how many in the last 30 days. Each message is in Messages → Activity, marked as automatic: Welcome (automatic), Birthday (automatic), After the visit (automatic) and so on; feedback requests show as Feedback request. The Marketing report shows how many clients booked after getting one; feedback requests aren't marketing, so they aren't in it.

Common questions

Why didn't a client get their birthday message?

They need a birthday on their card, Marketing texts (or emails) switched on, and a mobile (or email) for the way it's sent. Birthday texts also stop once your monthly limit on extra texts is reached, and a birthday that passed before you switched it on isn't sent late.

Will switching on a welcome or After the visit message reach all my past clients?

No. Only visits from when you switch them on count. "Not seen for a while" is the one that looks back, a day's limit at a time.

Why didn't a client get a feedback request after their visit?

The After the visit message needs to be on with {form_link} in it, and one of your feedback forms has to be due for that visit (its rule and how often decide). The client needs Feedback requests on and a mobile or email for the way it's sent, and gets at most one automatic message a day, so it can come a day later. Feedback request texts also stop once your monthly limit on extra texts is reached.

A client opted out of marketing. Do they still get feedback requests?

Yes, unless they've said no to those too. Feedback requests aren't marketing: they stop when the client replies STOP to one, uses the unsubscribe link in one, unticks Ask me how my visit went in their client area, or your team turns off Feedback requests on their details.

No. With {form_link} the message can't have other links. Put a Google review button on the feedback form's thank-you page instead (feedback forms).

Do automatic messages go at night?

No, only between your sending hours. A message that falls due overnight goes once your hours start.