# Messages for particular services: before-visit notes and aftercare

> Give a service its own notes for clients, like "come with dry hair" before the visit or aftercare tips after it, plus its own rebooking reminder.

Source: https://docs.fullcolumn.com/messages/service-messages

Some services need a word with the client: come with dry, product-free hair; allow three hours; wait 48 hours before washing your new colour. Each service can have its own note before the appointment, aftercare tips after it, and a "time to rebook" reminder, set up once in the service and sent automatically for every booking of it.

## Setting up messages for a service

1. Open **Settings → Services** and choose the service.
2. Scroll to **Client messages**.
3. Write the note **Before the appointment**, the **Aftercare**, or both, and choose when each goes.
4. Press **Save**.

This needs **Edit services and prices**; the **Time to rebook** part also needs **Send campaigns, set up automatic marketing, and make promo codes (with "Give discounts" too)**. Owners have every permission. Each note can be up to 500 characters, and a preview shows the text as a client would get it.

## Sending a note before the appointment

**Send it** chooses how the "before the appointment" note reaches the client:

| Send it                                                  | What happens                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **With the confirmation and the reminder** (the default) | The note is added to both                                                                                                                                                                        |
| **With the booking confirmation**                        | Added to the confirmation only                                                                                                                                                                   |
| **With the appointment reminder**                        | Added to the reminder only. If no reminder will come (reminders are off for the salon or the client, or the booking was made inside the reminder window), it goes with the confirmation instead. |
| **As a separate message**                                | Its own message, 2, 4 or 12 hours, the day before, 2 days before (to start with), 3 days before, or a week before the appointment                                                                |

In a confirmation or reminder, the note goes where `{instructions}` is in your wording, or straight after the form link, or at the end ([changing your message wording](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/messages/message-wording)).

A separate message keeps to your salon's sending hours, the same hours as automatic messages, and goes early rather than late: if its time falls after your hours end, it goes just before they end that day; if it falls before they start, it goes just before they end the day before. A booking made after its time gets it straight away (within your sending hours). It reads "Hi Sarah, before your appointment at Halo Hair tomorrow at 10:30am:" followed by the note.

## Sending aftercare tips after a visit

The **Aftercare** note goes once the visit is checked out: straight after, 1, 2, 3 (to start with) or 6 hours after, the next day, or 2 days after, within your sending hours. It reads "Hi Sarah, thanks for visiting Halo Hair! Aftercare tips:" followed by the note.

- Only visits from when you add the aftercare get it, not ones already finished.
- Visits brought across from your old booking system never get it.
- If it's more than two days late (say, a visit checked out much later), it's skipped rather than sent stale.

## Changing the hours notes and aftercare go out

Separate "before" notes and aftercare go out in your salon's sending hours, one window shared with automatic messages ([setting the hours](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/messages/automatic-marketing#setting-the-hours-automatic-messages-go-out)). Once a service has a note sent **As a separate message**, or any **Aftercare**, its **Client messages** shows "Separate notes and aftercare go out between" a start time (6am to 12pm) and a finish time (1pm to 10pm), salon time. A change saves straight away and applies to automatic messages too. It needs **Edit services and prices**, or **Send campaigns, set up automatic marketing, and make promo codes**.

## When a booking has several services with notes

The notes are combined into one message, one line each, in the order of the booking. When there's more than one note, each line starts with the service it's for ("Colour: …"), and services with the same note share a line. A separate "before" message goes at the earliest of the services' times, and aftercare at the quickest.

## Who gets before-visit notes and aftercare

These are appointment messages, not marketing:

- They go on your **Send by** choice in **Settings → Reminders & SMS** (by text, falling back to email for a client without a mobile, by email, or both).
- They don't need marketing consent and carry no opt-out. They're about an appointment the client booked, so they go even when the client's **Appointment reminders** is switched off (that stops only the automatic reminder). Archived clients never get them.
- Texts use SMS credits, and keep going after your monthly limit on extra texts.
- A separate "before" message isn't sent if the appointment is cancelled or moved first.

In **Messages**, they're marked **Before the appointment** and **Aftercare**. The wording around a separate note or aftercare is FullColumn's; the note itself is yours.

## Rebooking reminders for a service

A service's **Rebooking reminder** (every 2 to 26 weeks) is suggested at checkout, and times the "time to rebook" message. Under **Client messages → Time to rebook**:

- **Remind clients N weeks after their visit** is on to start with. Switch it off for a service that shouldn't send one.
- **Use different wording for this service** gives it its own message; otherwise it uses the wording in **Messages → Automations**.

The reminder only goes once **Time to rebook** is switched on in **Messages → Automations**, and only to clients who've agreed to marketing ([automatic marketing](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/messages/automatic-marketing)).

## Common questions

### Can a note go a week before, for a patch test?

Yes: choose **As a separate message** and **A week before**. Client alerts and patch test records are on the client's card ([alerts and patch tests](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/alerts-and-patch-tests)).

### Can I change the wording around the note?

The note is yours; the greeting around a separate note or aftercare is FullColumn's. In confirmations and reminders, place the note with `{instructions}`.

### Will a note go to a client who has turned off reminders?

Yes. **Appointment reminders** on a client's card only stops the automatic reminder: before-visit notes and aftercare still go. A note set to go **With the appointment reminder** goes with the confirmation instead, since no reminder will come.