Your customer gets an email as soon as they book. If the appointment is more than 24 hours away, they also get a reminder 24 hours before it. It goes by email unless they have switched reminder emails off (every reminder email has a link for that), and by text as well if they have text reminders on. The text is the only part of this that costs anything.
Who gets a text
Customers choose on the booking form, with a box that reads Text me an appointment reminder. It only appears for phone numbers in countries we can text, and only while your business can send one: before your subscription starts, or whenever your SMS credit runs out, there is no box, and nobody is signed up for texts they can't get.
The box starts unticked, unless Suggest SMS reminders is on under Settings → Booking. Then it arrives ticked, and the customer can untick it. Setting up a new site asks this, and you can change it there at any time.
A customer with an account keeps their own answer. If they switched text reminders off, or unticked the box on an earlier booking, it arrives unticked for them. A customer booking without an account sees the box the way you set it, every time. Bookings you add yourself in the admin don't change anyone's text setting.
Stopping text reminders
While a customer's texts are on, their booking confirmation and their reminder email each have a Stop text reminders link. It opens a page with a Stop text reminders button, with no account needed, and the same page can turn them back on. Opening the link changes nothing on its own, because email security filters open every link in an email before your customer reads it.
You can stop them too, if a customer asks you: open them under Customers and press Stop SMS reminders. You can't turn a customer's texts on. Only the customer can, when they next book or from their account.
How credit works
Solo includes €5 of SMS credit a month and Team €10. On yearly billing, that's €60 or €120 at the start of each year. A free trial includes one month's worth, €5 or €10, whichever billing you chose, so texts go out from the day your subscription starts. When your first payment goes through, the plan's credit arrives and replaces whatever is left of the trial's.
You have two balances, and they are spent in this order.
Your included allowance refills at the start of each billing period. Anything left over does not roll into the next period.
Your top-up balance is credit you have bought, and it does not expire. It is only touched once the allowance for the period is used up.
Both are shown under SMS credit on rantevo.com, which is also where you buy top-ups. When both are empty, texts stop and emails carry on.
We email you when your credit drops below €1 on Solo or €2 on Team, and again when it runs out. Each email comes once, until your plan refills your credit or you add some.
What a text costs
Cost depends on the destination country and on message length. A text over the standard length is split into segments and billed per segment. A reminder is normally one segment.
Once you have credit, the SMS credit page shows roughly how many texts it buys in the countries your customers are in.
Why a text might not have arrived
The email and the text are sent separately, so a text failing never stops the email. If a customer didn't get a text, one of these is why:
- The appointment was less than 24 hours away when it was booked or moved. No reminder is sent, by email or by text.
- The booking was still a request. A booking still waiting for your yes when the reminder is due gets none.
- The customer didn't have text reminders on. The box was unticked when they booked, or they or you stopped them.
- Not enough credit. Both balances were empty when the reminder was due. We email you when that happens.
- The country is not supported. The list is on the SMS credit page.
- The number is not a mobile, or was typed wrongly. Landlines cannot receive texts.
- Your subscription is not active. Texts stop as soon as a payment fails, not only when the subscription ends, and email carries on. Update your payment method under Billing on rantevo.com and texts start again from the next reminder.
Your admin doesn't show a record of each text sent. If you need to know what happened with one booking, contact support with its reference.
Turning it off
There is no switch that stops texts for your whole business. With Suggest SMS reminders off, only customers who tick the box themselves get one, and your included credit covers them. You never have to buy a top-up: when your credit runs out, texts stop and email reminders carry on.