Appointment reminders and birthday offers
Finding a new customer is expensive. Bringing back an existing one is cheap — if you do it at the right time. Many services have a natural rhythm: a car service once a year, a bike service before the season, a massage once a month, a dog groom every couple of months. But many customers don't book their next appointment straight away. If nobody reminds them, they eventually go wherever got in touch with them first.
Three automated messages do this work without anyone having to go through the customer list. Below is how they work in the NUNDINAE platform and what to bear in mind when setting them up.
1. Repeat-visit reminder
Each service can have an interval — four weeks for a massage, a year for a car service. If the customer hasn't booked a new appointment within that time, they get a reminder with a booking link.
An important detail: the reminder goes out only if no new appointment has been booked. A customer who has already booked doesn't get an annoying email. Many bulk mailing tools lack this logic and send to everyone at once. And because bookings are in the same application, nobody has to remove people from a list by hand.
2. Birthday greeting and offer
A birthday email is one of the few marketing messages people actually open. Setting it up involves four decisions:
| Setting | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Birthday greeting | whether to send at all | on |
| Days before | 0 = on the birthday, 7 = a week before, so the customer has time to come in during their birthday week | 7 |
| Discount (%) | 0 = greeting only, otherwise a personal single-use code | 15 |
| Code validity | how many days after sending | 14 |
Each customer gets their own code (in the form SP-7KQ4MX2A), which works once in the online store basket. A personal code is better than a generic "BIRTHDAY15", which ends up on discount sites within a couple of days. Each customer gets the email once a year.
This is where it helps that the online store and the stock are one application: the code works in the same shop whose stock level is accurate, so a product bought as a birthday treat doesn't turn out to be out of stock later. You edit the email text yourself and can use variables for the code, the percentage and the validity period.
One limitation worth knowing: the till doesn't read discount codes. If the customer comes in with the code, you give the discount at the till by hand as a line discount.
3. Asking for feedback
A few hours after the visit, the system asks how it went — optionally with a link where the customer can leave a review. It's the simplest way to collect Google reviews, which local search values highly. More on local search in local SEO: how customers find your business on Google.
Email or SMS?
Email is free and suits longer text. SMS is read more reliably and more quickly, but it costs money. In NUNDINAE you choose the channel: email, SMS or both. SMS goes through Messente and can be tested before you start using it.
Consent isn't a formality
Repeat-visit and birthday messages are marketing. They may be sent only to customers who have given consent — and only through the channel they agreed to.
NUNDINAE keeps two separate consents: offers by email and offers by SMS. Customers give them when registering, when booking, at the till or in their own account. Email consent only takes effect once the customer has confirmed their address. Every offer contains an unsubscribe link that withdraws consent with one click — order and booking messages continue. Marketing messages go out only within the sending hours set in the settings, not at three in the morning.
If you tick consent on the client card yourself, the date is saved with "staff" as the source. Only tick it if the customer really did agree. I wrote more about data protection in client records and sensitive data.
How to measure the result
You can see the effect of automated messages by comparing returning customers before and after switching them on. NUNDINAE's reports show new and returning customers separately; sent messages have their own tab, with their status. Don't judge the result after the first week — the repeat-visit cycle is as long as the service interval. How this works in a business where customers come back with their pets is covered in software for a pet grooming salon and pet shop.
If you want customers to come back without anyone having to phone them, take a look at NUNDINAE or order NUNDINAE or ask for a demo.
