Most no-shows happen because the customer forgot, not because they meant to skip. A reminder sent a few hours before the appointment fixes the majority of those without you having to chase anyone.
StudioOps sends reminders automatically. You pick how many hours before, and the customer chooses whether they want one when they book.
1. Turn reminders on
Settings → Booking page → Appointment reminders.
- Send reminders X hours before the appointment — anywhere from 1 to 168 (a week). 24 is the default and suits most studios. 2 hours suits drop-in beauty / nails. 48 hours suits bridal fittings where the customer might need to dig a particular dress out of a wardrobe.
- Email reminders — on by default. The opt-in checkbox on the booking page is pre-ticked for the customer, so most book-with-reminder.
- SMS reminders — off by default. Switches on once you've connected Twilio (Settings → Messaging) and added an SMS sender. The opt-in checkbox on the booking page for SMS is unticked by default so it stays opt-in.
Save. The next booking that comes through respects the new settings.
2. What the customer sees
On the booking confirm page, below the notes field, a Reminders panel:
Reminders
☑ Email me a reminder 24 hours before my appointment.
☐ Text me a reminder too (we'll send it to the phone number above — leave the phone field blank to skip).
The email box is on by default. The SMS box only appears if you've enabled SMS reminders AND connected Twilio. If the customer doesn't supply a phone number, the SMS opt-in is ignored silently.
3. What the customer gets
Email — a short message that looks like:
Hi Anna, just a heads-up — your Acrylic Full Set with Pink and Polish Nails is coming up in about 24 hours, on Mon 22 Jun at 10:30.
If you need to change anything, reply to this email or write to studio@example.com.
See you soon, Pink and Polish Nails
SMS — a single message:
Hi Anna, reminder: your Acrylic Full Set with Pink and Polish Nails is Mon 22 Jun at 10:30. See you soon.
Both come from your studio's connected sender (your custom Resend domain for email, your Twilio number for SMS) — they look like they're from you, not from StudioOps.
4. How it works under the hood
A scheduled job runs every 30 minutes and looks for any appointment whose start time falls inside a 30-minute window around start_at − your lead hours. If the customer opted in and the reminder hasn't been sent yet, it sends and marks the appointment as reminded.
The 30-minute window means reminders can land up to 30 minutes early or late — fine for "24 hours before" but worth knowing if you pick a very short lead time like 1 hour. For very short leads, consider the SMS channel which delivers instantly compared to email's seconds-to-minutes.
The job is idempotent. If anything goes wrong with a send (your Twilio account ran out of credit, your Resend domain failed verification), the appointment stays marked "not yet sent" and the next tick will try again — until either it succeeds or the appointment passes.
5. Costs
- Email: covered by your StudioOps subscription. No per-reminder charge.
- SMS: charged to your own Twilio account at Twilio's published rate (typically pence per message in the UK). StudioOps takes no cut. Check your Twilio dashboard for the running total.
See also
- Connecting WhatsApp to StudioOps — the first half of the same Twilio setup; SMS reminders piggyback on the SMS sender you add in there.
- Booking rules and cancellation policy — pairs well with reminders; if a customer needs to cancel after the reminder, the policy text on the booking page tells them whether their deposit is still refundable.
If you get stuck, the StudioOps help centre at studioops.uk/help has search and a ticket form. For anything urgent, email help@studioops.uk.