Confirmation by SMS

How do you confirm an appointment requested by SMS?

To confirm an appointment requested by SMS, block the slot, send the invitation to the customer's email, then restate the day and time by SMS, in that order. With a Muzau agent, the confirmation SMS only goes out once the appointment is booked. If your setting does not let it book on its own, your team confirms in Muzau: the slot is checked again to be free, and if it was taken in the meantime, nothing goes out.

Why a “noted” by SMS is not enough

The customer writes “Thursday 2:30 pm works for me.” You reply “Noted,” and the conversation ends there. Nothing has gone into their calendar, sometimes nothing into yours, and nobody checked that Thursday 2:30 pm was still free. Three days later, the SMS is far back in their phone, and the appointment depends on their memory.

Confirming an appointment requested by SMS takes three steps, in this order: check that the slot is free and block it, send the invitation the customer adds to their calendar, then write to tell them it is done. In the other order, you confirm a time that may no longer be free.

How the agent goes about it

Input

A customer who picked a slot by SMS, to the business's 09 number

It does

Asks for the email, has the slot checked, books the appointment

It delivers

The invitation by email, then the SMS that confirms, never the other way round

The customer's email is asked for before the appointment is booked

When the customer picks a slot offered by the SMS agent, it asks for their email address before booking the appointment. With Google Calendar or Outlook connected, the appointment goes into your calendar and the customer is invited to it; with no calendar, Muzau reserves the slot and sends a calendar invitation to the customer and to you. The detail of the exchange is on the page booking an appointment by SMS.

The confirmation SMS is only written once the appointment is booked

The sentence that confirms is not left to the AI: Muzau's code writes it, once the appointment is really booked. The SMS restates the slot and the address the invitation is going to, and this sentence is never cut to fit 160 characters. If the customer sends another SMS in the meantime, the reply that confirms still goes out.

When the agent does not book on its own, your team confirms from the card

If your setting does not let the agent book on its own, it replies to the customer: “I'm passing your appointment request to the team, who will get back to you to confirm it.” A card is waiting for you in “To do,” with a reply ready as one SMS and the first free slot already written in; you can pick another from those offered. On click, the slot is checked again to be free, the invitation goes to the email given by SMS, then the SMS goes from the agent's number. If the slot has just been taken, nothing goes out and the next one is offered; if the calendar cannot be read, nothing goes out either. Without an email given by SMS, the invitation cannot go out: you reply without the appointment.

If you approve each of the agent's SMS, the invitation can arrive before the confirmation

The appointment follows its own setting, not the one for the agent's replies. If you keep approval on replies but let the agent book appointments, the appointment can be booked and its invitation sent by email while the SMS announcing it waits for your approval in “To approve.” The customer then has the invitation without the reply: approve those SMS first. To read and pick up these conversations, see answering your customers' SMS from a computer.

What an appointment confirmation SMS should say

With or without a tool, a confirmation fits in one SMS and answers in advance the questions the customer will ask themselves the day before.

• The day and time spelled out. The day of the week and the date together, “Thursday [date] at 2:30 pm,” rule out a mix-up over the week.
• The place, or the video call. The address to come to, or a note that the video link is in the invitation.
• The address the invitation goes to. The customer spots a typo in their email right away.
• How to change the time. One line is enough: “To change it, reply to this SMS.”
• The essentials, no more. The price, the documents to bring and the details go by email or are covered at the appointment.

A template that fits in 160 characters: “Confirmed: Thursday [date] at 2:30 pm, at our office. The invitation is going to [email]. To change it, reply to this SMS.”

The mistakes to avoid: confirming before checking the calendar, which opens the door to two customers in the same slot; asking for the email before the customer has picked their slot; confirming by SMS without sending an invitation, which leaves the appointment out of the customer's calendar.

What it does not do

• It does not send a reminder SMS before the appointment: an SMS only goes out in reply to a customer who wrote to the business's number.
• It does not move or cancel an appointment already booked, and books only one per conversation.
• Without the customer's email, no appointment is booked and no invitation is sent: the agent asks for it by SMS, and from the card your team can only reply without the appointment.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need to send an email invitation as well as the confirmation SMS?

Yes: the SMS states the time, the invitation puts it in the customer's calendar. With Muzau, it goes to the email the customer gave by SMS. With no calendar connected, Muzau sends the same invitation to the customer and to you.

How do you confirm an appointment by SMS if the customer has not given their email?

Ask for it when they pick their slot: without an email, there is no invitation. A Muzau agent asks for it itself before booking the appointment. From the conversation card, without an email given by SMS, your team can only reply without the appointment.

What if the slot was taken before you confirmed the appointment?

With Muzau, the slot is checked again to be free when your team confirms from the conversation card. If it has just been taken, nothing goes out to the customer, and the next free slot is offered instead. With no calendar connected, only appointments booked by Muzau count as taken: a commitment noted elsewhere is not seen.

Do you have to tell the customer the SMS confirmation comes from an AI?

Yes, say so from the first message, so the customer knows who they are replying to. A Muzau agent does it: in every conversation, its first SMS begins with “Hello, this is the AI assistant of” your business, even before the confirmation. The SMS your team writes from the conversation card, confirmation included, do not carry this line.

Can you confirm by SMS an appointment requested from a landline?

Not with Muzau. Its SMS only go to French mobiles starting 06 and 07, the agent's as well as the team's: it is a protection against premium-rate numbers. The landline's message is received, and a card tells you this number does not receive SMS from France: the confirmation then falls to your team, by some means other than SMS.