Setting Up SMS Reminders
Set up SMS reminders so your customers are notified the day prior to their upcoming job. Reminders are sent at 9:00 AM in your business's time zone, the day before your customer's scheduled job.
How to Enable the SMS Reminders Setting in Housecall Pro
To enable SMS Reminders in Housecall Pro:
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Housecall Pro account to navigate to your Account Settings.
From there, select 'Jobs' from the menu on the left, then select 'Job reminders' from the drop-down. This will open up the Job Reminders settings page.
SMS job reminders will be toggled off by default. Click on the gray toggle under "Set SMS reminders" to enable job reminders. The toggle will turn blue when enabled.
How to Customize Your SMS Job Reminders
Customizing the SMS message in the job reminder allows Pros to tailor the information in the SMS job reminder according to which aspects of the upcoming job they wish to show or hide.
The default message format will display the following: "Hi Customer First Name, Technician Name from Company Name is scheduled to arrive Job Date at Job Time."
Job Reminder Example:
To customize your SMS Job Reminders:
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Housecall Pro account to navigate to your Account Settings.
From there, select 'Jobs' from the menu on the left, then select 'Job reminders' from the drop-down. This will open up the Job Reminders settings page.
Click on the blue pencil icon to the right of the "SMS Preview" section within the Job Reminders settings.
A pop-out will appear on the right side of your screen with a heading titled "Edit SMS."
Here you will see your default message settings with pre-formatted variables in white oval bubbles, which you can either keep or remove from the message.
For example, if you do not want to display your technician's last name in your SMS job reminders, locate the oval bubble containing "Tech last name" and click on the blue 'X' icon inside that bubble.
To add variables, such as "Invoice number", click on the blue 'ADD VARIABLE' drop-down in the Edit SMS window and select the variables you wish to include in your job reminder.
You also have the option to edit the text surrounding the variables. For example, you may wish to start the message with "Hello", instead of "Hi".
To do this, simply delete the text you want to remove and type in the text you would like to be displayed in your SMS job reminders.
When you have proofread your job reminder message and you are happy with how it will look, click on the blue 'Save' button.
Please Note: SMS job reminders have a maximum allowance of 160 characters, including the content of the optional variables. We encourage you to consider this when crafting your desired job reminder message.
How to Preview Your SMS Job Reminder Message
To preview your SMS Job Reminder message:
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Housecall Pro account to navigate to your Account Settings.
From there, select 'Jobs' from the menu on the left, then select 'Job reminders' from the drop-down. This will open up the Job Reminders settings page.
Click on 'Preview' under the "Set SMS reminders" section, to the left of the SMS job reminder toggle.
The SMS job reminder preview window will then appear on your screen.
To close out of the window, click on the blue 'Close' button.
SMS Job Reminder FAQs
Are these reminders sent for estimates as well?
No, the SMS job reminders are currently only sent for jobs at this time.
What happens when 'Send to customers with notifications off' is toggled on
Even if specific customers have turned off their notifications, when the toggle is on, this will override that setting and the SMS job reminder will still go out. Learn more about turning customer notifications off here.
📖 Help Center Article:
To learn more about disabling customer notifications, check out our Help Article, "Turn Off Customer Notifications" in the HCP Help Center.
I am not currently approved to send SMS. What does that mean?
Each organization must have a custom number in order to send SMS messages to customers. This includes SMS job reminders. Additionally, there is a registration process that all organizations must go through before choosing a custom SMS number. Instructions for setting that up may be found here.
📖 Help Center Article:
For instructions on setting up your Custom SMS number, check out our Help Article, "Custom SMS Number" in the HCP Help Center.
Can I customize the time and frequency of these messages?
No, the time and frequency of SMS job reminders cannot be customized at this time. All messages will go out at 9:00 AM in your local time zone, the day prior to the job.
I have all the settings turned on and my customer is still not receiving their reminders.
Customers have the option to opt out of SMS communications, so if a customer is not receiving job reminders and your SMS job reminder setting is toggled on, the customer may have opted out of SMS communications. They can always respond to the original message with START to be able to receive messages from you again.
How do I send email reminders?
Email reminders can be set up through the email automation app in Housecall.
📖 Help Center Article:
To learn more about setting up job reminder email automations, check out our Help Article, "Automated Email Campaigns Overview and FAQ"
in the HCP Help Center.
Having trouble finding what you need?
For further assistance, please reach out to our Chat Support team
via the Blue Chat Bubble in your Housecall Pro account, or
contact our Phone Support team at (858) 842-5746.