Setting up an automation
An automation emails a client when something happens, like a visit with nothing booked after it. Start from a recipe, make it yours, and switch it on.
An automation is a set of steps that runs by itself for each client it applies to. Something happens, like an appointment finishing, a birthday coming up or three months going by without a visit, and that client starts at the first step.
Go to Marketing (opens in a new tab), press New automation, and pick a recipe. Win-back, Rebook reminder, Birthday note and eight others are there to start from. Nothing sends until you switch it on.
Building one
The builder draws the automation as boxes joined by lines. The first box is the trigger, what starts it. Press + on any line to add a step there, and tap a box to change it in the panel beside it.
- Wait pauses for hours, days or weeks. Wait until holds a client until a few days before their next appointment, or until a set day and time.
- Check if splits the path into Yes and No depending on the client: whether they've booked since it started, how often they've visited, who their stylist is, and more.
- Split test sends half your clients down one path and half down another.
- Send email sends your salon's branded email, with a coupon if you add one. Send in Messages puts it in their thread instead, so a reply comes back to your inbox.
- Add a note leaves something on their record, and Notify your team emails a stylist or the owners, for when someone should pick up the phone.
A text step can be added but not switched on yet. Marketing texts need their own permission from each client, separate from appointment reminders, and that isn't built.
Switching it on
Turn on is refused while anything is unfinished: an email with no subject, a check with nothing chosen, a step that needs an appointment behind a trigger that has none. The builder lists what's left, and tapping one takes you to that step.
- It starts from the moment you switch it on. A client who went quiet last year isn't swept in because the trigger now matches them. It watches for what happens next.
- Edits apply straight away, including to clients already partway through. Someone waiting on a step you delete finishes there.
- Pause holds everyone where they are. Switching back on starts counting again from then, so nothing that happened while it was paused starts anyone.
Who it reaches, and how often
Seeing what it did
The Activity tab lists every client who's been through it, where each one is now, and what happened at every step: sent, skipped and why, or waiting until when. You can take someone out from there. An automation that isn't about an appointment can also have clients added by hand from that tab.