Please watch the following video on how to connect your Google Calendar to Appointment Reminder.
This video just show's the very basics. There are MANY configurations that can be enabled to meet almost any use case.
Appointment Reminder is automated integration tool for Google Calendar. It will send automated appointment text reminders. (voice/email reminders are options also).
The application has been designed to very simple but also very powerful for those who have more complex needs. The integration is used by 1000's of small and medium sized businesses in a wide range of industries.
The whole idea with Appointment Reminder is that once you are setup (this can be very quick if your use case is simple) you don't need to login to Appointment Reminder to anything manually.
You simply add a mobile number to the title or the body of the appointment in Google Calendar and your text reminders will send automatically.
Connecting Google Calendar and Sending Text Reminders
Signup for Appointment Reminder
Connect your Google Calendar
Update your default script.
Enable Sending
Adjust Settings If needed.
Turn on Sending
Advanced Options
1. Sign up to Appointment Reminder
Signing up to Appointment Reminder is easy and comes with a 14 FREE trial.
To sign up from the Appointment Reminder homepage:
Click on the Start FREE Trial Button
Enter the login details you want to use with Appointment Reminder
Verify your email account and any other options.
2. Connect your Google Calendar.
Choose Google Calendar as the calendar you want to integrate with. If you already logged into Appointment Reminder you can go to Calendar > Add Calendar and choose Google Calendar.
Pick which Google Account you want to give Appointment Reminder access to. You might not see this screen if you only have a single Google account.
Google will ask you to verify that you allow Appointment Reminder to access your contacts and Google Calendars.
Choose which Google Calendars you want to sync to Appointment Reminder.
Your calendars will now sync. You will receive an email when the first sync is complete.
Once the sync is complete you can go to the Calendar. Calendar > Open calendar. You will see all the appointments they have synced from Google to Appointment Reminder.
Click on any appointment will show which number has been picked up from Google Calendar. It will also tell you what appointment reminder text it's going to send and when it's going to send. You shouldn't alter any information in this screen direct. Everything should be done from Google Calendar. If you see some appointments with exclamation marks in the top left hand corner this means a number hasn't been synced from Google. This might be correct for appointments for example "Lunch" where there is no reminder to send.
Appointment Reminder never sends reminders for appointments that have already passed so even if you see they have synced it doesn't mean a reminder will be sent.
3. Update your default script
You may want to change the default appointment text that is sent to your clients/patients. To do this go to Scripts > Open Scripts > Edit
Edit any of the text you need to and you can add "tokens" as placeholders for where you want information to appear in the text. For example if you want to include the location that is in the location field in Google Calendar you can use $CUSTOM3. A list of tokens you can use are listed on the right hand side of the page. $APPOINTMENT_DATE_SHORT and $APPOINTMENT_START_TIME are the most common ones used.
If you're a services business you might have an "appointment window" in which case you might want to write something like "....we look forward to seeing you between $APPOINTMENT_START_TIME and $APPOINTMENT_END_TIME...."
4. Enable Sending
Once you happy with your scripts and appointments have been imported you can turn sending on. Reminders will now start sending based on their "send time".
You are now all set. Appointments from Google Calendar will now sync (in real time) and your text reminders will send automatically based on your settings. You really shouldn't need to login to Appointment Reminder on a day to day basis unless you either want to reply to a customers text replies or you need to adjust your settings. Simply keep adding appointments in Google Calendar with your clients mobile number in the title or body and text reminders will send automatically.
5. Adjust Settings If Needed
Appointment Reminder has a LOT of flexibility and configuration options you can adjust to suit exactly how you want things to work.
The 3 switches at top of the calendar settings page determine what type of reminders will be sent regardless of what is synced from Google Calendar. These settings override the settings on individual appointments. For example if email is set to True on an appointment but email is turned off in calendar settings then a reminder will NOT be sent.
*Note - Appointment Reminder treats all numbers that are extracted from Google Calendar as mobile numbers. If you want to send voice calls then you have a few options. You can place ph: or ph in front of the number and a phone call will be sent instead of a text. Alternatively you can reach out to support and ask us to enable "Carrier Lookup" we can then check if each number is a land line or mobile and send the correct reminder type. Also if you want to treat each number as both text and voice reminders you can ask support to enable this on your calendar also.
Description Just a name that is displayed when viewing your calendars. By default it is the name imported from Google Calendar.
Booking Calendar Description This is the name that will show in the booking calendar if take bookings online and you allow clients to choose which person to book with.
Start Hours & End Hours This determines what times are shown on your calendar dashboard screen. Best to make these just your business hours so your view is nice and compressed.
First Day Which day is displayed first on your calendar dashboard screen.
Default Appointment Length Determines how many "slots" are shown per hour on your calendar.
Default Script This is the default script that will be used for sending reminders. If you have different staff for example you might use different scripts for each calendar.
Where should replies from your client be sent to When a customer replies to a text reminder, Email or Voice call this is where the reply is sent to. You can choose either Email, SMS or Ignore. If you want to send to multiple emails you can separate each email with a comma.
Negative Keywords These are a list of words that if found in your appointment title, body or location fields will stop the reminder from syncing and sending. Useful when you have a bunch of appointments in Google Calendar that you don't want reminders sent for.
Update The Event Title If set to True it will add the clients response type to the appointment title in Google Calendar.
Update The Event Description If set to True this will add the clients WHOLE reply to the body of the appointment in Google Calendar. It will also be time stamped so you know when they replied.
Sync All Day Appointments If set to True Appointment Reminder will sync all day events from Google Calendar and send reminders. Be careful if syncing all day events and your reminders are set to send for example 48 hours before. This would result in sending of the text reminder at midnight 2 days before. This is easily mitigated by sending a custom send time or only sending reminders during business hours.
Send Both SMS and Voice Call Both default each number detected is only treated as a mobile number and therefore only sends a text reminder. If this is to true it will set each number to send both a text and voice reminder.
Change appointment color when appointment confirmed? When a client confirms an appointment this will change the color in Google Calendar
Change appointment color when appointment replied to? When a client replies to a text reminder but we can't tell if this confirmed or cancelled this will change the color in Google Calendar.
Change appointment color when appointment cancelled? When a client cancels an appointment this will change the color in Google Calendar. The appointment will not be deleted in Google Calendar.
Receipt Update If True this will add [R] to the appointment in Google Calendar to indicate a reminder has been sent. It will also update the body to show what time the reminder was delivered.
Sync Multiple Numbers/Email By default Appointment Reminder will only sync the first email and mobile number it finds in Google Calendar. If you set this setting to True it will send to all mobile and emails found in the appointment.
Sync Only Owner By default all appointments in Google Calendar will be sent a text reminder regardless of who added the appointment to the calendar. If you set this to True only appointments added by the calendar owner will be send a reminder. This is very useful when you have same appointment on multiple calendars but want to make sure the correct calendar sends the correct reminder.
Sync Appointments that fall on closed days? If set to True it will sync appointments from Google Calendar regardless if that day is set as closed or not.
Only Sync appointments between start and end hours If set to true appointments will only be synced that are between the start and end hours. The start and end hours are set on this screen also. See above.
Have replies appear at the front of the appointment title?
By default [CONFIRMED]/ [RESCHEDULE] etc appear the end of the Google Calendar event when someone replies. Set this to True if you want them to appear at beginning of the title.Only Sync Appointments Where there is a Keyword Mapping If set to true ONLY appointments that contain a "keyword" will be synced. Useful if you only want to send reminders for some appointments. You can learn more about keyword mapping down the page.
Search Customers Appointment Reminder can match your appointments in Google Calendar with contacts in Google Contacts and the Appointment Reminder customer list. This saves you having to enter the mobile every time for customers you see often.
Use Client Time Zone By default all reminders will use the time zone of the calendar. If you want us to use the time zone set in google calendar for each appointment then enable this setting.
Sync Attendees By default we don't sync invitees on each appointment we just read any mobile/email we find in the body or description of the appointment. If you enable Sync Attendee we will sync people invited on the appointment. (remember this is just a list of emails).
Email Self Enabling this will send you an email every time a reminder is sent. Useful if you are in a industry that needs to collect or correspondence sent to each client.
How many hours before appointment we should send the reminder (default 24 hours) This is the timing of when reminders will send. This can be different for every calendar if you need. By default when you first start an account it will say "Business Default" this is normally 24 hours. If you want to change the timing you can either change the timing on this specific calendar or go to Settings > Business Settings and change the timing for all calendars.
Open Days Open days changes is used if you don't want to send reminders when you're not in the office.
Send Reminders on Closed Days? Turn this off if you don't want to send reminders when the office is closed. Need to make sure you have set your open days.
6. Common Questions
Your system seems to have a lot of settings and feels overwhelming. Once you connect your Google Calendar there really should be no settings you need to change if you just want to send text reminders to all appointments on your calendar. You can literally have your account setup in a matter of minutes be sending text reminders almost immediately. We also offer a free Zoom call to new customers to help them get setup correctly.
How often does Appointment Reminder sync with Google Calendar? We sync appointments in almost real time. Very handy if you want to send appointment confirmations when a booking is added to Google Calendar.
Can we sync multiple Google Accounts and Calendars to Appointment Reminder? Yes. You can sync as many accounts and calendars (if you plan allows.)
Can I send more than 1 reminder to each appointment? Absolutely. You can set the timing of appointment reminder to pretty much anything you like.
Example:
Text Reminder when booking is made. Text reminder 24 hours before the appointment.
Email when booking is made. Text message day before at 9am.
Text 7 days before, Voice Day Before, SMS 1 hour before.
Your can also have reminders stop sending once client has responded.
Can I send different messages for different types of services I provide. Yes you can use Keyword Mapping to map specific keywords to different scripts and therefore send different messages (and different timings if you also need that).
Can we only send text reminders for specific appointments. Yes. You can use keywords and only trigger appointment reminders for appointment which map any of your keywords.
What happens when someone replies. A number of things can happen (all adjustable with settings). Our system will update Google Calendar, Send you an Email and/or Text and change the color of the appointment.
If someone replies to a text can we reply back? Yes. You can have a two way conversation with your clients.
We believe our Appointment Reminder system and Google Calendar is wonderful product for almost any use case. You simply keep using Google Calendar the way you currently do and text reminders will just send automatically (once you're setup).