Customizing Automated Messages

Modified on Thu, 11 Sep at 3:16 PM

Your ability to edit and customize automated messages depends on your subscription plan. If you have a Growth, Premium, Enterprise, or Automated Email + SMS Marketing subscription, you can edit and customize all content of most of your automated messages. If you don't have these packages, you can still view your messages, edit the subject line and reply-to name, and turn the automated messages on or off.

Things to know:

The ability to view and customize automated messages is governed by the "Accessing Automated Messages" access control setting.
By default, all class and booking notifications are enabled
Notification Requirements
- SMS Notifications: Clients must have a valid phone number on file and be single-opted in to receive transactional SMS.
- Email Notifications: Clients must have a valid email address on file and be opted in to receive transactional emails.
- Push Notifications: Can only be delivered to clients who have the custom MyTime Guest App installed on their mobile device.
SMS Segment Calculation & Billing:
- SMS costs are calculated per segment, not per message. Carriers treat each segment as a separate message for delivery and billing, so every segment is counted and charged individually. This billing method is determined by carriers and is not specific to MyTime.
- Segments per message are based on length and encoding
- Encoding Standards
  - GSM Encoding:
    - GSM-encoded messages (standard letters, numbers, and symbols) allow up to 160 characters per segment.
    - If the message is longer than 160 characters, it will be split into concatenated segments of 153 characters each.
  - UCS-2 Encoding:
    - UCS-2 messages (special characters, emojis, or non-Latin alphabets) allow up to 70 characters per segment.
    - If the message is longer than 70 characters, it will be split into concatenated segments of 67 characters each.
    - Even a single emoji forces UCS-2 encoding, reducing per-segment capacity and potentially doubling the number of segments.
  - Note: Concatenation headers are hidden data that let the recipient’s phone reassemble multiple segments into a single message.
- Each recipient receives their own copy, so the number of segments per message is multiplied by the number of recipients to calculate billing. Example: A 2-segment message sent to 50 recipients counts as 100 billable segments. If each segment costs $0.02, the total cost would be 100 × $0.02 = $2.00.
- Learn more about SMS segments & billing here.
Automated text messages cannot be sent from the dedicated phone number because these are two-way messages. Since SMS messages don’t carry any metadata, MyTime needs to rotate phone numbers in order to determine which message someone is replying to
Booking notifications are displayed in alphabetical order

To view and customize your automated messages:

Navigate to Marketing > Automated Messages
Hover over the desired template and select View
From here you can edit the following (if your subscription allows)
- Reply-to name: This is the name that appears when clients reply to an automated email. By default, it is pulled from the business name set on the Business Profile page.
- Delivery By: You can specify a fallback delivery method (email, SMS, or push notification) when the primary method is unavailable. Learn more here
  - Use if available: This is the primary method that will be attempted first
  - Use if other methods not available: This method will be attempted if the primary option is unavailable (because contact information is not on file or the user opted out)
  - Never Use: This method will not be used, even if none of the other options are available
  - Delivery methods configured before February 3, 2025 (when fallback delivery methods were introduced) will have the following default selections:
    - For enabled delivery methods, the 'Use if available' option will be selected
    - For disabled delivery methods, the 'Use if others are not available' option will be selected
- Add Directions: You can add directions for each of your locations. They will be featured in clients’ appointment-related emails.
- Service-specific Instructions: You can add instructions for each of your services. They will be featured in clients’ appointment-related emails and SMS. Learn more here
- The header contains your location information. You can edit this information from your business profile. Learn how-to here
- The appointment details, such as service, date and time, etc., cannot be edited. These are custom content that will be set on delivery.

To edit the body of the email:

Hover over the highlighted sections
Click on the edit icon
You can choose various options from the editor to design your template. Hover over each icon for a description. Advanced users can insert HTML to make their emails more visually appealing.
When you are finished editing the template, select Save at the bottom

Related Articles