This guide prepares you to use splose’s various tools for communicating with your clients: the confirmations and reminders that go out automatically around appointments, how SMS credits work, the email templates your team reuses, and how to keep an external mailing list in sync.
Most of these features are configured in Settings and then run on their own. The one thing they all depend on is having each client's contact details and communication preferences right - so that's where to start.
This guide is relevant to account owners and admin staff, who set most of this up once, and to receptionists, who rely on it every day.
Before you begin
Automated messages only send if the client is set up to receive them. Before setting up any templates, make sure your client records have:
A communication preference set to Email, SMS, or both. This is the switch that decides whether messages are actually sent.
Valid contact details - a working email address, and a mobile number (not a landline) for SMS.
The correct timezone, so time-based messages like reminders go out at the right moment for that client.
You can set the default preference for all new clients (including those created through online bookings) in Settings → Details → Default Contact Preferences. From there you can also apply it to your existing client base in one go.
💡 If a client isn't receiving notifications, this is almost always the first thing to check: their communication preference and whether their contact details are valid. Communication preferences live on the client record - see the Managing clients guide for where to find and edit them.
Appointment notifications
Appointment notifications are the automated messages splose sends around a booking: a confirmation when the appointment is made, reminders in the lead-up, and messages when an appointment is rescheduled or cancelled. Once set up, they send with no manual action from your team.
Each message is built from an appointment template in Settings → Templates → Appointments.
You can write separate SMS and email content, personalise it with placeholders (business and location details, client and practitioner names, appointment info, and form links), and create different templates for different service types - for example one set for in-clinic sessions and another for telehealth.
Additionally, you can create separate templates for new clients and returning clients. For instance, a new-client template might include a registration or consent form, while a returning-client template could exclude these or include a different form.
💡 Automate sending forms. In an appointment template, add the form placeholder to your SMS or email, highlight it and click Insert link to set the URL. When an appointment using that template is booked, splose sends the client the form for their completion and lists it in the Forms tab of their client file. Once it's completed, answers to two-way fields (client detail fields and custom fields) flow into their record automatically.
You can also set up form reminders to prompt clients who haven't finished, and form notifications to alert your team when a form comes back.
Note that only standard forms can be attached to automated emails; embeddable forms are designed for websites and cannot be sent via email.
A couple of things worth knowing:
A template must be both enabled and attached to a service to send. This is the single most commonly missed step - a template that exists but isn't attached to the relevant service won't go out. After creating templates, check each service in Settings → Services to confirm the right ones are attached.
Reminders are flexible. You can send them anywhere from 7 business days ahead to as close as an hour before, and you can attach multiple reminders to a service so a client is nudged more than once.
Reschedules only trigger from the Reschedule button. Manually changing an appointment time won't send the reschedule message.
Confirmations send once. They go out when an appointment is first created, and for a recurring series only on the first appointment. Editing an existing appointment won't re-send a confirmation.
Consider using separate booking pages for new and returning clients. This can help route clients to the appropriate services and ensure they receive the correct templates and forms.
💡 If you use two-way SMS, avoid the word "Cancel" in your templates - a client who replies "Cancel" will unsubscribe from future texts. Phrase it as "reply Y or N" or "contact the clinic to cancel" instead. (A client who has unsubscribed can reply "Start" to opt back in.)
SMS notifications and credits
SMS notifications send appointment reminders and confirmations to clients by text, and is one of the most effective ways to reduce no-shows. They run on a prepaid credit system: you buy credits in advance, and messages keep sending while you have a balance.
Credits cost AU$0.10 + GST, NZ$0.15 + GST, or £0.10 in the UK. An outbound SMS costs one credit per 160-character segment - longer messages split into multiple segments, and messages with emojis or special characters are limited to 70 characters, so keeping content concise keeps costs down. Trial accounts have 25 free credits to get started.
splose warns you when your balance is low and stops sending once credits run out, so it's worth setting up automatic recharge (Settings → SMS) to top up automatically when you hit a threshold you choose. You can also recharge manually at any time, and view a full history of sent messages - delivered, queued, or failed - on the Communications page.
💡 Turn on automatic recharge from day one. It's the difference between reminders quietly stopping when credits run out and them just continuing to send.
Two-way SMS
By default, appointment texts send from a shared splose number and clients can't reply. If you want clients to be able to respond - to confirm, ask a question, or reschedule - enable two-way SMS, which turns notifications into a conversation your team can see and reply to.
Two-way SMS is also configured in your workspace settings, and inbound replies are charged at half a credit per segment.
Email templates
Email templates are reusable messages for the emails your team sends by hand - invoices, receipts, statements, progress notes, forms, letters, screener responses, and general client emails. Set one up once and it's ready wherever you need it.
Unlike appointment notifications, email templates are not system-generated. You select them manually when composing an email, and each template is tied to a specific type that only appears in its matching context - an invoice template shows up when you email an invoice, a screener template when you accept or reject someone from the waitlist, and so on. You can set a default per type, personalise with placeholders, choose the reply-to address, and include your workspace email signature.
Email signature
Your workspace email signature appears on outgoing emails and can be included in your email templates. Set it up once in Settings > Workspace > Details.
Mailchimp
If your practice uses Mailchimp for newsletters or campaigns, you can connect it so your client list stays in sync automatically - no exporting or importing. Existing clients sync across to your chosen Mailchimp audience on connection, and any new client added in splose syncs automatically after that. Because Mailchimp allows one contact per email address, clients already in Mailchimp won't be duplicated.
Once connected, each client record shows a Mailchimp status card with their subscribe status, email open and click rates, opt-in date, and unsubscribe reason, plus a link to view them directly in Mailchimp.
💡 Turn on double opt-in in your Mailchimp audience settings if you want clients to confirm their subscription before being added - useful for keeping consent clear and your list compliant.
How these features work together
For most practices the messaging setup runs in this order:
Get communication preferences right on your client records (and set a sensible default for new clients).
Set up your appointment templates - confirmation, reminder, reschedule, and cancellation - and attach them to your services.
Add SMS credits and turn on automatic recharge so texts keep sending.
Build the email templates your team sends by hand, and set your email signature.
Optionally enable two-way SMS so clients can reply, and connect Mailchimp for marketing.
Do this once, and splose will handle day-to-day client communication automatically, and your team will only write an email from scratch when they genuinely need to.
What next?
Master the day-to-day workflow of managing client appointments in splose - from booking through to payment, and what to do when things don’t go to plan.