Overview
Custom Reminder Notifications allow you to create multiple reminder templates instead of relying on a single account-wide reminder. Each template targets specific business units and job types, with its own text and email messages and its own send schedule.
This gives multi-location and multi-trade businesses precise control over when reminders go out and what they say. You can send one reminder cadence for residential service jobs and a different one for commercial work, all from the same account.
Who uses this feature
Office employees
Applies to all business types
Applies to all trades
Feature configuration
This feature is currently in Early Access and available for specific accounts. It is subject to change.
Account configuration is required to use this feature. Contact your Customer Success Manager for details.
The Access Settings and Customer Notifications permissions are required to use this feature. Please contact the account administrator on your team.
Things to know
Custom reminder notifications replace the legacy reminders experience only after you turn it on. Until then, your existing reminders keep working exactly as before.
Only one reminder is sent per appointment for each scheduled send. When more than one template could apply, the first matching template in the list is used.
If an appointment is rescheduled, its reminder is sent again. During this process, the system reviews the previous 24 hours to ensure it wasn’t already sent.
Templates can target the same business unit and job type as another template. When they overlap, a warning appears but you can still save the template.
Each appointment can still receive reminders from more than one template only across different scheduled sends. An appointment can’t receive reminders from two templates for the same send.
If a template that was matching an appointment is later disabled or deleted, the next matching template is used automatically.
Best practices
List your most specific templates first. Because the first matching template wins, a narrowly targeted template (for example, a single business unit and job type) should sit above a broad catch-all.
Keep the Default Reminder template as your safety net. It catches any appointment that no other template targets.
Review the overlap warning before you save. It tells you which existing template shares the same business unit and job type so you can confirm the order is correct.
Use the working hours option for messages that should not reach customers late at night or early in the morning.
Preview each template before you rely on it, so you can confirm the message and merge fields read correctly.
Use cases
A business with both a residential plumbing business unit and a commercial HVAC business unit sends a friendly next-day text for residential jobs and a formal one-week-ahead email for commercial jobs.
A shop that runs high-touch maintenance memberships sends an extra reminder for maintenance job types while keeping a single reminder for one-off installs.
A multi-location franchise spanning time zones schedules a reminder for 1 week before at 9:00 AM and has each send resolve to 9:00 AM local to the appointment business unit.
Turn on custom reminder notifications
Turn on the feature from the Dispatch settings before the new Reminders screen becomes available.
Go to the top toolbar and click Settings
.In the side panel, go to Dispatch > New & Upcoming Features.
Find the Custom Reminder Notifications section and turn on the Turn on custom reminder notifications toggle.
Note: If you don't see this option, the feature isn't enabled for your account yet.
Open the Reminders screen
Go to the top toolbar and click Settings
.In the side panel, go to Communications > Customer Notifications.
On the Customer Notifications screen, click Reminder Notifications.
Note: A welcome message confirms that your existing settings are preserved until you customize them. Click Don't show again to dismiss it.
(Optional) If your business operates in multiple time zones, enable Send reminders in the job/location time zone.
On the Reminders screen, each template is shown as a card in priority order. Each card shows the template name, an enabled toggle, the text and email send timing, and action buttons to edit, clone, delete, and expand.
Create a reminder template
On the Reminders screen, click Create Template.
In the Template Name field, enter a name that identifies the template's purpose.
Select Enable the template to turn the template on when you save it. Leave it cleared to save the template turned off.
In the Business Unit field, select the business units this template applies to. To apply it to every business unit, select Any Business Unit.
In the Job Type field, select the job types this template applies to. To apply it to every job type, select Any Job Type.
Note: If this business unit and job type combination matches another template, a warning tells you which template it overlaps. You can still save this new template.
(Optional) In the Include Tags field, select tags to apply this template only to appointments that have them. In the Exclude Tags field, select tags to stop this template from applying to appointments that have them. For each tag, choose whether it applies on Customer, on Job, or on Location.
Note: A tag can't be in both lists. If an appointment has an excluded tag, this template doesn't apply to it, even if the appointment also has an included tag. Excluded tags are checked again before each reminder sends, so adding or removing a tag changes whether later reminders go out.
(Optional) In the Scheduling section, select Only send between working hours to hold sends that fall outside working hours until the next working window.
Note: If a job is scheduled after a reminder's send time has already passed, the reminder sends right away instead of being skipped.
In the Scheduling section, click Add Reminder. For the new reminder, select how to set the send time:
Select Relative Time to send a set amount of time before the appointment, such as 2 hours before. Enter a number and select Hours, Days, or Weeks.
Select Specific Time to send at a set time on a chosen day, such as 1 week before at a specific time. Select the day and enter the time.
Select SMS / Text Message, Email, or both for this reminder. Each reminder needs at least one channel.
Set up the details and body of the message for each channel you selected.
SMS / Text Message: Enter your message in the text field. To add automatically generated content, click a merge field, such as Business Unit Official Name or Arrival Window Start Time.
Email: Enter a Sender Name, From, and Subject in the respective fields. Then, enter your message in the body field. Click merge fields to add content such as Job Date or Business Unit Phone Number to any of the fields.
To add another send time, click Add Reminder again and repeat the previous steps. To pause one reminder without deleting it, turn off its toggle. To remove a reminder, click its Delete icon.
When finished, click Create.
Manage reminder templates
Manage existing templates from the Reminders screen using the buttons on each template card.
Edit a template
On the template card, click Edit.
Update the targeting, messages, or schedule. The template keeps its position in the list.
When finished, click Save.
Clone a template
On the template card, click Clone.
The Create Template form opens with the copied values. Update the name and details, then click Create.
Turn a template on or off
On the template card, turn the enabled toggle on or off. A disabled template is skipped, and the next matching template is used automatically.
Expand a template
On the template card, click the Expand icon to view all targeting, scheduling, and message details in a read-only view.
Delete a template
On the template card, click the Delete icon.
Confirm the deletion. Any appointment the template was matching uses the next matching template automatically.