Before the templates
Three things decide whether a reminder works, and none of them is the wording: it arrives on a channel the person reads, it can be replied to, and it names a human being rather than an institution.
Wording matters at the margin, in one specific way. A message that sounds like it came from a system gets ignored the way system messages get ignored, and the tell is almost always the same — formal register, a policy sentence, and no first person anywhere in it.
Every message, ready to paste
Three touchpoints across English, Brazilian Portuguese and Latin American Spanish, plus the first-visit and six-month recall variants, plus a short list of what not to send.
# Appointment reminder messages, by touchpoint and language
Each message below is under 320 characters so it fits a single SMS segment
where segments are billed, and short enough to be read on a lock screen without
opening anything.
Replace {NAME}, {CLINICIAN}, {DAY}, {TIME}, {ADDRESS} and {PRACTICE}.
---
## Seven days out — the reschedule window
**English**
> Hi {NAME}, this is {PRACTICE}. You're booked with {CLINICIAN} on {DAY} at
> {TIME}. If that no longer works, just reply here and we'll find another slot —appointment-reminder-messages.md · markdown · 4.0 kB
- 1.Replace the placeholders once and save the result wherever your messages are actually sent from. The file is a starting point, not a system.
- 2.The Portuguese and Spanish versions are written, not translated. Read them out loud before using them — if they sound like a person from your city, keep them; if not, rewrite the greeting, which is the part that carries the accent.
- 3.Send the seven-day message even if you send nothing else new. It is the only one of the three that can recover the slot.
- 4.Do not add your cancellation policy to any of them. It belongs where people book.
What changes between languages
Not the content. The register, the greeting, and how a confirmation is asked for.
| Element | English | Português (BR) | Español (LatAm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greeting | First name, no title | "Oi" plus first name — a title reads as cold | "Hola" plus first name, voseo where regional |
| Confirmation token | Reply Y / N | Responda S / N | Respondé S / N |
| Register | Neutral, slightly clipped | Warmer; the message can be a sentence longer without irritating | Warm, and noticeably more so than a direct translation would be |
| Channel expectation | SMS or email is normal | WhatsApp; an SMS from an unknown number is close to invisible | WhatsApp, with SMS as a fallback |
The register row is the one that machine translation gets wrong. A Portuguese reminder translated word-for-word from English reads as a bank notification, and people treat it like one.
Before you send anything at scale
Five checks. The first two have stopped practices from sending thousands of useless messages.
- Send one to yourself, on the channel, from the real senderHalf of all reminder problems are visible in the first message you send yourself: the sender name is wrong, the link is unclickable, or the time renders in the wrong zone.
- Check what happens when someone repliesIf the reply goes nowhere, you have built an announcement system. Someone has to be watching the inbox, or the replies have to reach your calendar.
- Confirm your WhatsApp templates are approved before the day you need themApproval is not instant and rejection is not rare. A campaign scheduled for Monday against an unapproved template simply does not send.
- Check the time zone on every scheduled sendThe classic failure is a reminder scheduled in UTC arriving at three in the morning, which does more damage in one night than a month of good messages repairs.
- Have a way to stopAn opt-out that works, honoured immediately. In most jurisdictions this is a legal requirement and in all of them it is the difference between a reminder and spam.
Questions
Should reminders come from a person or the practice?
Are emoji acceptable?
How long can a WhatsApp reminder be?
Do I need consent to send these?
Tell me when this exists
In the context field: which of the three messages you already send.