# Appointment reminders and no-show recovery

Version: 1.0.0

Confirm appointments clearly and give missed visits a respectful recovery path.

## Purpose

Reduce preventable confusion about time, location, and preparation, then handle missed appointments consistently.

## Prerequisites

- A single appointment calendar with timezone, assigned staff, location or approved meeting link, and current status.
- Approved reminder channels, contact preferences, cancellation terms, and a simple rescheduling process.
- A reminder schedule and a documented grace period appropriate to the service. These are local operating choices, not universal defaults.

## Responsible roles

- **Scheduler:** Confirms details, records changes, and removes obsolete reminders.
- **Appointment owner:** Checks attendance and flags delays or cancellations.
- **Recovery owner:** Makes the approved recovery attempt and records the outcome.

## Steps

1. **Confirm the booking details.** Repeat the date, local time and timezone, location, expected duration, and preparation. Give a clear way to cancel or reschedule.
2. **Schedule approved reminders.** Use the agreed reminder timing and channel. Include only the minimum appointment details. Check contact preferences before sending.
3. **Process replies and changes.** Update the single calendar when the customer confirms, reschedules, or cancels. Cancel reminders for the old appointment so messages cannot conflict.
4. **Check attendance against the grace period.** After the appointment time, the owner confirms whether the customer attended, cancelled, or is delayed. Do not mark a no-show based only on an unread reminder.
5. **Offer a recovery step.** For a confirmed missed visit, assign a recovery owner and due time. Offer the approved rescheduling path without blame; follow existing policy for any fees or eligibility.
6. **Record and close.** Record attended, cancelled, rescheduled, no-show contacted, no response, or opted out. A reschedule creates a new appointment and ends the old reminder sequence.

## Exceptions

- Timezone ambiguity must be resolved with the customer before confirming a time.
- Staff illness or business closure requires cancellation of reminders and a human explanation with rescheduling options.
- A customer dispute about a fee goes to the policy owner; the reminder process must not invent or charge fees.
- Stop requests end messaging on that channel. Use only another channel already approved for the situation.

## Example messages

Adapt placeholders to your approved business process. These are examples for review, not messages sent by MagicAiFlow.

### Reminder

> Hi [first name], a reminder of your appointment with [business] on [date] at [time and timezone], at [location]. Please [preparation]. To change your booking, [approved rescheduling instruction].

### Missed visit

> Hi [first name], we missed you at today's appointment. If you'd like to reschedule, [approved next step]. If your plans have changed, let us know and we'll update the booking.

## Measurement checklist

- Count scheduled appointments and reminders actually delivered; keep delivery failures visible.
- Report attended, cancelled, rescheduled, and confirmed no-show counts using the same appointment cohort.
- Track recovery attempts and resulting reschedules separately from completed visits.
- Review duplicate reminders, timezone errors, and opt-out handling during the weekly process review.

## Related guides

- [Missed-call follow-up](https://www.magicaiflow.com/resources/workflows/missed-call-follow-up)
- [New-client onboarding](https://www.magicaiflow.com/resources/workflows/new-client-onboarding)

## Next step

[Explore the business checks](https://www.magicaiflow.com/resources/business-checks). Public guides are free; private findings require sign-in. Checks evaluate supplied information, not independently verified business records, and do not send messages or change customer systems.

[Prompt Library](https://www.magicaiflow.com/dashboard/prompts) and [SOP Library](https://www.magicaiflow.com/dashboard/sops) use existing sign-in and access rules.