The eight reminders we build
Four moments, an email and a text at each: eight messages per booking. HighLevel doesn't set this schedule. Its reminders run on whatever timing you configure, and this is the timing we choose.
- Right after booking: an email and a text confirming it.
- 24 hours before: the time again, with the reschedule link.
- 1 hour before: where to go or how to join.
- 5 minutes before: the meeting location once more, for anyone about to look for it.
Which link goes where, and why
A day out, the useful thing is a way to move the time, so the 24-hour reminder carries {{appointment.reschedule_link}}. An hour out, the reader needs the room or the call more than a new time, so the 1-hour and 5-minute reminders carry {{appointment.meeting_location}}.
That split is our rule, not a HighLevel restriction. You can put either token in any reminder. We keep each message to the one action that fits its moment, so nobody has to hunt for the right link.
One caution on the meeting location token: the HighLevel help pages we checked don't name it. Insert it from the merge field picker in your own account rather than typing it from this page.
Pick one owner: the calendar or a workflow
HighLevel can send reminders two ways, and the two don't know about each other. Calendar notifications live in the calendar's own settings. Workflow reminders live in a workflow started by an appointment trigger. Turn both on with the same timing and every reminder arrives twice.
Either owner works. Calendar notifications are set per channel, email and SMS separately, with timing before the appointment, and they can go to the contact, to guests and to staff. A workflow gives you Wait steps timed against the appointment, plus anything else a workflow can do around them.
Decide who sends reminders before you write one. Two owners means two of everything.
Rather have it set up for you?
We'll write every reminder word for word, put the right link in each one, and make sure only one system sends them, beginning with a 30-minute 1:1 with Rob.
Setting it up
Whichever owner you choose, the steps run in this order.
- Choose the owner, and turn off the other system's reminders for this calendar.
- For calendar reminders: go to Calendar > Calendar Settings, open the calendar, then its Notifications tab, and set up the Email and SMS reminders with their timing.
- For workflow reminders: start the workflow from an appointment trigger, then put a Wait timed relative to the appointment before each reminder.
- Put the reschedule token in the 24-hour pair and the meeting location token in the 1-hour and 5-minute pairs.
- Book a real test appointment and let the reminders fire from it.
Why the reschedule link comes out blank
Appointment merge fields fill from an appointment. A message with nothing booked behind it has no appointment to read, and HighLevel's help page notes that a test without appointment context can show the reschedule link blank.
That blank isn't a broken reminder. It's a test that couldn't have worked. An appointment-based trigger is what supplies the context, so book a test appointment on the calendar with a test contact and check the links in the reminders it sets off.
Test reminders from a real booking. A send with no appointment behind it can't fill an appointment link.