Control the appointment messages your clients get, and the alerts you get

Zelun sends your clients messages about their appointments on its own, so you do not have to remember to. This article covers two separate things:

• Messages to your clients. Zelun sends one when an appointment is booked, a reminder about 24 hours before it starts (counted in your location's time zone), a message when it is rescheduled, and a message when it is cancelled. There is also a thank-you message after the visit, and, for appointments held until a deposit is paid, a message asking the client to complete the deposit and another when the hold expires. No reminder goes out while a deposit is still pending.
• Alerts to you. The notification center tells you and your team about things on your account, such as a failed subscription payment, a blocked payout or client messages that keep failing. It reaches each person in the app, by email, and, if they choose, by WhatsApp or SMS. This is separate from the messages your clients get.

Every message carries a link where the client can manage the booking. Booked and rescheduled emails also attach a calendar file, so the appointment lands in the client's calendar and a reschedule updates the same entry. A cancelled email attaches a cancellation for that entry. Messages never include your private notes about the client or any clinical detail.

Every appointment message works on every plan from the shared Zelun sender. Which sender your clients see, and what is included or paid for with credits, is explained in the article on what messaging is included and what is metered.

1. The client's contact details. Email goes out whenever the client has an email address. SMS needs a phone number, permission to send SMS, and prepaid messaging credits left. WhatsApp needs the client's permission and an approved appointment message template.
2. The client's permissions. When you create a new client, whether from New on the Clients page, from a walk-in booking or from an appointment, the boxes SMS appointment messages (on when a phone is present) and WhatsApp appointment messages control which channels that client can receive. Only tick them if the client agreed. Clients you import start with none ticked. On an existing client's page you will find only the separate Rebooking reminders box, which is not about appointment messages.
3. A WhatsApp connection, if you want your own sender. WhatsApp from a shop-branded sender depends on your plan and on connecting your account. Without it, appointment messages still go out from the shared Zelun sender.
4. Access to the right screens. The appointment book is available to everyone on your team. Notifications is in the Setup group of the side menu, and the location's page is under Branches. If you are sent to a Forbidden page, ask the account holder who set Zelun up.

Choose how each client is contacted

1. Press New on the Clients page, or start a walk-in booking or an appointment and choose to add the client as new.
2. Tick WhatsApp appointment messages only if the client agreed to get their appointment messages on WhatsApp. For SMS, make sure the client has a phone number and tick SMS appointment messages (on when a phone is present).
3. Save. A client with no email, no phone and no WhatsApp permission gets no outgoing message, but the appointment still keeps a record that the event happened.

Turn the map link on or off for a location

1. Open Branches in the Setup group of the side menu and choose the location.
2. Go to the Google and public page section.
3. Tick or untick Send a map link with booking confirmations, then save. It is on unless you turn it off. When on, and the location has an address, each message includes a map link.

Keep treatment names out of messages (clinics and practices)

1. Open My business and press Review suggested settings on the Business type card. Only the owner sees it.
2. When Reminders never name the treatment comes up, press Turn on. Nothing is turned on until you do.
3. From then on, confirmations, reminders, waitlist notices and the calendar file say "your appointment" instead of the name of the service. Your business name, the date and the time are still there.

Check whether a message went out

1. Open the appointment in the appointment book and press Delivery status.
2. Read each row: Channel, Status and Sent at. The status is Sent, Failed, Skipped or Undeliverable.
3. If the table says "No notifications sent for this appointment yet.", nothing has gone out for it yet.

The record is kept for every send attempt, so you can look back later. It stores what happened and when, but never the message text and never the client's phone number or email.

Choose who on your team gets alerts

1. Open Notifications in the Setup group of the side menu. The same settings are also in My business, under Messages and notices.
2. Under Notification settings, each row is an Account notice. The owner is notified by default. For each person and notice, choose In the app, Email, WhatsApp or SMS; Remove takes a teammate off the list. Notices include Subscription payment failed, Subscription payment received, Payouts blocked, Client messages failing to deliver, Zelun support replied, A staff member requests time off and Your time-off request was decided.
3. To get notices on your phone, add your own number: under Your mobile number, type it with its country code, press Send code, enter the 6-digit code that arrives by SMS (it expires in 10 minutes) and press Confirm. Until it shows Verified, WhatsApp and SMS stay off. Only you can turn on phone notices for your own number; an owner can turn them off for others but not on. Each SMS notice uses messaging credits, and WhatsApp notices use none. Email stays on unless you turn it off.
4. Use the bell labelled Notifications at any time to read your alerts. It sits in the side menu on a computer and in the top bar on a phone, with the number of unread alerts on it. The newest are first, and Mark all as read clears them when you are done. When there is nothing to read it says "You're all caught up." Each person sees only their own alerts.

Delivery status and the alert about repeated failures are also described in the article on account alerts.

• A message on the channels they allowed, naming your shop or location and the appointment, with a link to manage the booking and, if the address is known and you left the map link on, a map link.
• A calendar entry from the email that updates when the appointment is rescheduled and is cancelled when it is cancelled.
• Appointment WhatsApp messages come from the shared Zelun sender unless your plan includes your own sender and you have connected it, in which case clients see your shop's own name or number. The shared sender is never presented as your own brand.
• If a WhatsApp message is delivered, no SMS follows for the same event. If WhatsApp cannot be delivered, one SMS may be sent instead, and only if the client allows SMS and you still have credits.
• Clients never see your alerts, the notification center or the delivery table.

• Ticking WhatsApp for a client who did not agree. Without the client's permission, no WhatsApp message is sent at all.
• Expecting an SMS to be free. SMS uses prepaid credits. With none left, an SMS is not sent, including as the backup when WhatsApp fails.
• Expecting the owner to be the only one alerted, or everyone. The owner is told by default. You can add teammates and let each one switch topics off for themselves. Billing and payout alerts still reach the owner even if everyone turns them off. The client-message-failure alert can be muted completely.
• Reading Skipped as a bug. It means the message was not sent on that channel, for example because a limit or a missing permission applied. Check the client's permissions and, for WhatsApp, the article on what messaging is included.
• Looking for the message text in the log. It is never stored.

The account alerts article covers the banner and delivery status in more detail, and the messaging article explains what is included and what uses credits.