Appointment Reminders

FrontdeQ calls every customer the day before their appointment to confirm they'll be there. If they can't make it, the AI finds a new slot and reschedules — or takes a message for staff. No staff time needed.

When Reminders Fire

Once daily at 5 PM local time, the reminder cron runs. It:

1. Queries Square for appointments starting tomorrow (within your salon's local day)
2. For each appointment, looks up the customer's phone number from Square
3. Skips customers who have no phone number on file, who have opted out of reminders, or who have a "do not call" flag on their Square customer record
4. Places an outbound call to each remaining customer

Calls happen in parallel; a salon with 20 bookings tomorrow completes all reminders in a few minutes.

What the Caller Hears

The reminder agent uses your salon's personality layer but follows a tight script focused on confirmation:

Agent:    Hi Maria, this is Alex from Luxe Salon. I'm calling to
          confirm your color appointment tomorrow at 2 PM with Sofia.
          Can I count on you being there?
Caller:   Yes, I'll be there.
Agent:    Great, see you tomorrow!

Typical reminder call is 20 seconds.

Three Outcomes

Confirmed. "Yes I'll be there" / "Yes" / similar. Call ends. Square booking stays as-is. Dashboard logs the reminder as "confirmed."

Reschedule. "Actually, something came up — can we move it?" The AI:

1. Searches Square for the next available slot matching the service + stylist
2. Offers 2-3 options
3. Confirms the new time
4. Calls update_booking in Square
5. Square sends the rescheduled confirmation email

Unanswered. The AI leaves a short voicemail:

Hi Maria, this is Alex from Luxe Salon. I'm just calling to confirm
your appointment tomorrow at 2 PM with Sofia. Please call us back at
[salon number] if you need to reschedule. See you tomorrow!

The call logs as "unconfirmed" in the dashboard. No further retry; we don't call twice.

Opting Out

Two ways to stop reminders for a specific client:

1. Square customer record — set the "do not call" flag. FrontdeQ respects it for all outbound calls (reminders, call-backs).
2. Dashboard — from the customer's detail page, toggle "opt out of reminders." This is FrontdeQ-specific and doesn't affect the Square flag.

Opt-outs apply to the individual customer. They don't affect other customers or the inbound receptionist.

Turning Off Reminders for the Whole Salon

If you don't want the AI calling any of your customers with reminders:

1. Settings → Phone Config
2. Toggle Appointment Reminders off

You can turn reminders back on anytime. It takes effect on the next daily cron run.

Call Volume and Cost

Reminder calls count against your monthly call allowance the same way inbound calls do. A salon with 50 appointments/week on a tier with 200 calls/month will use ~200 calls/month on reminders alone (plus inbound). If your inbound volume is high, consider a higher tier or set a custom reminder policy (e.g., only reminders for appointments worth > $100) — reach out to support to configure this.

What the AI Won't Do on Reminders

• No upsells. Reminder calls have one job: confirm or reschedule. The AI will not suggest add-on services or new bookings on a reminder call.
• No retry. If the caller doesn't answer, the AI leaves a voicemail and stops. It doesn't call back in 30 minutes, and it doesn't try again the next day.
• No calls outside business hours. The 5 PM local trigger ensures reminders go out during acceptable hours. Night owls and early birds are not called.
• No calls to people outside the booked appointment. If your Square customer record has a family member's number as a backup, we call the primary only.

Dashboard Visibility

Every reminder call shows up in your Call Log with:

• Caller name + phone
• Direction: Outbound (inbound calls are tagged separately)
• Call type: Reminder
• Outcome: Confirmed / Rescheduled / Unconfirmed
• Full recording + transcript

Filter the Call Log by Outbound to see only reminder calls.

Troubleshooting

Reminders aren't firing. Check:

1. Settings → Phone Config → Appointment Reminders toggle is ON
2. The appointments in Square for tomorrow have customer phone numbers attached (reminders require a phone number)
3. Customers haven't opted out individually

Reminders are firing at the wrong time. The 5 PM trigger is local to your salon's configured timezone (set in Square). If the timezone is wrong on your Square Location, update it there — FrontdeQ reads from Square for each run.

Reminder calls cost too much. If reminder volume is eating your call allowance, consider moving to a higher tier or implementing a filter rule (e.g., only remind for appointments > $100, only remind for new clients, etc.). Contact support to configure custom reminder logic.