If you've read the messaging overview, you'll know Woofle has four kinds of message. Two of them — appointment updates and one-off messages — happen in the moment, as you book, complete or cancel. The other two work differently, and that's what this guide is about.
The two scheduled messages
- Reminders — a gentle "don't forget" to a client before an upcoming appointment.
- Re-book nudges — a friendly "time for another groom?" when a pet is overdue and has nothing in the diary.
They're two sides of the same coin. A reminder needs a future booking to remind about. A nudge is the opposite — it only appears when there's nothing booked. So for any one pet, you'll only ever be offered one or the other, never both at once.
Setting the timing — per pet
Both are set up on the pet's profile, not the client's. That's deliberate: a poodle on a tight four-week cycle and an easygoing terrier who comes in twice a year want very different timings, even if they're the same family.
Reminder — days before
You tell Woofle how many days before an appointment to surface the reminder. Set it to 2, and two days before each booking the reminder appears, ready for you to send. Leave the field blank and that pet simply gets no reminders — that's how you switch them off.
Re-book nudge — weeks after
For the nudge you set how many weeks after the last groom to prompt a re-book. Set it to 6, and six weeks after a pet's last completed appointment — assuming nothing new is booked — the nudge appears. Blank means no nudges for that pet.
One subtlety worth knowing: the clock starts from the pet's last finished groom — an appointment you've marked complete or paid. The moment that next groom is finished, it becomes the new starting point, and the nudge cycle quietly resets ready for the next gap. So you get one nudge per gap between visits, never a pile of them.
Where they appear
When a reminder or nudge becomes due, Woofle surfaces it in two places.
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On your dashboard
The dashboard carries a short list of what's due right now — the first few messages, so it stays glanceable. A View all link (and a "+ more" link, if extra ones are waiting) takes you to the full list. This is the one to check with your morning coffee.
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On the Scheduled messages page
The Scheduled messages page shows the same items in full, plus a couple of extra controls (more on those below). It's the place to go when you want to get ahead.
Each one shows you the pet, the client and the relevant date, with two buttons:
- Send — opens the usual compose window with the reminder or nudge pre-written, ready for you to read over and send.
- Dismiss — clears it away if you'd rather skip this one. It won't keep nagging you.
Once you've either sent or dismissed a message, it won't come back for that same appointment. You'll only ever see one message per pet at a time, so the list stays a tidy to-do rather than a wall of clutter.
Looking ahead
By default the list shows what's due today. On the Scheduled messages page you can also peek further forward using the look-ahead buttons — Today, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks. Pick "2 weeks" and Woofle shows everything that will become due in the next fortnight, as things stand.
This is handy for getting ahead on a quiet afternoon — send next week's reminders early if you like. Just remember it's an "if nothing changes" picture: if a client books in before then, their nudge naturally drops off the list, because there's now something in the diary.
Why didn't a message appear?
This is far and away the most common question, and there's almost always a tidy reason. Run down this list and you'll usually spot it:
- The pet's timing is blank. No "days before" means no reminders for that pet; no "weeks after" means no nudges. This is the first thing to check — open the pet's profile and look.
- The client has no mobile number. No number, nowhere to send — so Woofle won't offer the message at all. Add a mobile to the client's record.
- "Send messages" is switched off for that client. If a client has opted out of texts, Woofle stops offering every kind of message for them, reminders and nudges included.
- It's not due yet. A reminder set to 2 days before won't show a week out (unless you use the look-ahead). A nudge set to 6 weeks won't show at 4.
- It's a reminder, but there's no booking. Reminders need an upcoming, still-booked appointment to remind about. If it was cancelled or completed, there's nothing to remind.
- It's a nudge, but something's already booked. A nudge only appears when the pet has nothing in the diary. Book the next groom and the nudge has done its job — it disappears.
- You already sent or dismissed it. Each message shows once per appointment. If you've actioned it, it's gone. Use Show dismissed to check.
Work through those in order and the missing message nearly always explains itself — usually it's simply a blank timing field on the pet, or a client without a mobile.
Getting the most from them
The real payoff comes from setting the per-pet timings once, for your regulars, and then letting the dashboard do the remembering. Pop a reminder of a day or two on your bookings and a re-book nudge a sensible few weeks out, and your diary quietly nudges itself full — while every text that goes out is still one you chose to send.
For the wider picture — templates, credits, the compose window and the in-the-moment messages — head back to the messaging overview or browse the full guides index.