SektorCepte · 2026-10-26
A Short Reminder Before the Appointment
One message the evening before, or in the morning, is enough. Give the hour, the place, and what to write if they cannot come.
A person memorises the appointment on the evening they accept it, and forgets it the next day. Do not take the forgetting as personal. A short reminder keeps the job in place without emptying the day. Five messages press on someone, and they either go quiet or get cross. One reminder is enough. It holds the hour, the place, and what to write if they cannot come. If no reply arrives, the appointment stands. A reply is asked for only in case of a cancellation, not to prove they still exist.
1. Fix the hour when it goes out
The evening before suits an early job. For an afternoon job, the same morning can be enough. Do not send both. Tie the hour to the shop's own rhythm: before you close, or with the first tea. A message at midnight is not a reminder. It is unease. Fix who sends it as well. If two people write separately, the customer sees two hours. Put a mark beside that name in the book. If the mark is there, a second message does not go. If an apprentice sends it, the text comes from you. They only send. They do not compose a fresh sentence in the moment.
2. Hour and place sit in the same bubble
The message can stand like this: tomorrow at ten we are at the workshop, the direction is this street, the blue sign on the door. If you cannot come, write this evening so I can open the day to someone else. For a job at their home, you name the street and the door. Do not ask them for the address again. If the address was already agreed, the reminder repeats it and does not open a new question. If they need to bring something, name one item: the measure, the old part, the colour that was chosen. Do not send a long list. If more than three things are needed, that belonged to the day you accepted the job, not to the reminder. A reminder does not add a new condition. It sets the old word back in place.
3. Ask for a reply only if they cannot come
Do not tell every reminder to answer "yes". People do not write yes. You then assume they will not come, you give the day away, and they appear at the door. If a cancellation is not written, the appointment stands. Say that in the sentence. If you cannot come, write. If you do not write, I am expecting you. Silence then means yes. Treating silence as a cancellation is not a rule that works. A person sees the message, gets pulled into the day, and forgets to answer. If you treat them as absent, the hurt grows on both sides. If they do write a cancellation, apply whatever your deposit rule already says. Do not invent a new penalty inside the reminder.
4. Keep the text short and calm
Stay inside four lines. The hour, the place, one request. A pile of exclamation marks, a strip of urgency, capital letters. These do not fit the mouth of a small shop. Spell the customer's name correctly. A wrong name produces more distrust than a wrong hour. Do not paste one bulk text to everyone at once. Each appointment has its own hour. If two names remain in the same text, the wrong person arrives at the wrong time. If you use a pattern, leave the hour and the place blank and fill them before you send. A square bracket left empty looks careless and shows that the hour was forgotten.
5. The reminder also corrects the plan of the day
If the reply is that they cannot come, do not keep that hour waiting. Look at the next person on the list. If it fits, write to them. If it does not, leave the hour empty and move another job into it. A reminder is not only courtesy. It makes the gap in the day visible. If you yourself cannot go, do not wait for them to write. Send your own message early: I cannot come today, the new hour is this. Saying it early also fits the deposit rule you wrote. Saying it late means you break the rule you wrote. Once a customer sees that, the next reminder is not taken seriously.
This evening, prepare one message for tomorrow's first appointment. Check that the hour, the place, and the line about writing if they cannot come are inside it. After you send it, put a mark in the book. If in the morning you feel like writing a second reminder, look at that mark and stop.