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SMS appointment reminders for your salon

Avana sends appointment reminders by text message, with your salon name in it, using text bundles you buy alongside your plan. Some clients never open their email, but everyone sees a text on their lock screen.

Choose a text bundle See pricing
Bought in bundlesCredits never expireNo extra subscription
What it costs

Three bundles, and you only pay for what you send

Texts are bought in bundles, separately from your plan. Credits never expire, so whatever you don't use this month is still there next month.

Small

50 texts

£4.99

£0.10 per text

50 appointments with just the reminder

Most popular

Medium

150 texts

£11.99

£0.08 per text

75 appointments with confirmation and reminder

Best value

Large

400 texts

£24.99

£0.06 per text

For a full diary, topping up less often

One empty chair costs more than a whole bundle

A £65 treatment that doesn't happen is gone for the afternoon, because you rarely fill that slot on the day. For £11.99 you send 150 reminders. If one appointment goes ahead because of it, the bundle has paid for itself.

Add a text bundle

You finish it in your dashboard. New to Avana? Try it free for 7 days

Prices include VAT. You buy a bundle in your dashboard in the browser, and every purchase appears with your invoices. See what else Avana costs.

How a text goes out

From a bundle to a full chair

You choose whether clients get a text after booking, 24 hours before the appointment or both, and Avana uses one credit per text.

The bundle

Buy as many texts as you think you'll use

Start small and top up when you run low. Credits stay put, so there's no need to work out whether you'll use them all.

  • Bundles from 50 texts
  • Credits never expire
  • Every purchase appears with your invoices
Switching it on

Choose when clients get a text

Pick confirmation and reminder, the reminder only, or the confirmation only. The confirmation email still goes out alongside.

  • Confirmation straight after booking
  • Reminder 24 hours before
  • Move an appointment and the text moves too
How email reminders work
Keeping track

See exactly what you've sent

Your dashboard shows how many texts went out and how many credits you have left. When you're running low you top up, or let Avana do it for you.

  • Sent and remaining at a glance
  • Top up whenever you like
  • A heads-up when you're nearly out
What else you can measure
Why text

The message that nearly always gets read

A text is read within minutes by almost everyone. Adding it to your email reminders reaches clients who leave their inbox unopened.

Clients see it straight away

A text lands on the lock screen. No promotions tab in between, no message that sinks to the bottom of an inbox.

You only pay for what you send

Buy a bundle when it suits you. Credits don't expire, so a quiet month costs you nothing extra.

For the client who ignores email

An empty chair hurts most on a long or expensive service. A text the day before makes it less likely anyone forgets.

Alongside your email reminder

Where a text makes the difference

A text works best with the rest of Avana: the email keeps going, a deposit holds the slot and, from Business Plus, the waitlist fills whatever still frees up.

TextLong service

Three hours of balayage you don't want to lose

With a balayage or a colour, the most is at stake. A text the day before makes it less likely that slot stays empty.

Email reminders
TextDeposit

Reminded and already paid

A client who paid up front and gets a text the day before almost always comes. If someone still stays away, you keep the deposit.

How deposits work
TextWaitlist

People waiting know at once

When a slot frees up, everyone on your waitlist gets an email, and with texts switched on a text as well. Whoever books first gets it. From Business Plus.

How the waitlist works
What you can set

Which messages go by text

In Avana you choose which messages also go by text, and the emails carry on regardless.

Confirmation after bookingThe appointment in writing on their phone, straight away.
Reminder before the appointment24 hours ahead, with the day, the time and your salon name.
Follows a moved appointmentMove an appointment and Avana recalculates when the text goes.
A freed-up slotWith texts switched on for the waitlist, people waiting hear by text as well.From Business PlusSet up the waitlist
Bundles as you need them50, 150 or 400 texts at a time. Top up when it suits you, no subscription.
5 free a monthOn Business Max, you get 5 texts a month when your credit runs out. Need more? Buy a bundle.From Business Max
See what you useSent and remaining at a glance, with a heads-up when you're nearly out.
Next to your emailsConfirmation and reminder emails keep going, with or without texts.Set up reminders
Your salon name in the textClients see straight away who the appointment is with.
Automatic top-upIf your credit drops below 10, Avana buys the same bundle again, at most twice a month.
Questions

Text message reminders, answered

What does a text reminder cost with Avana?

With Avana you buy texts in bundles: 50 texts for £4.99, 150 for £11.99 and 400 for £24.99, VAT included. There's no subscription on top and credits don't expire, so you only pay for what you actually send.

Why send text reminders as well as email reminders?

Texts work alongside email because a text nearly always gets read, usually within a few minutes, while an email can sit among the promotions. Many salons keep the normal email reminder and add texts for the clients who leave their inbox alone.

Do my text credits expire?

No, Avana text credits never expire. Whatever you buy stays until you send it. A quiet month costs you nothing extra, and you don't have to work out whether you'll use a whole bundle.

Are texts included in an Avana plan?

Texts are bought separately, alongside any plan. On Avana Business Max you get 5 free texts a month when your credit runs out; if you need more, you buy a bundle. Every purchase appears with your invoices, and the plans are on the pricing page.

Can I choose which messages go by text?

Yes. In Avana's text settings you choose confirmation and reminder, the reminder only, or the confirmation only. If you want to use as little credit as possible, choose the reminder only.

Will clients see the text is from my salon?

Yes. Your salon name is in the text, together with the day and time of the appointment. If a client wants to reschedule, the text tells them to use their confirmation email.

How many texts will I need a month?

Count two per appointment if you send confirmation and reminder, and one if you send just one of them. With twenty appointments a month and the reminder only, the 50-text bundle lasts about 2.5 months. The top of the text screen shows how many you have left and roughly how long that will last.

Is there a service fee, and who pays it?

When a client pays online, a small service fee is part of the price they see from the very first screen: 3% of the booking, at least £1.49 and at most £2.29. You pay nothing on your takings, because Avana charges no commission. That small amount from the client is what lets us pay you out in full, so the whole treatment price stays with you.

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The short answer

What are Avana's text message reminders?

Avana is salon booking software that can send clients an appointment reminder by text. You choose whether clients get a text after booking, 24 hours before the appointment, or both, and your salon name is in the message. Texts are bought separately from your plan in bundles of 50 for £4.99, 150 for £11.99 or 400 for £24.99, VAT included, and credits never expire. For a solo salon, Avana Business costs £15.99 a month, VAT included, which is £0.53 a day. On Avana Business Max you get 5 texts a month when your credit runs out.

Text reminders for salons

A text reminder for the appointments that matter

Email works well until a client doesn't open their inbox. For them, an SMS appointment reminder is the one that arrives: it sits on the lock screen and is usually read within minutes. On a service lasting a few hours, that's the difference between a full chair and an empty one.

With Avana you buy texts in bundles, starting at £4.99 for 50 messages. Credits don't expire and there's no second subscription, so you only pay for what you send. You choose whether a text goes with the confirmation, the reminder or both, and if you want to keep costs down, send the reminder only.

A text is also the quickest way to share a freed-up slot. If someone cancels on Saturday morning, everyone on your waitlist hears straight away, by text too if you switch that on, and whoever books first gets it. The waitlist comes with Business Plus. For an expensive service, add a deposit so an empty chair doesn't leave you empty-handed. Plan prices are on the pricing page.

What is an SMS reminder, and who is it for?

An SMS reminder is a short message on the client's phone before their appointment, with the day, the time and your salon name. It's meant for the client who ignores email: someone who gets lots of marketing or rarely checks their inbox still sees a text on their lock screen, so fewer appointments get forgotten.

In Avana, texts add to the normal reminder email for any salon that has trouble with no-shows: a hairdresser with long colours, a nail tech with packed Saturdays, a beauty therapist or massage therapist with ninety-minute treatments. You buy credit in bundles, and as long as you have credit, the texts go out on their own. One message uses one credit, and a text to a number that doesn't work costs nothing.

How do you switch on text reminders in Avana?

You buy credit once and choose when clients get a text; after that it runs by itself. It takes a few minutes.

Open your text settings and buy a bundle. That's done in the browser rather than the Avana app, though the app shows your balance. Once paid, your credit appears straight away. Then choose confirmation and reminder, the reminder only, or the confirmation only. Texts only go to clients with a mobile number, so make the phone number required in your booking rules as well; otherwise clients can leave it empty when booking online.

When does the text arrive, and how does it fit with the email?

The reminder text goes 24 hours before the appointment, and the confirmation straight after booking. If someone books less than a day ahead, the reminder arrives fifteen minutes after booking, and if the appointment is within two hours, no reminder goes at all.

Clients never get two reminders back to back. If your email reminder is set to four hours or one day, the client gets only the text, the day before. If it's two or three days, they get the email first and the text the day before. If a text can't be sent, for example because your credit has run out, the email still goes. For more certainty on an expensive service, add a deposit.

Why didn't a client get a text?

Usually the mobile number is missing or wrong. Texts only go to mobile numbers; Avana skips a landline or an invalid number, and that doesn't use any credit.

Check a few things. A number starting with 0 is read as a number from your salon's country, so a client with a foreign number needs the country code in front. If your credit has run out, clients only get the emails. If you created the appointment for your own records only, nothing is sent on purpose, and a test booking on your own page doesn't get a text either. The text screen lists the last fifty messages, with any failed ones marked, so you can see at a glance whose number is wrong.

Related reading
Email reminders No-show protection Deposits Waitlist Calendar and planning Pricing
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