Section 10: Notifications & Communication
Section 10: Notifications & Communication
Keep your customers informed and engaged with Luminate's comprehensive notification and messaging system. From automated appointment reminders that reduce no-shows to birthday greetings that build loyalty, this section covers all aspects of customer communication.
Tutorials in This Section
10.1 Setting Up Appointment Reminders
Automatic reminders reduce no-shows. Learn how to configure appointment reminder settings, choose how many hours before appointments to send reminders (e.g., 24 hours, 48 hours), select channels (email, SMS), customise reminder messages, and set up follow-up messages sent after appointments for feedback and rebooking.
Time: 10-15 minutes
10.2 Birthday Notifications and Customer Engagement
Birthday messages build loyalty and drive bookings. This tutorial shows you how to enable birthday notifications, customise birthday messages, offer birthday promotions, choose notification channels, and track the response rate to your birthday campaigns.
Time: 10-15 minutes
10.3 Creating Custom Notification Templates
Customise what customers see when they receive notifications. Learn how to create and edit notification templates for confirmations, reminders, receipts, and more. We cover using template variables (customer name, appointment time, etc.), the visual email builder, SMS character counting, and setting default templates.
Time: 20-30 minutes
10.4 Managing the Messaging Inbox
The unified messaging inbox shows all customer conversations in one place with a split-pane layout for easy navigation. Learn how to view and filter conversations by channel (SMS, email) and status (open, closed, archived), compose new messages to customers, reply to incoming messages, close and reopen conversations, and archive old threads. You can also view customer-specific message history directly from their profile. Perfect for two-way customer communication.
Time: 15-20 minutes
10.5 SMS Balance and Usage Tracking
Sending SMS costs money, so tracking usage matters. This guide shows you how to check your SMS balance, view usage reports, see cost per message, monitor spending trends, and top up your balance when needed. When your balance is critically low, a prominent banner appears site-wide with a direct link to top up. We also explain setting up automatic top-ups and optimising SMS usage to reduce costs.
Time: 10-15 minutes
Recommended Reading Order
For users new to Luminate's notification system, we recommend completing these tutorials in order:
- 10.1 Setting Up Appointment Reminders - Start with the most impactful feature for reducing no-shows
- 10.3 Creating Custom Notification Templates - Learn to customise your messages
- 10.5 SMS Balance and Usage Tracking - Understand SMS credits before sending messages
- 10.2 Birthday Notifications and Customer Engagement - Add marketing touch-points
- 10.4 Managing the Messaging Inbox - Handle two-way customer communication
Key Concepts Covered
| Topic | Tutorial |
|---|---|
| Reducing no-shows | 10.1 |
| Email vs SMS channels | 10.1, 10.3 |
| Marketing consent | 10.2 |
| Dynamic tokens in templates | 10.3 |
| Visual email builder | 10.3 |
| SMS character limits | 10.3, 10.5 |
| Two-way messaging | 10.4 |
| Conversation management | 10.4 |
| Credit monitoring | 10.5 |
| Auto top-up | 10.5 |
Next Steps
After completing Section 10, move on to:
- Section 11: Compliance & Safety - Understand skin test management and GDPR requirements
- Section 3: Customer Management - Ensure customer profiles have correct contact details and consent
- Section 13: Salon Settings & Configuration - Configure timezone and regional settings that affect notifications
Last Updated: January 2026