Email Automation Rules

Automate your customer communications by setting up rules that send emails when specific events occur. From booking confirmations to post-appointment follow-ups, automation keeps your customers informed without any manual effort.

How Automation Works

Email automation rules consist of three parts: a trigger event that starts the automation, optional conditions that determine whether the email should be sent, and timing rules that control when the email is delivered.

1. Trigger

The event that initiates the automation (e.g., booking created, appointment completed)

2. Conditions

Optional filters that must be met for the email to send (e.g., specific service, customer tag)

3. Timing

When the email is sent relative to the trigger event (immediately, delayed, or scheduled)

Start simple

Begin with the most impactful automations: booking confirmation (immediate) and appointment reminder (24 hours before). You can always add more complex rules as you grow.

Trigger Events

Triggers are the events that cause an automated email to be sent. Each trigger corresponds to a specific action in the booking lifecycle.

Booking Triggers

Booking Created – Fires when a new booking is created (by staff or customer)
Booking Confirmed – Fires when a pending booking is confirmed
Booking Rescheduled – Fires when a booking is moved to a different date or time
Booking Cancelled – Fires when a booking is cancelled by staff or customer
Booking Completed – Fires when a booking is marked as completed
Booking No-Show – Fires when a customer is marked as a no-show

Time-Based Triggers

Appointment Reminder – Fires a set time before the scheduled appointment
Follow-Up – Fires a set time after the appointment is completed
Re-Engagement – Fires when a customer has not booked within a specified period
Birthday – Fires on the customer's birthday (if date of birth is recorded)

Payment Triggers

Payment Received – Fires when a payment is successfully processed
Invoice Sent – Fires when an invoice is generated and sent
Payment Overdue – Fires when an invoice passes its due date

Multiple triggers per template

You can attach the same email template to multiple triggers. For example, use the same branded confirmation template for both "Booking Created" and "Booking Confirmed" triggers with slightly different subject lines.

Creating an Automation Rule

Follow these steps to create a new email automation rule from scratch.

Go to Settings → Email → Automation
Click Create Automation
Give the automation a name (e.g., "24-Hour Reminder")
Select the trigger event from the dropdown
Configure timing (immediately, or delayed by hours/days)
Add any conditions to filter when this rule applies
Select or create the email template to send
Review the summary and click Save & Enable

Descriptive names

Use clear, descriptive names for your automations. Instead of "Rule 1", use something like "Booking Confirmation - All Services" or "24h Reminder - Consultation Bookings". This makes them much easier to manage as your list grows.

Timing Rules

Control exactly when automated emails are delivered relative to the trigger event. Proper timing ensures messages are relevant and effective.

Timing Options

Immediately – Send as soon as the trigger fires (within seconds)
Delay by minutes – Wait a specific number of minutes (e.g., 15 minutes after booking)
Delay by hours – Wait a specific number of hours (e.g., 2 hours after completion)
Delay by days – Wait a specific number of days (e.g., 3 days after appointment)
Before appointment – Send a set time before the scheduled date (for reminders)

Recommended Timing

Email Type	Recommended Timing	Why
Booking Confirmation	Immediately	Customers expect instant confirmation
First Reminder	24 hours before	Gives time to reschedule if needed
Second Reminder	2 hours before	Final nudge to reduce no-shows
Follow-Up	1–2 days after	Fresh experience for feedback
Rebooking Prompt	2–4 weeks after	Encourage repeat bookings
Re-Engagement	60–90 days of inactivity	Win back lapsed customers

Delivery hours

Avoid sending automated emails late at night or very early in the morning. Configure delivery hours in Settings → Email → Automation → Delivery Hours to ensure messages are sent during appropriate times. Emails triggered outside these hours will be queued and sent at the start of the next delivery window.

Conditions and Filters

Add conditions to your automation rules to control which bookings or customers trigger the email. Conditions let you create targeted automations for different scenarios.

Available Conditions

Service type – Only trigger for specific services (e.g., only consultations)
Customer tag – Only trigger for customers with certain tags (e.g., VIP customers)
Booking source – Only trigger for bookings created from a specific source (online, phone, walk-in)
Staff member – Only trigger for bookings assigned to specific staff
Payment status – Only trigger when payment is or is not received
Customer history – Only trigger for new customers or returning customers
Day of week – Only trigger for bookings on certain days

Combining Conditions

Multiple conditions can be combined using AND or OR logic:

AND – All conditions must be true (e.g., VIP customer AND consultation service)
OR – Any condition can be true (e.g., VIP customer OR high-value booking)

New customer welcome sequence

Create a special automation with the condition "Customer has 0 previous bookings" to send a personalized welcome email to first-time customers with useful information about your business.

Managing Automations

View, edit, and control all your automation rules from a central dashboard.

Automation Dashboard

Navigate to Settings → Email → Automation to see all your rules. The dashboard shows:

Automation name and description
Trigger event and timing
Enabled/disabled status
Number of emails sent (last 30 days)
Open and click rates
Last triggered date

Automation Actions

Edit – Modify the trigger, timing, conditions, or template
Duplicate – Create a copy of an existing rule as a starting point
Pause – Temporarily disable without deleting
Delete – Permanently remove the automation
View history – See all emails sent by this automation

Enabling and Disabling Automations

You have full control over which automations are active at any time.

Quick Toggle

Each automation has an on/off toggle on the dashboard. Clicking it immediately enables or disables the rule. Disabled automations will not fire even when their trigger event occurs.

Bulk Enable/Disable

Select multiple automations using the checkboxes
Click Bulk Actions
Choose Enable Selected or Disable Selected

Pausing all automations

Use the Pause All Automations button at the top of the dashboard to instantly stop all automated emails. This is useful during testing, system maintenance, or if you discover an issue with your templates. Remember to re-enable automations when you are ready.

Automation History and Analytics

Track the performance of your automated emails to understand what is working and what needs improvement.

Key Metrics

Sent count – Total emails sent by this automation
Delivery rate – Percentage of emails successfully delivered
Open rate – Percentage of delivered emails that were opened
Click rate – Percentage of opened emails where a link was clicked
Bounce rate – Percentage of emails that could not be delivered
Unsubscribe rate – Percentage of recipients who unsubscribed

Viewing Send History

Click on any automation to see a detailed log of every email it has sent. Each entry shows the recipient, send time, delivery status, and whether the email was opened or clicked.

Performance benchmarks

Transactional emails (confirmations, reminders) typically achieve 70–90% open rates. Marketing and follow-up emails usually see 20–40% open rates. If your rates are significantly below these benchmarks, review your template content and delivery configuration.

Multi-Step Sequences

Create sequences of automated emails that are sent in order, triggered by a single event. This is useful for onboarding flows, follow-up campaigns, and nurture sequences.

Creating a Sequence

Click Create Sequence in the automation dashboard
Name the sequence and select the initial trigger
Add the first email step with its timing
Click Add Step to add subsequent emails
Set the delay between each step
Add exit conditions (e.g., stop if the customer books again)
Save and enable the sequence

Example: Post-Appointment Sequence

Step 1 (Day 1) – Thank you email with feedback request
Step 2 (Day 7) – Service tips or aftercare advice
Step 3 (Day 21) – Rebooking prompt with a special offer

Exit conditions are important

Always set exit conditions on sequences. For example, if a customer rebooks after Step 1, they should automatically exit the sequence and not receive the rebooking prompt in Step 3. This prevents sending irrelevant messages.