Confirmations provide reassurance that reality lives up to your expectations. Think about how essential confirmations are in your everyday life.
Imagine you book your dream reception venue for Saturday evening after your wedding. Months later, you find out your reservation is for Sunday—and the venue has no availability on the Saturday evening of your wedding. Bummer, right? In this instance, an event confirmation email would have come in handy.
Appointment confirmation emails keep calamity or even just minor inconveniences from sneaking into life. These are easy to send, oh-so-simple, and downright powerful. So if you run a business that provides appointment services (e.g., consultations, meetings, interviews, or treatments), appointment confirmation emails are a simple way to prevent mistakes and improve your customer experience.
Ready to incorporate these emails into your communications? Below, you’ll find top-notch examples of appointment confirmation emails, appointment confirmation message samples, and tips to write emails from scratch. Let’s get started.
Appointment confirmation emails are just one form of email and SMS marketing. Simple enough, it’s an email that confirms the time, date, and location of an appointment, along with any other pertinent details the recipient should know ahead of time.
For example, if a customer makes a reservation at a restaurant a few weeks in advance, they’ll receive a confirmation email so they know they booked the reservation successfully. Or they may be due for routine teeth cleaning, so they’ll receive a friendly reminder of the date and time for the upcoming appointment.
The goal of confirmation emails is to offer reassurance to the recipient. These emails not only confirm a customer’s action was successful but provide crucial information that points them in the right direction for the next steps.
Imagine you have a job applicant coming in for an interview. The appointment confirmation email might provide the date, time, and place for the interview and added details, such as what to wear, how to prepare, or where to park.
Without confirmation emails, customers can become extremely frustrated, leading to a negative experience with your brand and distrust. To avoid this, businesses should send confirmation emails immediately after an action or transaction, preventing recipients from having to ask more questions.
Anyone can send a confirmation email, but it takes tact and strategy to craft a quality message. The effectiveness of your email is all in the design, content, and delivery. With the following best practices, you can write an effective appointment confirmation email that fosters a positive experience for your recipient and greater loyalty toward your business.
Appointment confirmation emails should be simple. While it’s crucial to stay on brand, maintain focus on the message intent. Remember, this isn’t a marketing email (more on why that matters shortly). You’re just trying to confirm an appointment with the recipient.
You don’t need any fancy GIFs, clever copy, or compelling call to actions. What you need is to provide exactly what the recipient expects: confirmation details for their appointment. Nothing more, nothing less.
Take this example from Airbnb. It confirms the trip, provides a lodging image, gives the dates, and adds itinerary details. Airbnb’s approach is simple yet efficient.
According to Twilio SendGrid email delivery expert Will Boyd, adding marketing messaging into your transactional messages can cause deliverability issues “because mailbox providers scan your content. If they feel like the message is more on the marketing side, they are more likely to put that message into spam compared to if they feel like it’s pure transactional mail.”
At SendGrid, we live by the motto: “Send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, with the right frequency, on the right channel.” It’s an excellent guideline for communicating with recipients and includes:
Message: The appointment confirmation details
Person: The individual who made an appointment
Time: The month, day, or hour when it will occur
Frequency: The initial email and maybe a second follow-up if the appointment is further out
Still unsure on exactly how to write an appointment email? Here are a few extra short-and-sweet tips to help you create stellar appointment confirmation emails:
Create an obvious subject line. Make your subject transparent. For example, try “Hair Appointment Confirmation” or “Confirmation for Your Upcoming Dentist Appointment.” Your recipient will have no problem guessing what this email is about and can easily search for the email if necessary later.
Be consistent but not pushy. According to our recent Global Messaging Engagement Report, 52% of respondents said that they would unsubscribe if a company emailed them every day. It’s always best practice to base email cadence on your customer’s lifestyle and ensure subscribers know exactly what they’re getting.
Include add-to-calendar buttons. Improve the odds your recipients will show up for their appointment with this added convenience—a win-win for you and your customers.
Provide contact information. Make it easy for your recipients to reach out to you if there’s a problem with their appointment or if they need to reschedule.
Below is an appointment confirmation message sample for a more formal audience, though the voice and tone of your emails will vary depending on your brand and message. Feel free to use it as is or adjust it to your needs.
Subject: Your Appointment Is Confirmed
Hi [name],
Your [appointment type] appointment is confirmed for [day of week], [month] [date], [year].
Need to change your appointment?
To make changes to your appointment, click here, call XXX-XXX-XXX, or respond to this email.
Simple, right? That’s really all your appointment confirmation email needs to include.
It’s great to receive an appointment confirmation email as a friendly reminder. Blooming Massage gets it right here with a basic design and all the essentials: who, what, when, where, how—all the recipient needs to know.
Here, Fidelity covers all the essentials with this confirmation email. The recipient knows when and where the meeting will occur, what Fidelity will discuss, and who will be there. All the info is bold, easy to read, and quick to find. And if the time doesn’t work for the recipient, there’s a big orange button to click to reschedule the appointment.
This confirmation email from SpotHero has all the extra details that make for a thorough appointment confirmation email. The recipient knows which license plate they reserved the spot with, where the place is, when they can enter and need to leave, and how much it costs. Plus, SpotHero includes a link to the parking pass within the email—one less thing for the recipient to track.
To find appointment confirmation message samples and other prebuilt email designs, check out our free email templates gallery.
How to confirm an appointment without email
Who says you have to stick to email to confirm an appointment? You'd think we would, but we know there are other ways to confirm an appointment—and, sometimes, depending on the customer, they're (dare we say) better. Here are some other ways you can confirm an appointment without email:
SMS: Quick and to the point.SMS is your go-to for quick appointment confirmations. It's like sending a little nudge right to someone's pocket—perfect for last-minute reminders or changes.
Push notifications: Ideal for mobile app users. Push notifications pop up right on your customer’s device screen.
Voice calls: Sometimes, a quick call can get the job done. Use automated voice calls to confirm appointments and add a human touch without tying up your phone lines.
Messaging apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Telegram—all great for reaching out. They offer a more informal way to connect and confirm appointments.
In-App messages: If your business has an app, use it to confirm appointments? It’s direct, efficient, and lets customers manage their appointments within the app they already use.
Email has always been a tried-and-true method to reach global audiences, but now SMS is a great way for businesses to connect with customers, too.
Whether communicating with customers about promotions, discounts, or appointment reminders, email is ideal for longer messages that might include images and attachments or information your recipients might want to save for later. SMS, on the other hand, is perfect for short, timely information.
MessagingX makes it easy to integrate multiple channels—including SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, chat, and Facebook Messenger—into your business communications to help you reach customers wherever they’re most comfortable. Plus, with multiple channels, Twilio Engage helps you build unified and personalized customer experiences that deepen customer relationships and efficiently grow your brand.
Regardless if your customers prefer texts or emails, appointment confirmation messages will take your customer communication up a notch—get started with a free Twilio account today!
