Petboost messages your customers by email and by SMS.

Email is included on every plan. SMS is included on Business Pro, Business Flex and Business Max, and Calendar Lite sends email only. The pet owner app shows customers their bookings, but Petboost does not send notifications inside it.

Petboost sends each message when its event happens, as long as the switch that controls it is on. Notifications in Settings lists every message by stage, with its switch and a Preview.

New accounts start with the booking confirmation and change messages off. Email the customer: pre-auth heads-up is on by default, but a new business account starts with it off too. On a trial, automatic reminders do not send until the trial ends.

A service keeps its own copy of most of these switches, on its Notifications tab, and a customer's Settings & Overrides tab can turn their own messages off. Rebooking reminders, abandoned booking recovery texts and membership emails have their own sections on Notifications, under Advanced options. The alerts Petboost sends you, such as Text you: new booking alert, Customer Note Alert (Business) and Email you: payment declined, are in Business Communications.

Standard notifications, included in Business Pro, Flex and Max, are one-way automated texts, such as reminders, booking confirmations and payment alerts. Customers cannot reply to them. Communications Booster, an add-on for Business Pro, Flex and Max, turns SMS into two-way messaging. An Enterprise plan includes two-way messaging.

See Communications Booster and 2-Way SMS for full details.

Most messages go out when something happens to a booking. The rest go out at a set time, or when your team sends them.

A text reminder that falls due between 11pm and 4am, business time, is not sent. The email reminder still is. For the switch behind each message, see When are notifications sent automatically?

Texting one customer in your own words needs Communications Booster, an add-on for Business Pro, Flex and Max. Standard notifications are automated only.

You can only message customers who are already in Petboost, not any phone number. Each message uses one SMS credit per segment: a segment holds 160 characters, or 70 when the message holds an emoji, and a longer message is sent in parts that each use a credit. Petboost counts the segments under the compose field as you type. The message sits in the customer's conversation beside the automated texts they have received.

Without Communications Booster, you can still send the fixed texts on a booking's Manage menu, such as Send Late SMS: 15-30 min, but you cannot write your own. See Can I manually send a notification? To turn on Communications Booster, see How do I set up two-way SMS conversations?

The number your texts come from depends on Communications Booster:

Your business contact number is separate. It is the Business Phone on Business Details, which Petboost shows customers on your booking page, invoices and booking emails, and which your business alerts are texted to. Changing it does not change the number your texts come from.

SMS is included in your plan at no extra charge, up to your monthly allocation:

Each outbound SMS uses 1 credit per segment, as SMS credits explains. Inbound messages (customer replies via Communications Booster) are always free.

If you exceed your monthly allocation, buy an SMS credit pack under SMS Top-up Credit Packs in Settings, then SMS:

Each pack's price is on its button, with the price per credit under the pack's name. Pack credits never expire and can be set to auto top-up when your balance runs out. Credits from packs are pooled with your plan's included SMS and any Communications Booster credits. Plan allocation credits that go unused do not roll over to the next month.

Check your usage in Billing.

See SMS Credits and Usage for full details.

Credits usually run down faster than expected for one of these reasons:

To see which texts are using your credits:

SMS Usage lists every text you sent, bulk sends and the messages you type on Messages included, on the day each was sent. Deep Dive on the SMS Usage Breakdown card on SMS opens the same tab.

To use fewer credits:

A text can fail to arrive for any of these reasons:

Check in this order:

That is traffic from an SMS provider, not a client conversation. Login and phone-verification codes can land in Messages after an SMS provider change. You can ignore it, and do not reply to it as if it were a customer.

Automated reminders and real client replies still appear in the same inbox when you have Communications Booster. A six-digit "Your verification code is" line from TWVerify, or a similar sender, is not one of those.

Only with Communications Booster.

Without it, automated texts come from a number Petboost shares between businesses, and end with "(no-reply)" after your business name. A reply to that number does not reach your business.

With it, automated texts come from your dedicated number and sit in the customer's conversation on Messages. If a customer replies to a reminder, the reply arrives in Messages and your team can answer it, so customers can ask about their appointment by replying.

With Confirmation Reply (Y/N) on, under Reminder Rules on Notifications, reminder texts also ask the customer to reply Y or N. It needs an active dedicated number and applies to the whole business. See Can customers confirm appointments by replying to SMS?

Yes. When a customer replies STOP to your dedicated number, Petboost turns off their business updates, marketing and rebooking reminders straight away, and every later bulk send and rebooking reminder skips them. Other opt-out replies do the same: UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT or OPT OUT on its own, or a message such as "remove me" or "stop texting".

A STOP reply also stops texts from that number reaching the customer at all, booking texts included. Their emails keep going.

Replying START does not opt a customer back in. Petboost does not act on START, so their preferences stay off until the customer or your team turns them back on. And once a customer has replied STOP, texts from your number reach them again only after they text START to that number, which your team cannot do for them. See Can I re-enable notifications for an opted-out customer?

A customer can also opt out of marketing only. They then still receive booking texts and business updates.

Your team can turn off reminder and update texts for one customer on the Settings & Overrides tab of their profile. See How do I turn off SMS reminders for a specific customer?

Do this for a customer who wants their reminders by email only, or no reminder texts at all.

The changed row shows Own value, and What they receive today, at the top of the tab, shows the result. A customer's setting takes precedence over your business and service settings. The email switches sit beside the text ones. The Communication Preferences card on the same tab covers business updates, marketing and rebooking reminders, not booking texts.

Once the texts are off:

To turn reminders off for a whole service instead, see Can I disable reminders for certain services?

Queued is the status of a Mass Text in Announcement History before it starts sending. A single message on Messages shows a tick when sent, a ticked circle when delivered, and a red mark when it fails.

A bulk send goes out in the background, and a bar at the top of the conversation list shows its progress, with View. If a Mass Text stops part-way, resume it:

A send can also skip a customer at the moment their message is due: when their consent changed after you selected them, when they have already had five texts that day, when their account cannot be found, or when your monthly SMS limit is reached.

Yes, with Communications Booster, an add-on for Business Pro, Flex and Max. It gives you:

Without Communications Booster, texts are one-way: reminders, alerts and payment links. To set it up, see How do I set up two-way SMS conversations?, and for the full detail, Communications Booster and 2-Way SMS.

Two-way SMS needs Communications Booster, which is available on Business Pro, Flex and Max. On Calendar Lite, upgrade first: the card reads Communications Booster needs a Pro, Flex or Max plan, with See plans.

Reviews are usually approved within 1-3 business days, and the number activates automatically once approved. Messages is always in the sidebar, and until the number is live it shows where the verification is up to. For the document to attach and the rest of the form, see Verify your business.

Once your number is live:

Top-up packs are for businesses that need more SMS credits than their plan allocation, bought under SMS Top-up Credit Packs in Settings, then SMS:

Each pack's price is on its button, with the price per credit under the pack's name. Pack credits never expire and can be set to auto top-up when your balance runs out. Credits from packs are pooled with your plan's included SMS and any Communications Booster credits.

See SMS Credits and Usage for full details on credit management, auto top-up configuration, and usage monitoring.

No. You can only message pet owners who are already customers in Petboost. Communications Booster is for customer conversations, not cold outreach or marketing blasts, and each conversation is linked to a customer profile.

Mass Text sends one message to many customers at once. It needs Communications Booster with an active dedicated number.

A Business Update is for operational news, such as holiday hours, closures and policy changes, and reaches every customer who has not opted out of business updates. A Promotion, such as a special offer or a seasonal campaign, only reaches customers who have opted in to marketing. To filter by service booked, animal type, last appointment date and more, use Bulk Send from the same menu. There is no suburb filter.

Petboost signs every bulk message off with your business name and adds Reply STOP to opt out. Each recipient uses one credit per segment, and the dialog compares the send with your credits before you confirm. After you send, Announcement History lists each recipient under Delivered, Failed or Skipped. Send the message to yourself or a team member first to check it.

See Bulk SMS: Announcements and Marketing for full details.

Yes, with Communications Booster. Each bulk message has a type, and each type only reaches the customers whose consent covers it:

Customers without a mobile number that can receive texts, and archived customers, are left out too. Before you send, Mass Text lists who is left out, and why, in the line ending customers excluded.

To see who each type can reach:

Each customer has three communication preferences with your business, on the Communication Preferences card of their profile: business updates, marketing, and reminders to book again. A promotion only reaches customers who have opted in to marketing. A business update reaches everyone who has not opted out of business updates, and a rebooking reminder everyone who has not turned reminders off.

Booking messages, such as reminders and payment alerts, do not depend on these preferences. They are how you provide the service your customer has booked.

The preferences change when:

See Communication Preferences and Consent for full details.

Before a bulk message goes, Petboost's AI compliance check reads it. In Mass Text it runs when you select Review Prior to Sending, and in Bulk Send when you select Review my message. It looks for two things: promotional content in a business update, and signs of spam, such as link shorteners, words in capitals, pressure language, phishing phrases or a message that is mostly links.

If it finds something, it lists the issues with suggestions. For signs of spam, change the wording, or select Send Anyway. For promotional content in a business update, switch the message to a promotion, which only reaches customers who opted in to marketing, or tick the confirmation that it is a factual business update. Under the Australian Spam Act 2003, a promotional message needs marketing consent. See Check the content before sending.

Yes, with Communications Booster. Confirmation Reply (Y/N) adds a Y/N question to reminder texts. It needs an active dedicated number and applies to the whole business.

A Y reply leaves the booking as it is: Petboost texts back "Thanks! See you then." and the reply appears in Messages. The booking and its calendar and Mission Control cards show Confirmed by customer. If you move the visit to a new start time, the badge clears, and the reminder for the new time asks the customer again. To hide the badge from cards, turn off Confirmed by customer in Card content. An N reply cancels the appointment if the customer gives at least your Change & Cancellation Notice Period. With less notice and a cancellation fee, Petboost asks them to accept the fee first, and if Allow changes and cancellations is off, it tells them to contact you. No reply keeps the booking. Replies from customers are free, and each text Petboost sends back uses a credit.

First check that booking emails are switched on. New accounts start with them off.

If they are on, check the customer and the booking:

A service can also have its own notification settings, on its Notifications tab. Resend Booking Confirmation shows which channels will send, according to your notification settings, before you confirm.

For the long term, ask the customer to add [email protected] to their contacts, so Gmail, Outlook and other providers deliver Petboost emails to the inbox. See Ensuring Petboost Emails Arrive for steps you can share with customers.

Emails usually go missing for one of these reasons:

Petboost sends no calendar invitations, so there is no invitation to miss: each booking email has an Add to Calendar button instead.

Ask customers to:

See Ensuring Petboost Emails Arrive for instructions for each email provider that you can share with customers.

Partly. Petboost's texts follow standard templates, filled in from the booking with details such as the pet's name, the service and the time. With Communications Booster and an active number you can write your own wording for the booking texts. Wording must relate strictly to the appointment and must not contain marketing. Every business can also write:

The details Petboost fills in are listed in Pet Owner Communications.

Partly. Every customer email carries your business name, your logo and your primary colour, from Branding and Business Details, and your contact details. You can add your own note with the Pre-Appointment Message, under Custom Messages on Notifications, which goes on confirmation and reminder emails, and a service can have its own. A customer can have a Personal Note of their own, on the Settings & Overrides tab of their profile.

The rest of each email is a fixed template. Petboost's customer emails cover booking confirmations, changes and cancellations, reminders and the Friday reminder, receipts and refunds, and payment failures. Petboost does not offer custom email templates. If you have specific template requirements, select Get Help to talk to our team.

Petboost does not send marketing emails, so there is no marketing list to unsubscribe from. The emails it sends are about the customer's own bookings and payments, and the Communication Preferences on their profile do not switch them off.

To stop some of them for one customer, switch them off on the customer's Settings & Overrides tab, where the email switches sit beside the text ones. See How do I turn off SMS reminders for a specific customer?

For marketing, Petboost gives you email templates that open in your own email app, for you to review and send yourself, and Bulk SMS for texts, with consent built in.

For most businesses, we recommend two reminders:

Adjust for:

Common set-ups by business type:

To set the timing:

Yes. Each service keeps its own copy of your reminder settings, so you can switch reminders off for one service.

This suits same-day bookings, where a 24-hour reminder is not needed, special services with their own arrangements with the customer, and group lessons where reminders are handled separately. For recurring appointments, Reminders for frequent Daily and Weekly Recurring appointments, under Reminder Rules on Notifications, already keeps reminders off for a series that repeats every day or every week, until you switch it on.

Yes. A reminder goes out at the Reminder Time before its appointment, whatever the day: reminders do not skip weekends or public holidays, and they do not follow your business hours. The 24-hour reminder for a Monday morning appointment goes out on Sunday morning. Petboost checks for due reminders every 15 minutes.

The exception is the text: an SMS reminder that falls due between 11pm and 4am, business time, is not sent. The email reminder still is.

Yes. Send one when a customer says they did not get the reminder, when you want an extra one closer to the appointment, or when one did not go.

The reminder goes by SMS to the phone number and by email to the address on the customer's profile, as Will be sent via lists, whether or not your reminder switches are on, and even on a trial. Each text uses credits, one per segment.

With Communications Booster, you can also text the customer from Messages, in your own words.

Check their preferences on their profile.

The card has three headings: Business Announcements & Operational Updates, Marketing & Special Promotions and Reminders to book again. Each shows Opted In or Opted Out, and Last updated with the date it last changed. A heading with neither has never been answered. Booking texts and emails switched off for this customer show in What they receive today, at the top of the same tab.

Other places show it too:

Yes, when the customer asks you to. Replying START does not do it: Petboost does not act on START, so their preferences stay off until someone turns them back on.

Trap: Email marketing is the switch under Business Announcements & Operational Updates. It sets business updates by text, not email.

The customer can also turn their preferences back on themselves in the pet owner app, under Communication Preferences, then Save Preferences.

If the customer replied STOP to your number, texts from that number still do not reach them until they text START to it. Your team cannot lift that block for them. Booking texts that you switched off for them on Settings & Overrides come back when you switch them on again there.

Yes. Each booking records the messages sent about it.

Each email and text shows whether it was sent, with the address or number it went to, or whether it was not sent or is still to come.

Its badge then shows what happened to it: delivered, opened, link clicked, bounced, marked as spam or not delivered for an email, and delivered or failed for a text. Each of those steps is also its own entry on the log, at the time it happened: green for delivered, blue for opened or clicked, amber for held back and red for bounced, marked as spam or not delivered. Where the email provider reports it, an open names the email app (such as Gmail, Apple Mail or Outlook) and the device (such as iPhone, Android or Windows). Gmail and Yahoo name only the app, because they open the email on their own servers. An open is a hint, not proof: Apple Mail opens emails by itself, so an Apple Mail open may not mean the customer read it, and a link opened seconds after delivery is usually the customer's email security checking it.

If emails to a customer bounce, are marked as spam or are not delivered, their profile shows a red badge such as Emails bouncing. Select it to correct the address. Petboost stops emailing an address that bounced or was marked as spam until it changes.

With Communications Booster, Messages holds one conversation per customer, with the automated texts, the automatic replies and your team's messages in order, and the customer's profile has a Messages tab too. A text marked Shared number went from Petboost's shared number, so a reply to it would not reach you. Each Mass Text is recorded in Announcement History on Messages.

On Messages, a message that could not be delivered has a red mark beside it. Select the mark to open Message failed to send, which lists the common reasons:

Check the number on the customer's profile, then select Retry sending, or contact the customer by email instead. A customer who replied STOP to your number cannot receive texts from it until they text START to it.

On a booking's Activity Log, a message that did not go out shows as not sent. That includes a text to your own number, such as a new booking alert, with the reason it did not go: for example, your SMS credits had run out.

Check these in order:

This usually means the customer's contact details are out of date, the pet is linked to the wrong owner profile, or the same customer has two profiles.

Yes, from the booking.

Resend Booking Confirmation sends by the channels your notification settings use. Class bookings do not offer Resend Booking Confirmation. On a booking at your place, Send Pick-up SMS tells the customer their pet is ready for pick-up, and Send Drop-off SMS that it is time to bring their pet in. On a mobile booking they become Send Drop-off SMS, which says their pet has been dropped off, and Send On Our Way SMS, which says you are on your way. Those three sit under Quick SMS. On a mobile booking, the line under Quick SMS is how you text a Second pet parent phone: select a send, then under Sending to choose 2nd pet parent or the label on that number. Send Late SMS: 15-30 min tells them the appointment is running 15 to 30 minutes late. These three texts need SMS on your plan, and are not offered on a cancelled booking. Once a pick-up text has gone, its item reads Resend Pick-up SMS, or Resend Drop-off SMS on a mobile booking.

With Communications Booster, you can also write your own text: Message owner on the same menu, the Messages tab on the customer's profile and Messages all open the conversation. Send Upcoming Appointments, under Manage Owner on the customer's profile, opens a message listing their next appointments, ready to send.

For help, select Get Help in Petboost to chat with our team.