The problem
A mobile massage therapist who drives 25 minutes to a house where nobody answers loses the fee and the journey, and the gap is too late to fill. If 4 clients a month forget, at $80£60€71A$115C$113 a treatment, that's $319£240€286A$461C$451 a month lost before counting the fuel.
What the AI does
Setmore is online booking software. Its free plan sends email reminders and confirmations; Pro adds text reminders, with 500 SMS credits a month per Pro team member, multiple reminders per appointment and recurring appointments for regular clients. Setmore says text availability varies by country and that its fair use policy limits SMS to appointment reminders. Set a reminder by text and email, add a second reminder the morning of the visit, and put your cancellation notice period in the confirmation. Keep health details out of Setmore's booking notes: record them in your treatment notes instead.
A worked example
A mobile massage therapist in Surrey treats about 20 clients a week in their homes and has around 4 no-answers a month. They move bookings into Setmore Pro, turn on a text and email reminder the day before and a second text on the morning, and book weekly regulars as recurring appointments.
Before
About 4 clients a month forgetting a home visit, at $80£60€71A$115C$113 each
After
Two reminders before each visit; if forgetting halves, 2 treatments ($160£120€143A$230C$226) a month are saved
What it's worth
About $128£96€114A$184C$180 a month in profit, if reminders halve the 4 forgotten visits, at an assumed 80% margin on 2 × $80£60€71A$115C$113. That is against Setmore Pro at $5 (about $5£4€5A$8C$8) a month per user billed annually, or $12 (about $12£9€11A$17C$17) billed monthly. Halving no-shows is an assumption, not a promise.
How to set it up
- Sign up for Setmore, add your treatments, travel buffer and working hours, then upgrade to Pro.
- Turn on text and email reminders and add a second reminder on the morning of each visit.
- Use Setmore's Test SMS option to check texts reach UK mobiles before relying on them.
- Set weekly or fortnightly regulars up as recurring appointments.
- Put your cancellation notice period in the confirmation message, in plain words.
What goes wrong
- Text reminders are Pro only and priced per user; a team of 3 on monthly billing is $36 (about $36£27€32A$52C$51), not $12.
- Setmore's fair use policy allows SMS for appointment reminders only, not offers or marketing.
- Booking notes in Setmore aren't the place for injuries or medical conditions. Keep those in your treatment records, which are special category data under UK GDPR.