--- key: change-customer-message-wording title: Change the wording of a customer message audience: staff section: settings/communications routes: ["/settings/org/customer-messages"] permissions: ["lifecycle_automation.manage"] features: ["lifecycle_automation.core"] since: 0.0.1 updated: 0.0.1 status: published summary: Rewrite the text or email a customer gets for an appointment notice, reminder or thank-you, drop in fields like the customer's name, preview it and send yourself a test. keywords: [edit message text, customize text, reminder wording, template, merge field, send test text, preview message, subject line] related: [turn-on-customer-messages, set-quiet-hours-for-customer-messages, see-what-customers-are-being-sent] --- In the sidebar, open **Settings**, then choose **Customer Messages** under **Communications**. The page address is `/settings/org/customer-messages`. Each message row has its own **Edit** button, which opens **Edit wording** for that message. ## Before you start - Your role needs permission to manage automations. Without it you can open the wording and read it, and the drawer says so, but **Save wording** stays off. - Agreement reminders keep their wording in the agreements settings; their row shows **Wording** instead and takes you there. - To send yourself a test, your profile needs a mobile number (for texts) or an email address. The test control tells you which one is missing and offers **Open profile**. ## Steps 1. Find the message row, for example the reminder the day before, and press **Edit**. A drawer opens titled with the message name. 2. If the message goes out both ways, pick **Text** or **Email** at the top of the drawer. Each has its own wording. 3. For an email, type the **Subject**. Emails need one. 4. Change the **Message**. Type `{{` to pick a field such as the customer's name or when the appointment is, or use **Insert variable**. The list offers only the fields this message can use. The counter beside **Message** shows how much room is left. 5. Check **How it reads** below the box. A moment after you stop typing it shows the message exactly as Nova would send it, filled in from one of your recent work orders or sample details. 6. Press **Save wording**. Nova confirms that new messages use it from now on. 7. To check it on your own phone or inbox, press **Send me a test**, confirm the destination, then press **Send**. You can send another after a short wait. For emails, the message editor supports bold, italic, underline, lists and links. On a phone, press **Formatting** to show the tools. The counter measures the message text; Nova includes a plain-text version for email clients. Formatting appears in **How it reads** and in the saved preview. Leaving an unsaved edit or switching channels offers **Save then leave** or discarding the edit. ## The fields in appointment messages The visit messages (booked, changed and both reminders) are sentences you can change, with a few fields Nova fills in when the message goes out: when the appointment is ("tomorrow between 8:30 and 9:30 AM" or "in 2 hours at 11:30 AM", always in the local time where the work happens, with no time zone), who it is with, the greeting, the appointment details table and the technician's photo. Keep the fields you want and change the words around them. In an email, the details table and photo appear in the email; the plain-text copy gets the details as lines and leaves the photo out. ## Writing a clear message Start with what the customer needs to know: “Your appointment is booked”, “We’re on our way”, or “Your invoice is due soon”. Keep the next step short and use a direct link when there is one. Avoid internal status names, step names, and delivery labels such as “confirmation email”. Review requests should welcome any customer’s experience. Nova updates its default wording when it improves a message. A message marked **Your wording** keeps the version you wrote. The company branding and footer come from the shared email settings ([[set-up-email-branding]]). ## What you see - The row now carries a **Your wording** tag. - **Restore default wording** appears once the wording is yours, in the drawer and in the row's ⋯ menu. From the menu, Nova asks first; choose **Restore default** to go back to Nova's wording. - **Template library** opens the same wording in the template library, where every version is kept. - **Preview** on the row shows the saved wording filled in from one of your recent work orders, and offers **Edit wording** and **Send me a test** too. ## If something looks different - **Save wording** stays off: the message box is empty, an email has no **Subject**, the text is over the limit shown by the counter, a field is marked as one this message can't use, or nothing changed. - "Fix the message above to see how it reads" appears under **How it reads**: fix what is marked in the message first. - "Save first to test the new wording" appears: the test always sends what is saved, so save, then press **Send me a test**. - The row has **Wording** instead of **Edit**: it is the agreement reminder, and its wording lives in the agreements settings, where that button takes you. - No row has **Edit**: you picked a branch in the top bar. Wording belongs to the whole organization, so switch back to the organization view to change it. [[route:/settings/org/customer-messages|Open Customer messages]] Appointment reminders the day before and two hours before have separate wording and photo choices. Changing one leaves the other alone. Photo choices in the wording drawer save immediately; restoring default wording keeps them. ## Return to the message The wording drawer's address includes the message and whether you are editing text or email. You can copy that address to reopen the same editor. It does not contain your unsaved wording. If you opened **Edit wording** from **Preview**, Back returns to the preview. If you opened it from the message row, Back returns to the list. Leaving unsaved wording asks whether to keep editing, discard changes, or save first.