---
key: turn-on-customer-messages
title: Turn on automatic customer messages
audience: staff
section: settings/communications
routes: ["/settings/org/customer-messages"]
permissions: ["lifecycle_automation.view"]
features: ["lifecycle_automation.core"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: "Choose customer messages by type, adjust timing and channels, and review delivery without duplicate booking reminders."
keywords: [automatic texts, appointment confirmation, reminder text, thank you text, customer notifications, turn on texts, booked, cancelled, basics]
related: [change-customer-message-wording, set-quiet-hours-for-customer-messages, choose-where-customer-messages-come-from, see-what-customers-are-being-sent]
---

Open **Settings**, then **Customer Messages** under **Communications**. Use **Messages for** to choose Work orders, Appointments, Activities, Lodging, Rentals, Quotes, Invoices or Agreements. Only enabled scheduling categories appear. Each choice shows its own messages.

**All customer messages** holds shared sender defaults, privacy limits, quiet hours and review frequency. The sending details card below **Messages for** belongs to the selected category, including its team names and photos. To give one message its own sender, choose **Change who it's from…** in that message's ⋯ menu.

## Start with the defaults

Confirmations, changes, cancellations and a reminder use wording appropriate to the type. An appointment has an appointment time; a work order has a visit; lodging has check-in and check-out; rentals have collection and return; activities have a session and places.

**Turn on the basics** applies only to the selected category. Email is selected initially; choose **Also send texts** if you want both channels. It does not turn on messages for other categories.

Types turned off in Schedule settings disappear from this setup page. Their existing records and already promised messages remain available. Tasks and projects do not automatically send customers calendar messages simply because they have a date.

## Change a message

Use the switch to enable a message. Use its channel controls to choose email or text. Clicking the description does not switch anything. Choose **Edit** to change wording and timing and see a preview together. People with read-only access can preview without editing.

Less frequent actions are in each row's ⋯ menu: **Preview**, **Change who it's from…**, **Restore default wording** and **Advanced rules**. A blue tag on a row means that message differs from its defaults: **Your wording**, **Own sender**, or **Customized** for rules changed in **Advanced rules**. A message that follows the defaults has no tag.

Open **Advanced rules** inside the editor only when you need more conditions. Your role must allow changes; your plan, sending setup and the customer's contact preferences still govern delivery.

The booking's selected contact receives its messages. If that contact has no eligible email or text number, Nova records the blocked delivery instead of silently sending to a different person. Private service names are excluded unless the service explicitly allows them.

## After the work is finished

Appointments, activities, lodging and rentals have optional follow-up and thank-you/review messages. Both start off. Choose timing in hours after completion: finishing an appointment or activity, checking out of lodging, or returning a rental. A calendar end time alone never sends them. Cancelled bookings and no-shows do not receive completion messages.

If a review message is enabled and eligible, it includes the thank-you instead of sending a separate follow-up. A shared customer cooldown limits review requests across all categories. Choose your review destination in **Reviews**. Email and text follow the channels you explicitly enable, the customer’s preferences and quiet hours.

## Other customer requests

Quotes, Invoices and Agreements have separate choices under **Messages for**. Their automatic reminders stay separate from scheduling messages. Sending the document itself, payment requests and receipts, and forms keep their own document workflows. Do not create another booking reminder just to repeat those messages. Online booking also has request, approval, payment and waitlist messages that explain the customer's next action; those are separate from a confirmed-booking reminder.

## Check delivery

Open **What's going out** for upcoming messages and delivery history. A changed time replaces the old reminder, a cancellation stops future reminders, and a late booking does not send a reminder for a time that already passed. A payment received after a reservation expired can require review; it does not silently promise a room, item or visit that is no longer available.

Organization defaults can be adjusted on an individual record when needed. The record keeps the message history alongside the work.