Customer reminders: should you call, or is an SMS enough?
Sado AI team · · 4 min read
In short
An SMS is cheap and fast, but it only informs: you don’t know whether the customer read it or is coming. A call costs more, but you get the answer at once, and “I can’t come” is rebooked in the same conversation. The rule: if you need no decision from the customer (order on its way, a code, an address), an SMS is enough. If you need a confirmation, a new time or a payment date, call. Many businesses use both: call first, text if there’s no answer.
SMS vs a call in one table
| Question | SMS | Call |
|---|---|---|
| Does the customer reply | Rarely: typing a reply is a hassle | Yes, during the call |
| Moving the booking | The customer has to phone you | Right away, with two options |
| Does it get through | Can get lost among promotional texts | Whoever picks up hears it |
| Price | One message at your SMS provider’s rate | Talked minutes; 800 so‘m with Sado |
| For the customer | No interruption, read any time | Can annoy at a bad hour |
| What you learn | Delivered or not | Coming, moved, cancelled, has a question |
When an SMS is enough
- The message is pure information: “Your order is on its way”, a confirmation code, an address and landmark.
- The customer confirmed yesterday; a short text in the morning is enough.
- A no-show costs nothing: for example, a free open lesson or a sale announcement.
- After a call you need to send details in writing: a map, what to bring, payment details.
When you need a call
- You need a decision: are they coming, do they confirm the order, when will they pay.
- A no-show is expensive: a stylist’s, doctor’s or hall’s time goes unused.
- Many of your customers don’t read texts: older people, or those with hundreds of unread messages.
- The next step depends on the answer: “not tomorrow, Saturday” means offering another time.
- Payment reminders: in a polite conversation the customer names a date; texts often get no reply.
A call no SMS could replace
Sado: Assalomu alaykum, this is Malika from Lola beauty salon. Nigora, you’re booked with Dilbar for a manicure tomorrow at four. Can you make it?
Caller: Oh, I won’t make four. Could we do six?
Sado: Dilbar is busy at six. Half past five tomorrow or four the day after are free. Which suits you?
Caller: Half past five works.
Sado: Done, you’re booked for half past five tomorrow. See you then!
Nigora wouldn’t have replied to a text, or she’d have had to phone the salon herself. And the stylist would have sat idle at four.
How to combine calls and texts
- Call during the day before the booking: a confirmation or a new time.
- No answer? Try once more two or three hours later.
- Still no answer? Send a short text through your SMS service: day, time and a number to call back.
- After a month, count how many came among those who confirmed by phone and among those who only got a text.
Handing reminder calls to an AI operator
Many businesses stick to texts because the receptionist has no time to call dozens of customers a day. With Sado’s AI outbound calls you upload tomorrow’s bookings as an Excel file in the portal’s Auto-calls section and set the calling hours. Sado’s operator talks with each customer live in Uzbek or Russian, moves bookings and, when asked to “call back in the evening”, calls back at that time.
The portal shows who confirmed, who moved and who couldn’t be reached: those last ones get the text. Price: 800 so‘m a minute. For example, 50 one-minute reminders a day: 50 × 800 = 40,000 so‘m; unanswered numbers cost nothing. For salons: AI operator for beauty salons; prices: pricing page.
Questions
Is an SMS cheaper than a call?
One message is usually cheaper. But count the cost of a no-show too: if the customer ignored the text and didn’t come, the stylist’s or doctor’s time is lost.
Don’t reminder calls annoy customers?
They do if you call late or often. Call once, in the daytime, and keep it short; Sado never calls again a number that said “don’t call me”.
Isn’t a recorded voice message enough?
A recorded message, like an SMS, only informs: the customer can’t move the booking. An AI operator holds a two-way conversation. The difference: autodialer vs AI operator.