Softalon sends messages to your clients and your team over four channels: Email, SMS, WhatsApp and Push. This guide explains where those messages come from, what they cost, and why a message sometimes doesn't go out.
Where notifications come from
Automations
Messages about appointments are sent by automations, which you manage on the Workflows page. There is no separate, hidden set of appointment emails. If an automation is turned off or deleted, the messages it sent stop.
When your subscription starts, Softalon adds a starter set of automations built from its default templates, as long as your salon has no automations yet. These cover common messages such as appointment confirmations and reminders. The number you get is capped by your plan's automation limit. You can edit, turn off or delete any of them. See How automations work.
The sign-in code that clients receive when they sign in to your booking site is also sent by an automation, triggered when a client asks for a code. If you turn that automation off, clients won't get their codes.
Messages you send yourself
You can send a one-off message to a client or a team member from their profile. See Send a message to a client.
Messages Softalon sends for you
Some messages come from Softalon itself, not from your salon:
- Invitations to join your salon, sent to team members.
- Sign-in, verification and password recovery messages for Softalon accounts.
- Billing emails sent to your billing email address, for example when a trial starts or ends, an invoice is paid, or a subscription payment has a problem.
These don't use your credits.
Channels
Current rates are on the Credit Usage table of the Softalon pricing page. At the time of writing, email and push cost 0 credits. See Credits explained.
A few channel details:
- Email is sent from your salon's name and an address based on your subdomain, for example
[email protected]. On the Ultimate plan you can send from your own address. - SMS text is converted to the basic GSM character set where possible, so accented letters are replaced with plain ones. One segment holds 160 basic characters, or 153 per segment when the message is longer. If the text contains characters outside that set, such as emoji, a segment holds 70 characters, or 67 per segment when longer. Each segment is charged.
- WhatsApp messages use pre-approved message templates, so you choose a template and fill in its variables rather than writing free text.
- Push always adds the notification to the recipient's in-app notifications. If the recipient allowed push on a device, it's also shown there.
When a message is skipped
Before sending a message from your salon, Softalon checks several things. If any check fails, the message is skipped, no credits are charged, and nothing appears in notification history.
- Subscription. Your salon needs a subscription that is trialing, active or past due.
- Credits. Your balance must cover the cost of the message. Credits are only deducted after the message is sent.
- Preferences. The channel must be turned on in your salon's preferences and in the recipient's own preferences. See Choose how your team is notified.
- A reachable recipient. Email addresses must be valid, not disposable, and on a domain that can receive mail. Phone numbers must be valid.
- Consent for SMS. Clients only get SMS if they have given transactional consent. See Client consent explained.
- Rate limits. Each recipient can only receive a limited number of messages per minute, hour and day on each channel. This protects clients from floods of messages.
Where to manage notifications
Go to Settings › Notifications. The page has these sections:
You need the Super Administrator or Owner role to open this page.
Common questions
Check that the reminder automation is active, that you have enough credits, that the channel is turned on in Settings › Notifications › Preferences, and that the client has a valid email address or phone number. For SMS, the client also needs transactional consent.