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Hourly

Text appointment reminders and follow-ups from Airtable

Leads who haven't booked get a friendly follow-up text, booked clients get a reminder the day before, and each record is updated.

Runs
Hourly
Apps
Airtable, Twilio
AI
Optional
Access
data.records:read/write; Twilio send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every hour, text leads in my Airtable 'Clients' table who haven't booked after two days, remind booked clients the day before their appointment, and note the text on their record.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A physiotherapy clinic collects enquiries through its website and books appointments in Airtable. Some people enquire and never book; others book and forget to turn up. The receptionist means to call both groups but is busy with the people in the waiting room, and each missed appointment is an empty hour.

A short text two days after an unbooked enquiry, and a reminder the day before each appointment, catches most of these without a phone call. Writing the date of each text on the record means nobody gets the same message twice and the team can see who has been contacted.

What you get out of it

  • Fewer no-shows

    Booked clients get a reminder the day before, with the time, so fewer appointments are forgotten.

  • Enquiries get a second chance

    People who asked but did not book get one friendly follow-up text with a link to book.

  • Nobody is texted twice

    The date of each text is saved on the record, and records already texted are skipped.

  • The front desk stays free

    Reminders and follow-ups go out on their own, so staff can focus on the people in front of them.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every hour, ClickRuntime checks your Airtable Clients table.

  2. It finds leads who enquired more than two days ago and have not booked or been texted.

  3. It finds booked clients whose appointment is tomorrow and who have not had a reminder.

  4. Each one gets a short text from your Twilio number.

  5. The date of the text is written on the record, so nobody gets the same message twice.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Airtable
  • Connect Twilio

What you get

RunsHourly
Text appointment reminders and follow-ups from Airtabletoday, 9:00Succeeded
SMS · Client reminderHi Sarah, a reminder of your appointment tomorrow at 10:30 at Northwind Physio. Reply if you need to move it.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Airtable and Twilio steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
sms_appointment_follow_ups_from_airtable.pyexample
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, report_fetched

BASE_ID, FROM, BOOKING = "appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "+447700900000", "https://example.com/book"
FOLLOW_UP = "AND({Status}='Lead', {Followed up}=BLANK(), IS_BEFORE({Enquired}, DATEADD(TODAY(), -2, 'days')))"
REMIND = "AND({Status}='Booked', {Reminded}=BLANK(), IS_SAME({Appointment}, DATEADD(TODAY(), 1, 'days'), 'day'))"

def sms(to, body):
    sid = credentials.secret("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID")
    return http.post(f"https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{sid}/Messages.json",
                     auth=(sid, credentials.secret("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN")), data={"From": FROM, "To": to, "Body": body})

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    api = f"https://api.airtable.com/v0/{BASE_ID}/Clients"
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('airtable', 'work')}"}
    leads = http.get(api, headers=headers, params={"filterByFormula": FOLLOW_UP}).json()["records"]
    booked = http.get(api, headers=headers, params={"filterByFormula": REMIND}).json()["records"]
    report_fetched(len(leads) + len(booked))
    if not leads and not booked:
        return {"sent": 0}
    for rec, kind in [(r, "lead") for r in leads] + [(r, "booked") for r in booked]:
        f = rec["fields"]
        if kind == "lead":
            body, field = f"Hi {f.get('First name', '')}, thanks for getting in touch. Book a time here: {BOOKING}", "Followed up"
        else:
            body, field = f"Hi {f.get('First name', '')}, a reminder of your appointment tomorrow at {f.get('Time', '')}.", "Reminded"
        sms(f["Phone"], body).raise_for_status()
        http.patch(api, headers=headers, json={"records": [{"id": rec["id"], "fields": {field: event.get("scheduled_time", "")[:10] or None}}]})
    return {"leads": len(leads), "reminders": len(booked)}

FAQ

Common questions

What do the texts say?
Two short templates in the script, one for follow-ups and one for reminders, using the client's first name and appointment time. Ask your AI assistant to change the wording.
Can it handle replies such as 'can I move it?'
Replies arrive in your Twilio inbox as usual. You can add a step where AI reads each reply and writes it on the client's record for the team to act on.
Will it text people late at night?
It runs hourly, but you can restrict sending to working hours in the script so texts only go out between, for example, 9 and 6.
What permissions does it need?
data.records:read/write; Twilio send. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No, but you can ask for an AI step (for example a summary). It then uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (hourly). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

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