31 Automated text message examples that sound like you

If you’ve ever set yourself a reminder to send reminders or follow-up texts to your customers, this article is for you. 

Manually texting customers one at a time doesn’t scale. Plus, it costs your business money through lost customers and forgotten follow-ups. 

But automating repetitive text messages doesn’t mean your company will start sounding like a bot. All you need is the right templates to get you started. That is: templates that sound like you, keep you compliant, and reach your customers at the right time. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to get started with automated text message examples you can steal — without sounding like a robot. 

31 Examples of automated text messages by use case 

One quick way to start automating is to gather a series of text message templates for your most common, repetitive customer text messages. Here are some examples to get you started:

Appointment confirmation text templates 

A confirmation text helps reduce no-shows and confusion. The customer sees the date and time in writing when the booking is still top of mind. Be sure to state your business name. This is for compliance and helps customers quickly understand what the confirmation is for. Use one of these templates: 

To confirm an appointment request: 

Standard appointment confirmation text: 

To confirm a cancellation: 

Tired of sending these manually? You can automate them. For example, you can connect a business phone system like Quo with Zapier. This lets you automatically send a confirmation when someone books through Calendly. That way, you put customers’ minds at ease without doing the manual work.

💡Further reading: Get 30+ more appointment confirmation text templates based on industry, use case, and more. 

Appointment reminder text examples 

Reminder texts are a great next step. They’re another repetitive, ongoing text that’s tricky to manage manually, easy to automate, and can reduce no-shows when you send them consistently. We recommend sending at least two reminder texts — one about a week out and one 24–48 hours before the appointment. 

Advance notice template: 

Hi [customer name], this is [name] from [business name]. Just a friendly reminder about your appointment on [date] at [time]. We look forward to seeing you! Reply STOP to opt out of future messages. 

24-hour template: 

[Business name]: Reminder [customer name], you have an appointment tomorrow at [time]. Reply YES to confirm or call [number] to reschedule. Text STOP to opt out of future messages.  

Reminder with a request for documents: 

Hi [customer name], I’m [name] from [business name]. I’m reaching out to confirm your appointment for [day, date, time] and let you know that we’ll need the following documents to [action item]: 1. [Document 1] 2. [Document 2]. Text STOP to opt out of future messages. 

Ready to automate these as well? You can do it with Quo + Zapier. Here’s an automation you can copy.

💡More ideas: Get 25+ more appointment reminder text templates based on use case and industry. 

Payment and invoice reminders 

Few things are worse than having to continually follow up with a customer to make sure the invoice gets paid. But it often must be done. 

Pre-written text reminders make it easier. Here are three templates to get you started: 

For an upcoming payment due: 

For a past-due payment: 

If you’re offering a payment plan: 

💡More inspiration: Get 15+ more examples of text and email templates for payment reminders. 

After-hours auto-reply text message examples 

After-hours automated responses significantly increase speed to lead. Customers get replies faster, which can have a huge impact. Data from Drift shows reps who sent a first response within two minutes had the highest chance of booking a meeting.

Wait a day or two, and the customer has likely moved on to a competitor. Here are some auto-reply templates to use: 

Standard after-hours template: 

Note: If you’re a service or healthcare business with an after-hours or emergency number, it’s a good idea to include that number in this text as well.

Holiday or out-of-office message template:

Message receipt confirmation template: 

After-hours with next steps: 

Action items can include self-service options like: 

• Creating an account on your website
• Filling out a new patient or new client form
• Completing documents or intake paperwork and uploading them to an online portal

With Quo, automated text responses are simple. You can set up auto-reply templates for missed texts, voicemails, and calls — both during and after hours. That way, every customer gets a quick response every time.

💡More ideas: If none of these work, check out more after-hours text templates to get started with.

Follow-up messages

Follow-up messages are some of the easiest to forget but some of the most important to remember. Try one or more of these templates to make follow-ups easier and more consistent: 

Following up on a quote/estimate:

No response after the first text: 

Following up after a demo: 

Following up on an upsell offer: 

Key piece to keep in mind: keep it simple. No need to overthink the follow-up. The goal is to stay top of mind and be available when your client is ready to move forward. 

And yes — follow-up texts can be automated too.

For example, you can set up an automation based on HubSpot property changes. If you move a lead from “contacted” to “needs nurturing,” a follow-up text can go out automatically. .. 

Here’s a workflow automation you can copy:

💡More ways to follow-up: Get 35+ more examples of follow-up texts you can test for any situation. 

Welcome and opt-in messages

Starting on the right foot can make the difference between warm leads going cold or becoming loyal customers. Try implementing one of these welcome or opt-in text messages: 

Confirming opt-in consent: 

Introducing a point of contact: 

Sharing getting-started resources: 

💡Need more ideas for welcome messages? We’ve got you covered with introduction text examples and welcome text templates you can use. 

Feedback request automated text example 

One of the easiest ways to collect more customer feedback and improve customer satisfaction is to automate feedback requests. Many customers do mean to give great feedback, but they need reminders. And remembering to ask directly can fall to the end of your to-do list or even feel awkward. Here’s how to ask for feedback quickly and easily: 

If you want direct feedback: 

If you want feedback through a link: 

Reengagement automated text templates

Have a client or lead go cold? A great text can bring them back. Making this part of your routine can help you get more value from existing or previous clients. Try one of these win-back templates: 

Share a limited-time offer: 

Seasonal check-in: 

Recurring-service nudge: 

Automated text message templates for promotion and loyalty offers 

Text messages can be a great way to increase sales and engagement on promotions and offers. According to data from Klaviyo, 86% o consumers surveyed made two or more purchases in the last year from SMS messages. Try one of these templates: 

General promotion text:

For a loyalty promotion or early access: 

For milestone or anniversary offers: 

Order, delivery, and pickup updates 

A customer who just placed an order or booked a pickup wants to know it went through. Otherwise, they might put in the order again or contact you for updates. Here are some templates you can use to put people’s minds at ease:

Order ready for pickup text template: 

Item shipped text: 

Abandoned cart text template: 

Order confirmations and shipping updates are great texts to automate. You can do this with Shopify + Zapier + Quo, sending the appropriate text based on Shopify order statuses. Here’s an example of a Zap you can copy:

6 Ways to set up automated text messages

Once you have your templates ready, there are several ways to easily send text message automations. We’ll show you how to set up automated text messages in Quo.

1. Automate with Quo’s built-in auto-replies 

Quo lets you set up auto-replies in under a minute. The feature is built in, so you can copy-paste the automated text message examples through your settings.

On the web or desktop app, follow these four steps: 

1. Log in to Quo and select Settings. 
2. Select Workspace.
3. Click Phone Numbers. Choose the number you want to add auto-replies for. 
4. Go to Automations, then scroll to Auto-Replies. Set up custom auto-replies based on any of these triggers during or after business hours:

• Incoming message
• Missed call without a voicemail 
• Missed call with a voicemail 

2. Use scheduled messages 

Scheduled messages are perfect when you have a lower volume of messages to send, but you don’t want to remember to send each one yourself.

Here’s how to schedule texts in Quo: 

1. Go to Quo’s web or desktop app. 
2. Find the conversation you want to schedule a text for. Type or copy-paste the message. 
3. Personalize messages, then click or tap the Clock icon. 
4. Set whether to send the message if the recipient contacts you first or automatically unschedule it if they do. 
5. Set the time to send your message. 

💡Pro tip: Save the text message templates you use often in Quo as snippets. That way, you can easily schedule them using your drop-down snippets list. 

3. Follow up with multiple contacts using AI models 

Thinking of writing the same follow-up to five different customers one at a time? Connect Quo to an AI model, like ChatGPT or Claude, to save time. These can pull each conversation’s context and send a personalized follow-up to everyone who needs one, in a single pass.

Here’s how to set up Quo + Claude: 

1. Open Claude, then go to Customize from the left sidebar. 
2. Click Connectors, then search for and select Quo. 
3. Click Connect, then click Allow on the next screen. 

From there, you can ask Claude to search your Quo data and message history and send texts for you. Sending texts via Claude uses prepaid credits.

For example, here’s a Claude prompt example you could use: 

“Pull my recent messages from [my business phone number]. For anyone I texted in the last 24 hours who hasn’t replied, draft a short, friendly follow-up.”

4. Set up automated text messages using Zapier 

You can use Zapier to combine Quo with other platforms or tools you use. This way, you can automate appointment reminders, confirmations, and other scheduling-based texts based on information created and stored in other platforms. 

Here’s a Zapier example combining Quo + Acuity Scheduling: 

1. Open Zapier and click + Create. 
2. Select Zap workflows.
3. Select Acuity Scheduling as the Trigger App and New Appointment as the Trigger Event. 
4. Add an Action and select Quo. Choose Send a message as the Action Event. Then customize the message that’ll be sent. 

Whenever someone books through Acuity Scheduling, they’ll automatically receive a confirmation text.

If you’re setting up appointment reminders or need some time to pass between an appointment being scheduled and the text going out, add a Delay step. Here’s how:

1. Click on the + sign between the Acuity and Quo steps. 
2. Choose Delay. 
3. Select Delay For and add the delay time you want.
   

Here’s the Zap:

Keep in mind you’ll need a Professional or higher Zapier plan to create multi-step workflows that contain a delay. 

5. Set up automated text messages using Make

Not a Zapier user? You can also set up automated texts using Make. Let’s say you want to send out welcome texts when your customers fill out a web form.

Here’s how to set it up: 

1. Log in to Make and create a new scenario. 
2. Select Typeform as the first module. Choose Watch Responses as the trigger. 
3. Add a Phone Number module and select Parse a phone number to format submitted numbers. 
4. Add a Quo module and select Create a contact. This will save the submitted details to your Quo contacts. 
5. Add another Quo module and select Send a text message (SMS). Then set up the automated text message you want to send. 

6. Automate texts based on more custom triggers using the API

For even more customized workflows, use the Quo API to send text messages. This is a developer tool that lets you trigger a text based on something specific to your setup. You don’t have to rely on Zapier or Make’s list of pre-built triggers. For example, you could:

• Send customer notifications like order updates based on website data
• Send marketing automations like promotional campaigns 
• Send automated feedback requests a certain number of days after a purchase was made

To use it, go to Settings, then API in your Quo workspace. Then, generate an API key. You can use this key to make custom triggers for automated text messages from other events across your tech stack. 

FYI: Messages sent this way are billed at $0.01 per segment from your prepaid Voice & Messaging Balance. 

👀 See how other teams are using Quo’s API to automate texts from HubSpot workflows. 

7 Best practices for automating text messages 

Getting started with automating text messages can feel overwhelming. You don’t want to annoy customers, sound too robotic, or break any rules. Follow these best practices to make sure your automated text messages land well with your customers: 

1. Stay compliant. Make sure you get written consent to send text messages to each contact. Identify your business and include an opt-out option on every automated text. 
2. Keep message frequency manageable. For promotional messages, stick with two to four per month or less. You don’t want to overwhelm or spam customers. 
3. Personalize when possible. Customers are 3.7x more likely to “purchase more than intended when they feel their experience is personalized.” 
4. Keep it short. No one wants to read a wall of text on their phone. Keep text messages around or under 160 characters. 
5. Test workflows internally. Make sure automations are working as expected using your own phone number first. That way, you avoid having to automate a mass “Whoops!” text.
6. Acknowledge the automation. A simple “This is an automated reminder from [company name]” helps set the right expectation for the customer. It can also help them feel less deterred by automated texts.
7. Know when not to automate. If a workflow typically ends with customers requesting to speak to a human, un-automate it. Not every workflow is a good fit for automation. Save your energy for places where customers expect and need real-time conversational messaging. 

Go forth and automate 

Sending an automated text is much more convenient, simple, and fast than sending manual ones — and it improves customer experiences too: 

• It sounds warm, human, and personalized.
• It arrives at the right time with the right information.
• It isn’t forgotten.
• It’s sent from a familiar number the customer already knows.

The right tools make automated texts easy. Even better: tools designed for small and growing businesses, like Quo. They give you everything you need for better SMS marketing and communication without needing a big team. For example:  

• Auto-replies for missed calls, texts, voicemails, or after-hours contacts 
• Scheduled messages for simple automation 
• Shared inboxes and shared numbers for faster replies and more visibility across your teams 
• Claude integration to improve automations with AI 

Ready to get your text message marketing off your plate and into your customer’s phones? Try Quo for free for seven days. 

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