Overview
With Boulevard Messages, your business can deliver a premium, personal client communication experience through:
Centralized Messages inbox with two-way texting and conversation history
Client notification texts (confirmations, reminders, receipts, rating requests, auto-responses)
Dedicated phone number unique to your location (with optional call forwarding and Caller ID)
Setup
To use text messaging features above, you’ll need to set up a dedicated phone number unique to your location.
This number is used to send and receive all client texts, ensuring consistency and allowing clients to reply.
Only staff with the “Register phone number” privilege can set up a number, which can be done via Messages, Client Notifications, or Marketing.
Usage rates apply for all sent and received text segments (two-way texting, client notification texts, and text marketing blasts).
User privileges
Below is a list of privilege groups associated with using Message features.
Privilege | Description |
Register phone number | Ability to create a dedicated phone number. |
View messages | Ability to read text messages from clients in the “Messages” inbox. |
Send messages | Ability to send text messages to clients from the “Messages” inbox. |
Away message | Ability to set an away status and away message from the “Messages” inbox. "Send messages" privilege is required to enable "Away message" privilege. |
View and edit client notifications | Ability to view and manage client notification settings, including setup of appointment confirmations & reminders, receipts, rating requests, and after-hours auto-responses. |
You can learn more about privilege groups and default behavior here.
Using the Messages Inbox
Once your location’s dedicated phone number has been set up, the Messages inbox offers a centralized view of all client text conversations. Here, you can manage ongoing two-way texts, easily reference client profiles and appointment details, and view text conversation history.
All texts sent through your dedicated number will show in client conversation history, including client notifications and text marketing blasts.
Click the Messages tab at the top of the screen to open your inbox. Toggle between open and closed conversations. When you’ve got an unread text, the Messages tab will indicate this with a number icon displaying unread message count.
Send a text from Messages
Send a new message by clicking “New message’ in the top right, or reply to an existing message by selecting the existing client text conversation thread.
Click “Send” to keep the conversation open, or “Send and close” to send the message and close the conversation.
You can manually mark a conversation closed by clicking the checkbox at the top right of the conversation.
Note:
All completed conversations can be manually marked as closed by selecting the check box at the top right of the conversation.
Message threads will auto close if:
A new message thread was created when sending an automated client notification
There is an existing message thread already in a closed state
All other threads will be left open after automated reminders go out
Messages Conversation View
Click a conversation from the Open or Closed inbox to enter the conversation view. Here, you can reply to a client, reference their client profile, view conversation history, and add internal notes.
To reference a client’s profile in Messages, click the client thread, and click their name at the top of the conversation view to see client details.
To add an internal note to conversation, click the note icon at the top right of the conversation view. This note will be visible solely to your team—the client will not see this. Hover over the note to see who created it and when.
Messages Away Status and Away Message
Stepping away from the front desk temporarily? Change your Messages status to “Away”. Customize the away message and duration of your away status. Clients who text in during this time period will receive your automated away response. A banner will appear indicating your away status is set. Usage rates apply for away messages.
Note: Only staff with the “Away message” privilege can view, enable, or modify your active/away status and away message. This is enabled for admins and location managers by default. You can manage staff access to this privilege by navigating to Manage Business > Privilege Groups and scrolling down to Messages > Away message.
To modify your away message or duration, click “Settings”. When your away status duration has ended, your Messages status will switch back to “Active”. You can also manually end your away status by clicking “End now”.
After-hours auto responses
If you turn on after-hours auto responses in Client Notifications, clients will receive automated replies if they text in outside your location’s business hours you've specified in Settings.
Set up after-hours replies by clicking the three dot menu in Messages, or directly from Manage location > Client Notifications > Auto-responses. Usage rates apply.
If after-hours response texts are on, Messages inbox will show a banner indicating after-hours auto responses are being sent to clients until you reopen. The Messages status indicator will also update to “After-hours”.
Clients will not receive more than one after-hours auto-response within a 12 hour window. As this is an ongoing automated response, this status cannot be modified while your business is in after-hours mode. If you wish to disable after-hours, you can do so in Manage Location>Client Notifications or click “Settings” in the after-hours Messages banner.
Using Messages within Client Profiles
Once in the Client Profile, click the Messages tab. The chat dialogue with that individual client appears in a similar layout as the general Messages feature.
You can also click on the messages icon in the top right corner of the client profile. A modal opens, allowing you to quickly text the client.
Caller ID
When clients call your dedicated phone number Boulevard will open a Caller ID card making it easy to see important client details before answering the phone.
Clients must call your dedicated phone number for Caller ID to appear. Don’t forget to update your phone number on your website, Instagram, Facebook, Google, Yelp, and any other places you list your number.
For more information on incoming phone calls, see the Caller ID support article.
Message Settings
Settings for Messages can be found under Manage > Details > Messages. By default, we set up your booking line number to be forwarded to your business phone. We also enable caller ID and enable notifications in the dashboard for incoming text messages.
Client Notifications
Client Notifications empower your business to reduce no-shows and engage your clients through every step of their appointment journey through automated, customizable notifications like:
Booking confirmation text
Appointment reminder texts
Order receipt texts
Rating request texts
Auto-responses (after-hours texts)
Manage these in the Client Notifications section, found at the location level under Manage > Client Notifications. Client notification texts are sent from your location’s dedicated phone number, and will appear in Messages conversation history.
Text Blast Campaigns
Text marketing blasts allow you to reach specific client audiences with targeted marketing promotions. A dedicated number is required to send text blasts. These can be set up and sent from the Marketing tab, and will appear in Messages conversation history.
SMS Delivery Errors
Occasional issues may occur with delivery including downstream issues with the client’s carrier, issues with the message format, or an invalid recipient phone number. In the event of a message delivery failure, you will see an indicator alongside the affected message.
The message itself will be flagged in red within the conversation window to indicate a failed delivery. By hovering over the tooltip, you’ll be able to see the cause of the delivery failure and a recommended action to resolve the issue.
Check out the Message Delivery Errors for common error types and explanations.