Calendly SMS reminders: what Calendly sends, what it does not, and how to get two-way replies

What Calendly sends today

Calendly can send a text message to the person who booked, usually as a reminder before the meeting. You set it up as a Workflow. According to Calendly’s help page on text messages in Workflows, this works on the Professional, Standard, Standard Plus, Teams, Teams Plus and Enterprise plans. The same page says you cannot send text reminders during the trial period.

The text comes from a number that Calendly picks for you. The page says the sending number is assigned automatically and you cannot choose or change it. It is not your cell phone number, and it is not a number your client will recognise.

The gap: nobody hears the reply

Here is the part that catches people out. Calendly’s help page says, in so many words, that replies from invitees are not delivered or monitored.

Think of it like a note slipped under a door with no one home. Your client reads the reminder and answers “can we push to 3?” or “running 10 minutes late”. The phone shows the message as sent. The client believes they told you. You never see it, because the number they wrote back to has no inbox behind it. You find out when the slot sits empty.

This is not a setting you missed. There is no Workflows option to route those replies to you.

What NoShowText does differently

NoShowText sits next to Calendly instead of replacing it. You keep booking the way you do now. NoShowText reads your Calendly bookings and sends the reminders itself.

• Reminders go out 24 hours and 2 hours before the appointment, between 8am and 9pm in the client’s time.
• Every text starts with “NoShowText for” and your business name, so the client knows who it is from.
• Clients can reply C to confirm, R to reschedule or X to cancel. They can also write in plain words.
• Every reply lands on your phone, with the client’s name and the appointment attached. You answer by text, and your words go back to the client.
• A reschedule sends your own booking link. A question is passed straight to you. The assistant never pretends to be a person and never answers for you.

Set it up in 5 minutes

1. Start the free trial on the NoShowText site and sign in with Calendly.
2. Copy the one consent sentence we give you (your business name is filled in) into your booking form. Typing a number next to that sentence is the client’s permission to be texted.
3. In Calendly, open Workflows and switch off the text step, so clients get one reminder, not two. Leave the email steps alone if you like them.
4. Text yourself a sample from the site to see exactly what your clients will see.
5. That is it. New bookings are picked up automatically.

Price

$39 a month, flat. The first 14 days are free. A card is required to start, and you can cancel any time. There is no per-reminder count.

When Calendly alone is enough

If you only want a one-way nudge and you do not mind replies disappearing, Calendly’s built-in text step does that job on a paid plan. The reason to add NoShowText is the reply: if clients answer your reminders, you want to read the answers.