Automatic notifications

💡 Tip

Turn on Confirmation and Reminder to reduce no-shows: the owner remembers the appointment on their own. The owner’s and pet’s birthday notifications are a cheap way to build loyalty, and Follow up brings back anyone who went 15 days without a bath.

Under Settings → Notifications are the Message templates: the messages the system sends to the owner via WhatsApp (most of them automatically, some on demand). The templates come grouped into categories: Appointment, Birthday, Finance and Others, and each one is a card. Almost everything depends on the store having WhatsApp connected (see what changes with the integration).

How to fill your calendar without living on the phone? #

An empty chair is a loss

Every slot lost to a no-show is money that doesn't come back.

“The owner didn't skip on purpose. They just forgot, and no one reminded them.”

Reminding every customer of their slot, confirming the day before, letting them know the pet is ready… in the rush at the counter it doesn't happen, and the calendar gets holes.

Automatic notifications send confirmation, reminder and updates over WhatsApp at the right time, on their own. The owner confirms with one tap and your calendar fills without anyone stopping to call.

~64h/mêssaved (at 20 pets/day)

~96h/mêsat 40 pets/day

1 toquefor the owner to confirm

⚠️ The cost of not using it Every no-show you didn't prevent is an idle chair that could have been generating cash.

Cut my no-shows now → A time estimate that varies with your volume of pets per day.

Behind tecpet

Google Gemini Meta · official API CoEx · you keep your WhatsApp

💼 Backed and supported by Bosa Invest · SC Invest · Sebrae · Unifique · Raja Valley + more

Pet market specialists ASJBRLJSSCTM

Appointment

These are the messages tied to the calendar. Each has its own trigger:

• New appointment: when a service is scheduled in the system (for bookings made on the store page, it goes out if the Enviar “Novo agendamento” pelo WhatsApp switch is on in the link);
• Appointment confirmation: before the slot, asking the owner to confirm (the exact moment is configurable, see “The send moment”);
• Appointment reminder: on the day of the service, a few hours before (only if the appointment was already confirmed);
• Service finished: right when the visit is completed (“come pick up your pet”);
• On receiving the pet: when the pet checks into the establishment;
• On delivering the pet: when the pet is delivered or leaves for delivery;
• Follow up: 15 days after the last bath, offering a new service to whoever disappeared (not sent to plan/package holders).

Birthday

Relationship messages, sent on the date:

• Owner’s birthday: congratulates the owner on their birthday;
• Pet’s birthday: congratulates on the pet’s birthday (requires the date of birth to be filled in on the pet’s record).

For both, you choose the time window for sending.

Finance

Messages tied to billing:

• Send invoice to owner: sends the invoice link over WhatsApp; it is on demand (you trigger it from the invoice, it doesn’t go out on its own);
• Send multiple invoices to owner: bundles several invoice links into one message, also on demand.
• Send payment request via voucher: this template only appears for stores on a specific chain that uses voucher payment; on most accounts it isn’t even shown.

Others

• New owner registration: a welcome message on the day the owner is registered;
• Pet Care activity reminder: warns, the day before, about vaccines, dewormers and other Pet Care applications;
• Media delivery: sends the owner a photo or video recorded in Pet Care; it is on demand.
• Document delivery: sends the owner the link to a Pet Care document (prescription, exam, terms, pathology report, anamnesis or generic document); it is on demand, you trigger it with the Send to owner button on the record itself. If this template is switched off, the button warns you and nothing is sent.

How the card shows the status

Each template’s card shows an Active (green) or Inactive (gray) label, only active ones are sent. For Appointment templates, instead of a single label the card shows one icon per segment (Pet Shop, Clinic and Daycare/Hotel), because each can be on or off separately. There is no switch on the card itself: to turn on, turn off or edit, you click the card and open the editor.

How to edit a template

Click the template’s card to open the editor (Edit notification template). Inside it you have:

• Notification active / inactive: the switch that turns sending of that template on or off;
• The message text: a box where you write what the owner receives. To insert a value that changes on each send, type @ and pick the variable from the list (e.g. Owner’s name, Pet’s name, Appointment date, Appointment time, Invoice link, Establishment name, Checklist, Service guidance). It goes into the text between curly braces, like {NOME_TUTOR}, shows up highlighted and is swapped for the real value at send time. The full list for each template is in The variables of each template;
• Send moment: shows when that template fires (see the next section);
• Some appointment templates also have extra settings, like Pickup & Delivery (send only to those who use the service) and redirection buttons.

At the end, click Save.

The variables of each template

A variable is a code between curly braces that tecpet swaps for each customer’s data at send time: whoever reads Olá {NOME_TUTOR} receives Olá Maria. It’s what makes the same automatic message work for everyone. If you delete the variable and write a fixed word in its place, every customer starts receiving that same word.

The safest way to insert one is to type @ and pick it from the list: it only shows the variables that template accepts. If you’d rather type it, write the code exactly as in the table, with the accents ({NOME_SERVIÇO}, {DATA_SERVIÇO}, {HORARIO_SERVIÇO}, {CICLO_COBRANÇA}, {RAÇA_PET}, {APLICAÇÃO_TIPO}, {APLICAÇÃO_ORIENTAÇÃO}): written without the accent or under another name, the editor won’t let you save and warns that the variable doesn’t exist.

In every template:

In the @ list	Code	What goes into the message
Establishment name	{NOME_ESTABELECIMENTO}	your store’s name
Establishment address	{ENDERECO_ESTABELECIMENTO}	the store’s address
Establishment phone	{TELEFONE_ESTABELECIMENTO}	the store’s phone
Owner’s name	{NOME_TUTOR}	the customer’s name
Owner’s address	{ENDERECO_TUTOR}	the customer’s address (not shown in the Pet Care templates)

In the Appointment templates (New appointment, Confirmation, Reminder, Service finished, On receiving the pet, On delivering the pet and Follow up), in addition to the ones above:

In the @ list	Code	What goes into the message
Pet’s name	{NOME_PET}	the pet’s name
Pet’s breed	{RAÇA_PET}	the pet’s breed
Service name	{NOME_SERVIÇO}	the appointment’s services
Service guidance	{ORIENTAÇÃO_SERVIÇO}	the guidance registered on the services (see the section below)
Service value	{VALOR_SERVIÇO}	the appointment’s value
Appointment date	{DATA_SERVIÇO}	the date, with the day of the week
Appointment date without day of the week	{DATA_CALENDARIO_SERVIÇO}	just the date
Appointment time	{HORARIO_SERVIÇO}	the time
Checklist	{CHECKLIST}	the checklist filled in at that stage (see the section below)
Billing cycle	{CICLO_COBRANÇA}	only on plan or package appointments: Agendamento 2 de 4 do seu Plano ”…” (Appointment 2 of 4 of your Plan ”…”), with an extra notice on the last one of the cycle; on the others it comes out blank
Invoice link	{LINK_FATURA}	the link to the appointment’s invoice
Invoice value	{VALOR_FATURA}	the invoice’s open amount

In the other templates, in addition to the variables of every template:

Template	Own variables
Owner’s birthday, New owner registration	none beyond the ones in every template
Pet’s birthday	{NOME_PET}, {RAÇA_PET}
Send invoice to owner	{LINK_FATURA}, {VALOR_FATURA}
Send multiple invoices to owner	{LINK_FATURA}
Send payment request via voucher	{SALDO_CLIENTE} (Owner’s credit), {LINK_FATURA}, {VALOR_FATURA}
Pet Care activity reminder	{NOME_PET}, {APLICAÇÃO_TIPO}, {APLICAÇÃO_ORIENTAÇÃO} (see below)
Media delivery	{NOME_PET}
Document delivery	{NOME_PET}, {LINK_DOCUMENTO} (Document link)
Quote delivery	{NUMERO_ORCAMENTO}, {LINK_ORCAMENTO}, {VALOR_ORCAMENTO}, {VALIDADE_ORCAMENTO}

Campaign messages have their own variables, explained there.

The message can’t end with a variable

After the last variable, always write some text. If the message ends in {LINK_FATURA}, for example, the editor won’t save and warns: “A mensagem não pode terminar com uma variável. Escreva um texto depois dela (ex.: “Qualquer dúvida, estamos à disposição.”). Pontuação sozinha não resolve, o WhatsApp Oficial recusa modelos assim.” (The message can’t end with a variable. Write some text after it (e.g. “Any questions, we’re here to help.”). Punctuation alone doesn’t fix it, the official WhatsApp rejects templates like that.) A period, exclamation mark, comma or space after the variable doesn’t count: it has to be a word or a sentence.

The Pet Care reminder variables

The Pet Care activity reminder has two variables that come from the application record:

• Pet Care application/activity {APLICAÇÃO_TIPO}: the application’s record name, exactly as you wrote it. Registered it as Antipulgas e carrapatos (Bravecto)? That’s what the owner reads. Registered it as V10? They read V10. That’s why you should use names the owner understands, not internal codes.
• Application guidance {APLICAÇÃO_ORIENTAÇÃO}: the text in the Guidance field of the application’s protocol. Since it’s per protocol, the same vaccine can send one sentence in the puppy protocol and another in the yearly booster. If the protocol has no guidance, the variable comes out blank.

With a single variable, the same message works for vaccines, dewormers and antiparasitics. A ready-to-copy template (the messages go to your customers in Portuguese):

Olá {NOME_TUTOR}, tudo bem? 🐾
Passando para lembrar que chegou a hora do seu pet {NOME_PET} receber {APLICAÇÃO_TIPO}.
{APLICAÇÃO_ORIENTAÇÃO}
É só responder esta mensagem que a gente separa o produto e organiza tudo para você. 💚

For a pet called Chico, with the application registered as Antipulgas e carrapatos (Bravecto), the owner receives:

Olá Maria, tudo bem? 🐾 Passando para lembrar que chegou a hora do seu pet Chico receber Antipulgas e carrapatos (Bravecto). Proteção contra pulgas e carrapatos, com uma dose a cada 3 meses. É só responder esta mensagem que a gente separa o produto e organiza tudo para você. 💚

⚠️ The protocol Guidance goes to the owner

If the template uses {APLICAÇÃO_ORIENTAÇÃO}, whatever is written in the protocol Guidance reaches the owner’s WhatsApp. Don’t use this field for the team’s clinical notes (dose by weight, what to do in case of a reaction, combination with another medicine): write there only the message for the owner.

Enrich the message with the Checklist and the service guidance

Besides the basic data (name, date, time), you can send the owner complementary details of the visit using two keywords:

• Checklist (@ → Checklist), sends, inside the notification text, the checklist the team filled in for that visit. Since the checklist is tied to the appointment stage, the value only goes out if the pet has already reached that stage and the checklist was filled in. Example: when the pet is received (check-in) and the check-in checklist is filled in, if the When the pet is received notification has the Checklist keyword, the filled checklist goes along in the message. The same applies to New appointment, Confirmation, Service finished and When the pet is delivered: each one sends the checklist of its respective stage.
• Service guidance (@ → Service guidance), sends the guidance registered on the services of that appointment (the guidance text you set when creating the service), handy for passing recommendations and care instructions to the owner.

This way the automatic notifications become richer: on top of the alert, they deliver to the owner what was checked on the pet and the service guidance.

💡 Tip

If a stage’s template does not have the Checklist keyword, the filled checklist is not sent: nothing looks broken, it just doesn’t go out in the text. For the owner to receive the checklist, include the keyword in that stage’s notification.

The send moment (lead time)

Each template fires on a fixed trigger (at scheduling, at delivery, on the birthday, on demand, etc.). For some, Confirmation, Reminder, Follow up and the two Birthday ones, you can customize the send moment (the time window and the lead time) inside the editor. This fine-tuning is a feature released by tecpet: if the option appears locked, the system shows a notice with a button to talk to Sales and request it.

By segment (Pet Shop, Clinic, Daycare/Hotel)

If your store works with more than one segment, the Appointment notifications can be turned on/off and have different texts per segment. In the editor of these templates tabs appear (Pet Shop, Clinic, Daycare/Hotel): pick the segment’s tab, adjust the switch and the text, then save. This lets you, for example, keep the reminder only for the Clinic, or use specific wording for the Daycare. The other categories (Birthday, Finance, Others) are not split by segment.

How to prevent sending

Besides turning the whole template off in the editor, there are two blocks, on different screens and with opposite reach:

	Where it is	Who it applies to
Store block	Settings → System → Advanced Settings → Blocked notifications	All customers in that segment
Customer block	Customer profile → General Information → Blocked notifications	A single customer, in every segment

Rule of thumb: a customer asked not to receive it? Block it on their profile. The Advanced Settings block turns the notification off for the whole store in that segment. Birthdays (and some on-demand sends) can only be blocked on the customer profile.

When the block is checked

• Customer block: for Confirmation and Reminder, it’s checked at send time: if you removed the block before, the message goes out; if you blocked after the appointment was booked, it’s canceled. The other types are checked when the notification is created (and again at send time).
• Store block: it’s checked when the notification is created. Whatever was already scheduled before the block keeps going out; whatever wasn’t created during the block doesn’t come back on its own when you unblock. When you save the unblock, tecpet offers to reprocess the Confirmations and Follow ups of future appointments.

Check whether the notification was sent

▶️ tecpet School video lesson (in Portuguese): A notificação não chegou: o que conferir

To find out what happened to a notification, use the Notifications panel, under Dashboard → Notifications panel. It lists the store’s notifications with each one’s status:

• Awaiting send: it’s scheduled and will still go out;
• Canceled: it won’t go out anymore; the row shows the reason (for example, the customer has that type blocked);
• Not sent: it tried to go out and failed.

If an appointment has no notification of that type in the panel, it was never created (for example, the template was turned off or the store block was active when the appointment was booked). In that case, unblocking or reactivating doesn’t create that appointment’s message on its own: see the reprocessing in When the block is checked.

When the store uses the official WhatsApp API (Meta)

If the store is on the official Meta API, each template needs a Meta-approved template. In that case the card shows the template’s status: Approved, Pending, Rejected or No Meta template (when it hasn’t been linked yet). Templates without an approved template can’t be sent, choose/link the approved template inside the editor before relying on the send.

⚠️ Heads up

Most notifications go out via WhatsApp, so the store must have WhatsApp connected for them to arrive. Send invoice and Media delivery are on demand: they don’t go out on their own: you trigger them, from the invoice or from Pet Care.

🚫 Caution

When you change a template’s text, keep the variables (the highlighted markers, like {NOME_TUTOR} and {DATA_SERVIÇO}). Deleting one makes the message arrive without the real value in its place, and swapping a variable for a fixed word makes every customer receive the same word: whoever swaps {APLICAÇÃO_TIPO} for “deworm”, for example, starts sending “time to deworm” even in the vaccine reminder. When in doubt, check the template’s variable list.