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Customers & Automation

Engage

Engage

Reach your clients with targeted SMS and email campaigns, automate follow-ups and reminders, and manage two-way conversations from a unified inbox — all from one place inside OpenChair.

Where to find it — Web: Sidebar → Engage (expands to show Inbox, Campaigns, Automations). Mobile: More → Engage.

Overview

Engage is OpenChair's unified communications hub. It lets you:

  • Send targeted email and SMS campaigns to customer segments (all clients, recent visitors, inactive clients, VIPs, high spenders, or custom audiences)
  • Manage a two-way SMS inbox with a dedicated phone number for your venue (Australia and UK)
  • Set up automations that run in the background — appointment reminders, post-visit reviews, welcome messages, birthday greetings, rebooking nudges, reconnect campaigns, and more
  • Use quick-reply templates to respond to customer messages faster
  • Track delivery, open rates, and click rates on every campaign
  • Monitor SMS and email usage against your monthly allocation with overage alerts at 80%

Note

Engage availability depends on your plan and country. In Australia and the United Kingdom, Engage is a paid add-on to the PRO plan. In New Zealand, email campaigns and automations are included in the PRO subscription (there is no paid Engage add-on for NZ) — SMS is not available. FREE venues cannot access Engage features.

What's included

Engage has four main areas, accessible as tabs on the Engage page:

Inbox

A unified inbox for all customer conversations — SMS replies, email responses, campaign interactions, and booking-related messages in one place.

  • View and reply to customer messages
  • Filter by zone: Needs attention, AI handling, Resolved, All
  • Filter by channel: All, Email, SMS (if you have a dedicated number)
  • Mark conversations as read or unread
  • Use quick-reply templates for common responses

The inbox requires a dedicated phone number (Australia and UK only). It appears in the sidebar with an unread count badge.

Campaigns

Create and send bulk email or SMS campaigns to your customers.

  • Choose your audience: all clients, recent visitors, inactive clients, VIPs, high spenders, or a custom audience
  • Compose email campaigns with subject lines and rich content
  • Compose SMS campaigns with character-counted messages
  • Schedule campaigns for future delivery or send immediately
  • Send test messages before launching
  • Track delivery, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes

Automations

Set up automated messages that trigger based on customer activity or dates.

Booking updates (system messages):

  • Booking confirmation — sent when a booking is created (always on)
  • Appointment reminder — configurable hours before the appointment (1, 2, 4, 12, 24, or 48 hours)
  • Rescheduled update — sent when a booking is rescheduled (always on)
  • Cancelled appointment — sent when a booking is cancelled
  • No-show follow-up — sent after a customer no-shows
  • Post-visit review — sent after a booking is completed, with optional aftercare message

Growth automations:

  • Welcome message — sent to new customers after their first booking (configurable delay: immediately, 1 hour, or 24 hours)
  • New client follow-up — sent after a first-time customer's appointment
  • Birthday message — sent a configurable number of days before the customer's birthday
  • Rebooking nudge — sent a configurable number of days after the customer's last visit
  • Client reconnect — multi-wave outreach to inactive customers (configurable inactivity period: 7–365 days)
  • Loyalty milestone — sent when a customer reaches a visit count milestone

Each automation can send via email or SMS (where available) and can be toggled on or off by the venue Owner.

Quick-reply templates

Pre-written message snippets that you can use when replying to customers in the inbox. Create, edit, and reorder templates to speed up your responses.

Availability by country

Engage features vary by market:

Feature Australia United Kingdom New Zealand
SMS inbox Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (Engage add-on) Not available
SMS campaigns Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (Engage add-on) Not available
Email campaigns Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (included with PRO)
Automations Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (included with PRO)
Dedicated phone number Yes (Engage add-on) Yes (Engage add-on) Not available

New Zealand venues get email campaigns and automations as part of the PRO subscription at no extra cost. SMS features are not available in New Zealand.

Pricing

Australia and United Kingdom

Engage is a monthly add-on to your PRO subscription:

Country Engage add-on price
Australia A$15/month
United Kingdom £9.95/month

The Engage add-on is billed on the same cycle as your PRO subscription. It requires an active PRO subscription — you cannot subscribe to Engage on the FREE plan.

New Zealand

There is no separate Engage add-on. Email campaigns and automations are included in the PRO subscription.

Monthly allocations

Each Engage subscription includes a monthly allocation of SMS and email sends. Usage resets each billing period.

Transactional messages

Transactional messages are booking confirmations, reminders, and other system-generated messages sent to individual customers.

Channel Per seat Maximum per venue
SMS (AU/UK) 50/month 350/month
Email (AU/UK/NZ) 100/month 700/month

Campaign messages

Campaign messages are bulk sends to customer audiences.

Channel Monthly allocation
SMS (AU/UK, Engage only) 200/month
Email (AU/UK Engage or NZ PRO) 2,000/month

What happens when you exceed your allocation

Sends continue without interruption — overages are charged against your venue's prepaid wallet balance at the following rates:

Channel Australia United Kingdom New Zealand
SMS A$0.06 per SMS £0.04 per SMS Not available
Email A$0.002 per email £0.001 per email NZ$0.003 per email

At 80% usage, an in-app notification warns you: "Your [campaign SMS/email] allocation is 80% used this month." This gives you time to top up your wallet if needed.

Tip

Keep your wallet topped up to avoid any interruption in automated messages. Overage charges are small (fractions of a cent per email), but a zero wallet balance means sends may not be charged correctly.

Getting started with Engage

For Australian and UK venues

  1. Go to Engage in the sidebar (web) or More → Engage (mobile).
  2. The Engage upsell card appears with the message "Unlock two-way messaging" and a list of what's included.
  3. Click "Activate Engage — [price]" to add Engage to your existing PRO subscription.
    • If you are on a PRO trial without a Stripe subscription, click "Subscribe to Pro + Activate Engage" to set up both in one step via Stripe Checkout.
  4. After subscribing, you are prompted to provision a dedicated phone number for SMS.
  5. Click "Provision Number" to receive an Australian or UK phone number.
  6. Your inbox, campaigns, and automations tabs are now fully active.

For New Zealand venues

  1. Upgrade to PRO if you have not already.
  2. Go to Engage in the sidebar (web) or More → Engage (mobile).
  3. Email campaigns and automations are immediately available — no separate activation needed.
  4. SMS features are not available in New Zealand.

Provisioning a phone number

A dedicated phone number lets your venue send and receive SMS messages. Numbers are provisioned through Twilio and are available in Australia and the United Kingdom.

  • Provision: From the Engage settings or the setup flow after subscribing, click "Provision Number". A local phone number is assigned to your venue.
  • Release: If you cancel your Engage subscription, your phone number enters a grace period until the end of your billing period, then is released automatically.

Only one number can be provisioned per venue.

Cancelling Engage

  1. Go to Settings → Billing on web.
  2. Find the Engage add-on and click Cancel.
  3. The Engage subscription is cancelled at the end of your current billing period.
  4. During the remaining period, your number stays active (grace period).
  5. After the period ends, your dedicated phone number is released and SMS features become unavailable.

Email campaigns and automations stop being accessible after cancellation (AU/UK). Your campaign history and conversation data are retained.

Consent and compliance

Engage respects customer communication preferences:

  • SMS marketing consent — only customers who have opted in receive SMS campaigns. Consent is tracked per customer.
  • Email hard bounces — email addresses that bounce are automatically suppressed from future sends.
  • Blocked customers — customers you have blocked do not receive any Engage messages.
  • Reconnect opt-out — customers can opt out of reconnect campaigns specifically.
  • Unsubscribe links — all marketing emails include a signed unsubscribe link. Unsubscribes are tracked and honoured automatically.

Role access

Action Owner Manager Stylist
View Engage dashboard Yes Yes Yes
View inbox and reply to messages Yes Yes Yes
Create and send campaigns Yes Yes No
Toggle automations on/off Yes No No
Configure automation settings Yes No No
Subscribe to / cancel Engage Yes No No
Provision or release phone number Yes No No
Manage quick-reply templates Yes Yes No

Platform differences

Feature Web Mobile
Navigation Sidebar → Engage (expandable: Inbox, Campaigns, Automations) More → Engage (segmented control: Inbox, Campaigns, Automations)
Engage upsell Upsell card on Overview tab with subscribe sheet Settings page with description and link to web
Provision flow Modal sheet (step-by-step: subscribe → provision → done) Inline button in Engage settings card
Inbox layout Full-width conversation list + detail FlashList with master-detail on iPad
Campaign list Table with metric cards FlashList with status filter pills
Automations Card grid (scrollable sections) Two-column grid on iPad, vertical stack on phone
Usage monitoring Allocation warning banner (dismissible) Allocation warning banner + usage bars in settings
Settings access Settings → Communications Header settings icon → /engage/settings
Sidebar badge Unread count on Inbox sub-item Unread count on Engage in More sheet

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Engage tab shows an upgrade prompt Engage requires a PRO subscription. FREE venues cannot access Engage features. Upgrade to PRO first, then activate the Engage add-on (AU/UK) or access email campaigns directly (NZ).
Cannot find the Engage add-on option The Engage add-on is only available for Australian and UK venues. New Zealand venues get email campaigns and automations as part of PRO — there is no separate add-on to subscribe to.
SMS features not available SMS is only available in Australia and the United Kingdom. New Zealand venues do not have access to SMS features, including the inbox and SMS campaigns. On the Engage settings screen (mobile), NZ venues see an "Email-only market" message.
"Activate Engage" button not working Ensure you have an active PRO subscription with Stripe. If you are on a free trial without a payment method, you may need to use the "Subscribe to Pro + Activate Engage" option, which creates a Stripe Checkout session for both.
No phone number after subscribing to Engage After subscribing, you need to provision a phone number separately. Look for the "Provision Number" button in the Engage setup flow or under Engage settings (mobile).
80% allocation warning appearing This is a notification that you have used 80% of your monthly SMS or email allocation. Messages continue sending, but overages are charged from your wallet. Top up your wallet to ensure continued delivery.
Campaigns tab shows no send options Check that you have the correct Engage features for your country. AU/UK venues need an active Engage subscription. NZ venues can send email campaigns with PRO but cannot send SMS campaigns.
Customer did not receive a campaign message Check that the customer has not unsubscribed, is not blocked, has a valid email address (not hard-bounced), and has SMS marketing consent (for SMS campaigns). Campaign recipients must meet all consent criteria.
Automations not triggering Ensure the automation is toggled on (Owner access required). Check that the automation channel (email or SMS) is available in your country. Automations require Engage (AU/UK) or PRO (NZ).

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Last updated: March 2026