SMS reminders for Australian tutoring lessons

In Etisia, yes: during setup you confirm that you have permission to text the people you remind, so tell them at booking that you'll text a reminder. If someone asks to stop, mark them as opted out in Etisia Contacts. Tutors should be clear about how they use mobile numbers for appointment reminders and should handle personal information appropriately. If your business is covered by the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles are relevant, including collection, notice, use and security of personal information. A practical approach is to mention SMS reminders in your booking terms, privacy notice or intake process and give people a way to update their preferences. OAIC guidance on the Australian Privacy Principles

Keep reminders simple: business name, appointment date, time and cancellation link. Avoid marks, subject struggles, exam results, disability support details, family circumstances, payment problems or anything that could reveal private education information if another person sees the phone.

A common setup is one reminder the day before and another shorter reminder on the day of the lesson. For after-school tutoring, some businesses send the same-day reminder a few hours before the session so parents and students can plan transport and materials.

Yes, if you turn on the cancellation link. The parent, guardian or student opens the link, enters the mobile number the reminder went to and cancels the lesson. Etisia removes it from your Google Calendar and emails you, so nobody has to call while you are teaching. The link only cancels: to move a lesson, they contact you.

No. Etisia is not a full tutoring management platform, learning management system or payment system. It works with Google Calendar and adds automated SMS appointment reminders, cancellation links and optional review or feedback requests.

Yes. A tutoring centre can use separate Google Calendars for different tutors, rooms, online sessions, subjects or locations, depending on the Etisia plan and calendar setup. This is useful when admin staff manage several diaries at once.

Yes. Etisia can send a review request after lessons with a reminder. Do not ask for "5-star reviews" and do not offer incentives. Google says reviews should reflect genuine experiences and prohibits incentives such as free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews. Google Business Profile review guidance

Promotional SMS should be treated more carefully than appointment reminders. ACMA guidance says commercial electronic messages should have consent, identify the sender and make it easy to unsubscribe. Etisia sends Australian texts from a number with your business name at the start, so the SMS Sender ID Register only matters if you text from another service under your own name. ACMA spam guidance ACMA SMS Sender ID Register

Etisia sends automatic SMS appointment reminders from your Google Calendar. After a one-time setup, you keep booking in Google Calendar as usual, with the client’s mobile number in the appointment. You don’t open Etisia each time you book.

Your clients get an ordinary text message: no app and no account. Etisia isn’t a booking system, so clients keep booking with you the way they do now.

Probably not, if your booking system already texts your clients. Etisia is for businesses that keep their appointments in Google Calendar, and for those still using pen and paper.

Still using pen and paper? Etisia is an easy first step. Keep your appointments in a free Google Calendar and write the client’s full name in each one, plus their mobile number the first time. That’s all Etisia needs, and your calendar gets tidier for it: every appointment shows who’s coming. The reminders go out in the background, so there’s nothing to open or send each day.

If your booking tool copies appointments into Google Calendar with the client’s mobile number in the event title, description or location, Etisia can send reminders from those events. Switch off the tool’s own text reminders, so clients don’t get two.

There is no direct connection to booking systems: Etisia only reads Google Calendar.