How to Schedule a Text or Email for Later

The customer said text me Thursday. Write it now, set Thursday at ten, and move on to the next customer. The CRM sends it on time, and the Scheduled Messages panel shows it until it goes.

1. Open the customer's conversation

   For a text, click Messaging in the main menu and open the customer's thread. For an email, open the Email Inbox and open the customer's conversation. You can also start from the lead record: its Scheduled tab for texts, emails or voicemail drops lists what is already waiting for that customer and has its own button to schedule a new one.

2. Click the schedule button in the conversation header

   In a text thread, click the clock button whose tooltip reads Schedule TEXT Follow-up; the Messaging Automation window opens. In an email conversation, click the button whose tooltip reads Schedule Email; the Email Automation window opens. The top line of the window reads To with the customer's name, and the customer's phone or email is already filled in.

3. Set Send at first

   Send at is the first field in the window, and every scheduled message needs one. Pick the day and time in the picker, or click a quick time under it: In 1 hour, Tomorrow 9 AM, Tomorrow 2 PM or Monday 9 AM. Times follow the dealership's clock, so a rep working from another time zone still schedules on store time. If the time is missing or already past, the window keeps your message and asks for a time ahead.

4. Write the message

   Pick a saved template to fill the message, or type your own. For an email, fill in the Subject as well. In the text window the vehicle button drops a unit from your inventory into the message with its photos and price, the paperclip attaches a file, and the AI writing assistant can draft or tidy the wording for you.

5. Schedule it

   Click Schedule Text or Schedule Email at the bottom of the window. The line under the button is a reminder that this window only schedules: to send right now, use Send a Text or Send an Email instead. The message waits and goes out at the time you set, from the store's texting number or email address.

6. Schedule a voicemail drop the same way

   In a text thread, click the button whose tooltip reads Schedule Voicemail. The Voicemail Automation window opens with the customer's phone filled in. Choose one of your recordings from the Template list, set Send at, and click Schedule Voicemail. The recording is left for the customer at that time.

7. Check or cancel it in Scheduled Messages

   Click the clock at the top of Messaging, the Email Inbox or Call Logs to open the Scheduled Messages panel. Find the message by customer, phone, email or words, open the row to read it, and use Edit to change the time or wording, Send now to send it early, or Cancel to stop it. The customer never sees a cancelled message.

You need a login to the desktop LeadLocate CRM and a customer with a mobile number for a text, an email address for an email, or both. Scheduling works from the conversation screens you already use: the two way texting inbox under Messaging and the email inbox and composer under Email. For a scheduled voicemail drop, record your voicemail first so it is ready to choose in the window; how to drop a voicemail covers the recording.

Saved templates make scheduling faster. If your store has written its follow up messages as templates, pick one in the window and adjust a word or two. The car sales follow up templates for call, text and email page is a good place to borrow wording from.

In LeadLocate CRM, scheduling is built into the conversation rather than hidden in a separate tool. A rep who hears try me Thursday morning schedules the text while the customer is still on the line, and it goes out Thursday morning whether the rep is at a desk, on the lot or off that day. Texts, emails and voicemail drops all use the same kind of window, with Send at first and the message below it.

Scheduling one message for one customer is different from a drip that runs on every lead. For a multi step sequence by lead type, use Follow Up Processes; for the text that fires the moment a lead arrives, use Automated Templates, both described on the Text Automation page. Use a scheduled send when a person promised a person something at a particular time. All of them land in the same queue, which the scheduled messages page explains in full.

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The clock at the top of Messaging, the Email Inbox and Call Logs opens Scheduled Messages, a panel that slides in from the right with every text, email and voicemail drop waiting to go out. Tabs split it into All, Texts, Emails and Voicemails, and filters narrow it by status, by who wrote it (a person, a follow up sequence, AI Follow-Up or an appointment confirmation) and by date. Each row shows the customer, the time it goes out and a status such as Scheduled, Sending, Sent or Delivered.

Open a row and you read every word, who scheduled it and any change made since. From there you can edit the time or the wording, send it now, or cancel it. To clear several at once, tick the rows and cancel them together; each customer's record gets a note of what was cancelled. A message to a number on the store's Do Not Call list shows Will not send, so nothing goes to a customer who asked the store to stop.

What the panel lists follows the access your manager set for you. A salesperson sees the messages they scheduled and the messages waiting for customers assigned to them. A manager with Whole Team View checked on their Access Control card sees the whole store's queue, with a menu to switch between Everyone, Mine and one teammate at a time, which is how a sales manager checks what is going out over the weekend or what a rep left waiting before a day off.

Whole Team View is one checkmark among many on each person's Access Control card in User Management; the user access and permissions page explains how a manager sets what each person can open. When a rep leaves, the handover to a successor keeps their customers covered.

After you click Schedule Text or Schedule Email, the window closes and the message appears under Coming up on the lead's Scheduled tab and in Scheduled Messages. When the time arrives, it goes out and appears in the thread like any other message you send: a text with its delivery status under the bubble, an email in the email conversation. It also lands on the lead's communication timeline, so anyone who opens the lead sees what was sent and when. If the customer replies, the reply arrives in the same thread and your normal reply alert tells you.

Check the To line before you schedule. The window fills it from the conversation, so starting from the right thread is the whole trick.

Pick a time the customer will welcome. The time the customer asked for is always right. Otherwise choose a normal hour of their day, and remember that a customer in another time zone reads the message on their clock.

Give emails a subject. A scheduled email with a clear Subject gets opened; one that says follow up gets filed.

Keep the message current. Prices and availability can change between today and the send date. Mention the vehicle and invite the conversation, and let the rep who answers the reply confirm the numbers.

Plans change. If the customer comes in before the message goes, open Scheduled Messages and cancel it, so they are not asked to visit the day after they bought.

Sending a text right now is covered in how to text a customer, and a vehicle in a message in how to send a vehicle in a text. Messages to a whole list at once are covered in how to send a bulk text and how to send a bulk email. Every other guide is in the Help Center, and the LeadLocate CRM page shows where scheduling fits in the rest of the system.

Can you schedule a text message in LeadLocate?

Yes. Open the customer's thread in Messaging, click the button with the tooltip Schedule TEXT Follow-up, set Send at, write the message and click Schedule Text. It goes out at that time from the store's texting number.

How do I schedule an email to send later?

Open the conversation in the Email Inbox and click the button with the tooltip Schedule Email. The Email Automation window opens: set Send at, add a subject and message, and click Schedule Email.

Can I schedule a voicemail drop too?

Yes. In a text thread, click Schedule Voicemail. In the Voicemail Automation window, choose one of your recordings, set Send at and click Schedule Voicemail. The recording is left for the customer at that time.

How do I cancel or change a scheduled message?

Click the clock at the top of Messaging, the Email Inbox or Call Logs to open Scheduled Messages, find the message and open its row. Edit changes the time or the words, Send now sends it early, and Cancel stops it. You can also cancel from the Scheduled tab on the lead.

Can a manager see what the whole team has scheduled?

Yes, with Whole Team View checked on their Access Control card. They see every scheduled text, email and voicemail drop in the store and can switch between Everyone, Mine and one teammate. Without it, a person sees their own messages and the ones waiting for their customers.

Where does a scheduled message show after it sends?

In the customer's text or email conversation, like any message you send, on the lead's communication timeline, and as Sent or Delivered in Scheduled Messages, so the whole team sees what went out and when.

Scheduled texts, emails and voicemail drops come with LeadLocate CRM on a month to month plan. Watch the recorded demo and schedule a message the way your reps will.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.