In shift-based industries, no-shows are expensive. A driver who doesn't show up means a route doesn't get covered, customers are unhappy, and managers spend their morning scrambling for replacements. The root cause is usually simple: employees forget, or they didn't realize the shift was confirmed.
We built a 3-stage confirmation system that escalates automatically — and the results have been dramatic.
Stage 1: Initial SMS
When a schedule is finalized, every assigned employee receives an SMS immediately:
"Hey Sarah! Hope you're doing well. You have a Morning Shift scheduled for tomorrow (Jan 15). Can you make it? Reply YES or NO to confirm or decline. — Arya"
The message is personalized with the employee's first name, the shift name, and the date formatted naturally ("tomorrow", "this Monday", etc.) based on the organization's timezone. Custom SMS templates are supported for organizations that want their own wording.
Stage 2: Follow-up SMS
If the employee doesn't respond within 30 minutes, a follow-up is sent:
"Hey Sarah, just a friendly reminder about your Morning Shift tomorrow. Can you confirm? Reply YES or NO. — Arya"
If the employee has multiple pending confirmations (multiple shifts assigned), the messages are queued — one at a time — so employees aren't overwhelmed with simultaneous requests.
Stage 3: Voice Call
If there's still no response after 60 minutes, Arya places a Twilio voice call:
"Hey Sarah, how are you doing today? I wanted to let you know there's a Morning Shift from 6 AM to 2 PM scheduled for you tomorrow. Can you make it? Press 1 if yes, or 2 if not. — Arya"
The call uses DTMF (touch-tone) response capture. Press 1 to confirm, press 2 to decline. The response is processed immediately and the schedule is updated in real-time.
The Mobile App Shortcut
Employees with the Sluble mobile app receive a push notification instead of the initial SMS. If they respond in the app, the SMS and call are skipped entirely. This reduces notification fatigue and improves response rates — most app users confirm within minutes of the push notification.
Auto Re-optimization on No Response
If an employee doesn't respond after the voice call, the confirmation request expires. The OR-Tools solver re-optimizes the schedule for that day automatically — finding the best available replacement given all constraints. The replacement employee receives their own confirmation request immediately. No manager intervention required.
Results
- 60% reduction in no-show rate across customers using the full 3-stage system
- 80% of confirmations received before Stage 3 (voice call)
- Near-zero manual intervention for schedule changes
- Invalid phone numbers detected automatically with admin email alerts