What should a barbershop geofence lock-screen message say?

A geofence message should react to the moment, not repeat the card

A barbershop geofence message should say something that only makes sense because the customer is physically nearby right now — a same-day opening, a quiet chair, a specific stamp reminder — rather than repeating information already visible on the card itself. Geofence puts the message on the customer’s lock screen when their phone is near the branch, Apple Wallet only, with a radius of 50 to 500 meters (150 m default), covering up to 10 branch locations per card, set from the Branches screen rather than from the card’s address text.

Three ready-to-send examples

These lean on immediacy, since a geofence message only fires when someone is already close by.

Character length: the shortest message type on the platform

Geofence messages should run shorter than any other trigger, since they compete with a phone unlocking mid-walk or mid-drive — aim under 80 characters, well below the general 100-character guideline for other triggers. Every example above sits under 60 characters.

• Under 80 characters — shorter than welcome or win-back messages
• Lead with proximity ('near', 'passing by') since that’s the entire premise
• Skip generic calls to action; state exactly what is available right now

Automatic by proximity, not scheduled or manual

Geofence is fundamentally different from every other trigger: it fires automatically based on physical location, not on a schedule or a manual send. There’s no 'when to trigger it manually' question the way there is for a welcome or win-back message — geofence messages only ever fire when a customer’s phone crosses into the set radius.

That also means geofence draws zero message quota, unlike a scheduled campaign, which respects the shop’s working hours and moves to the next open slot if queued outside them.

Set the radius from the right screen

The most common setup mistake is looking for geofence settings on the card’s address field — it lives on the Branches screen instead, and only on Growth and above.

1. Open the Branches screen

   Not the card design screen — geofence is a per-branch setting.

2. Confirm the branch address

   This is separate from setting the geofence radius itself.

3. Set the radius

   Choose between 50 and 500 meters; 150 m is the default.

4. Write the proximity message

   Use one of the three examples above, kept under 80 characters.

5. Repeat for up to 10 branches

   Each branch location can carry its own radius and message.

Best used alongside, not instead of, other triggers

Geofence catches someone who’s nearby right now; it doesn’t replace the welcome and win-back triggers, which handle the signup moment and the lapsed-customer moment respectively. One limit to keep in mind: geofence has no delivery report, so treat it as a proven, cost-free addition rather than something you can measure send-by-send the way you can a campaign.

A quiet-hours use case worth setting up on purpose

Geofence pairs especially well with a shop's slowest weekday afternoons, since it costs nothing to send and reaches exactly the people already near the door. Rather than waiting to notice a midweek lull, set the geofence message specifically for those hours so it's ready before the slow period arrives, not drafted in a rush once the chairs are already empty. Preparing it in advance also means the wording can be tested once and left alone, rather than rewritten under pressure the first time a Tuesday afternoon looks unusually quiet. A mall-adjacent or high-foot-traffic branch location tends to see the biggest lift from this pairing, simply because more phones pass through the radius on an average weekday.