Updated October 2026
If your firm runs on Clio Manage, tomorrow's consults are already on the Clio calendar, and most of them are linked to a matter. The client's name and cell number sit on that matter too. Even so, someone at the front desk probably spends part of each afternoon calling tomorrow's clients, leaving voicemails and hoping they stick. When a client forgets anyway, the attorney loses an hour that almost never gets filled on short notice. (We worked out what a missed consult actually costs if you want the numbers.)
A text the day before does most of that job for you. ClientPing connects to your Clio calendar, reads the entries you've already booked, and texts the client on each entry's matter. The client replies YES or NO, and the answer shows up in the entry's title in Clio. Here's how it's set up, where the phone number comes from, and one consult followed from booking to CONFIRMED.
You create a ClientPing account, fill in your business details and choose Clio. ClientPing sends you to Clio's own sign-in page, where you approve access. It works with Clio accounts on Clio's US region, the ones you reach at app.clio.com.
Next you choose which calendar to watch. Each pick adds one calendar, so a firm that wants both the attorney's calendar and a shared firm calendar goes through the step twice. ClientPing then shows your next five days of entries so you can confirm the times are right for your timezone.
The last step is a short set of reminder questions. You decide whether to remind for only your own entries or all of them, and how many days ahead to send (anywhere from 1 to 31). You also choose whether ClientPing should update entry titles in Clio, whether clients are asked to reply YES or NO, whether a client who declines gets a link to pick a new time, and which email address hears about replies.
From then on, ClientPing checks your calendar every hour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central. Texts go out from a local number that belongs only to your firm, and calls to that number can forward to your front desk.
With Clio, nobody has to type anything extra into the calendar entry. ClientPing looks at the matter linked to the entry, finds the client on that matter, and texts the primary phone number on that client's Clio contact.
A few things follow from that, and they're the ones that trip people up.
An entry with no linked matter gets no text. Neither does an entry whose matter's client has no phone number. That means internal meetings, staff lunches and blocked-off time are skipped without any setup, which is usually what you want.
Because every linked client with a phone number gets the text, make sure your clients have agreed to hear from you by text. A line in your intake form or engagement letter asking for a cell number for appointment texts is the usual way to get that in writing.
A phone number typed into the entry title is ignored. If your staff write "Jane Roe 605-555-0142" in the title out of habit, it does no harm, but it doesn't do anything either. The number on the client's contact is the one that counts. When a client gives you a new cell, update it on their contact in Clio, not on the calendar entry.
The primary number should be a US number with its area code. Clio's phone field accepts free text, and ClientPing reads the number out of whatever is there, so a primary phone saved as "605-555-0142 cell" still works.
All-day entries are skipped too, so a "Trial week" banner across the top of the calendar won't text anyone.
The Contacts page also has a Sync Clio Contacts Now button that copies your Clio people into ClientPing (see contacts). Reminders don't depend on it. They read the phone number from the matter each time the calendar is checked.
Acme Law is a made-up two-attorney estate planning firm.
Jane Roe is already a contact in Acme's Clio, with (605) 555-0142 saved as her primary phone. On Monday, October 12, she calls to book a consult. The paralegal, Maria Lopez, opens a matter called "Roe consult" with Jane as the client. Then she adds an entry to the attorney's Clio calendar for Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., titled Jane Roe consult, and links it to the matter. There's no phone number in the title.
Acme uses the default rule, one reminder the day before. During one of Tuesday's hourly checks, ClientPing finds the entry, follows the matter to Jane, and sends her this:
Acme Law: you have an appointment Wednesday, October 14 at 2:00PM. To confirm text YES. To decline text NO. To end alerts text STOP.
The entry in Clio now reads REMINDED: Jane Roe consult, so anyone looking at the calendar can see she's been contacted.
Jane writes back "Yes". Capitalization doesn't matter, and a client who answers "Sí" gets the same result. ClientPing replies "Your appointment is confirmed!" and changes the entry title to CONFIRMED: Jane Roe consult. On Wednesday morning, Maria sees that in Clio's day view without opening ClientPing.
That same Wednesday, Maria had also put a 3:00 p.m. call with the firm's bookkeeper on the attorney's calendar, with no matter linked. ClientPing left it alone. No text went out and the title never changed.
That second entry doubles as a troubleshooting tip. If an entry you expected to be reminded still has its original title after a check, look at two things: whether it's linked to a matter, and whether that matter's client has a primary phone.
Rules can match text in the entry title, so hearings can get their own wording. Acme adds a rule that matches *court, and an entry titled Doe first appearance *court, linked to John Doe's matter, gets the court message the day before.
Some firms want a heads-up further out for court. Add a second *court rule set to four days. Only one reminder day per calendar can ask for a YES or NO, so turn confirmation off on the four-day rule. The reminder messages page shows how.
If Jane had replied NO, ClientPing would have answered "Thank you. We will give you a call.", switched the title to DECLINED: Jane Roe consult, and emailed the appointment details to your notification address so someone can follow up.
If you turned on rescheduling in the reminder questions, the reply to a NO includes a link where the client can pick a new time herself from your open slots, and you're still emailed about the decline. Any reply that isn't a yes or a no, like "running late, can we do 3?", is emailed to you as well. So is any reply with something beyond a plain YES or NO, even a "Sí" or a trailing period, so you may get a heads-up email for a reply that already counted as a confirmation.
ClientPing plans start at $49 a month, which includes 600 messages and 4 calendars. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, and you'll enter a card to begin. After the 7 days, the plan bills $49 a month unless you cancel.
The quickest test uses your own phone. Create a contact with your cell as the primary phone, open a matter with that contact as the client, and link an entry on tomorrow's calendar to the matter. Set it up before 6 p.m. Central so one of today's hourly checks can pick it up.
