Build a Client Comms Policy Clients Actually Follow
Channels, SLAs, after 7pm. Policy as care, not coldness. A table you can paste.
Burnout boundaries told you to stop living in DMs. The portal is a place. This is the policy: which channel is for what, how fast you reply, and what happens after 7pm. Care that has no channel becomes midnight texting. Cancellation already owns the fee. Month-end will show you who ignored this. After a real day off, the policy is how you stay off.
| Channel | Allowed | SLA | After 7pm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portal / email | Coaching questions, recaps, files | Next business day | Queues |
| SMS | Logistics only: running late, link died | Same day | Emergency reschedule only |
| Voice/video | The paid hour | The hour | No |
| Social DMs | None | Never | Never |
Why “Just Text Me” Fails
It feels intimate. It trains them to hunt you. Then you resent the people you like. The policy is how you keep liking them.
The fix: one table, said in session 1, pasted under the working agreement. If it isn’t written, it does not exist.
How to Install It
Read the table out loud. Ask which row they will break first. That’s the row you repeat. Put the table in the portal. Repeat it once when they break it — not with a speech, with the row.
“This is a coaching question. Portal. I’ll take it in the next hour we already paid for.”
Then stop answering it in SMS. If you answer, the table is fiction.
After 7pm
The autoresponder is the policy, not your willpower. Same as the day off: the system holds the line. If someone is in licensed-care crisis, they already have a door that is not your cell.
Do not invent an “emergency coaching” channel. Emergencies that are coaching can wait until the hour. Emergencies that are not coaching are not yours.
What Most Coaches Get Wrong
They publish the table and then reply anyway “just this once.” Once is the new policy.
They also use SMS for encouragement. Encouragement is coaching. Portal.
They write a two-page acceptable-use document. One table. If a lawyer needs more, that’s a different PDF.
Sample Autoresponder (after 7pm)
“I’m off the clock. Logistics (running late, link died) can text. Coaching questions go in the portal — I’ll take them in the next paid hour. If this is a crisis that needs licensed care, use [door], not this number.”
Install it. Then do not peek.
Installing It With Current Clients
Don’t surprise them at 9pm. Send the table once: “Starting Monday, this is how we use channels. Same care, cleaner rails.” Expect one person to test it. Hold the row. The rest will follow.
If a current client is already living in your DMs, move the last three threads into the portal and close the DM. Explain once.
When the Portal Isn’t Ready
Email is an acceptable portal. A shared doc is acceptable. Instagram is not. If you don’t have a portal yet, the table still works. The channel named “portal” can be one email address you only read at 10am.
Scripts When They Break a Row
SMS coaching question: “Portal. I’ll take it in Thursday’s hour.” DM: “I don’t coach here. Email is [address].” After-hours novel: no reply until morning, then the portal line. Voice note at 10pm: same.
Do not explain the philosophy each time. The table already did. Repeat the row. If they apologize and do it again, that’s a working-agreement conversation, not a new channel.
Write the four scripts on a card. The card is faster than your resentment.
If you lead a group, the table still holds. Group chat is for logistics and wins, not private coaching. Private coaching goes back to 1:1 hours. Say that in week 1. Repeat it the first time someone processes a breakup in the cohort thread.
Print the table in the working agreement. If it only lives in your head, it will lose to whoever texts with the most feeling. Feeling is not a channel. Review the table at month-end with the at-risk list. Whoever still lives in your DMs is a policy miss, not a special case.
When DIY Isn’t Enough
When reminders, recaps, and questions live in four apps, the table cannot win. Grow and Scale can put recaps and questions on one rail. You still have to stop answering the wrong rail.
Want booking, recaps, and questions on one channel clients actually use? Let’s talk.