Communication with customer
Communication towards the customer is an important part of the reservation system, especially in terms of process automation and their efficiency. For this communication, you can use several communication channels (e-mail or SMS) in different modes in the reservation system.
Individual communication channels in combination with their usage mode may be charged with credits depending on actual usage. Typically, this is any SMS or hand-sent e-mail. Specific price list of these services can be found in the system administration.
Sender's e-mail address
An important step for effective communication is a correctly set up e-mail address from which e-mail messages are sent to your customers. This address can be a system address (@reenio.info) or you can set your own address. It is also possible to set the sender name. We also recommend reading "How to deal with SPAM".
Settings - General settings - E-mail
SMS messages
If you decide to communicate with customers via SMS, then you do not have to set up anything, just start using messages actively. SMS messages are sent via an external service and it is not possible to influence the phone number of the sender, respectively messages are delivered as "Information SMS". When using SMS, keep in mind that the length of the SMS is limited and if the message is long, it is sent as several separate SMS messages. In the system you can check for yourself what SMS are sent.
Settings - SMS - Sent SMS
Automated system messages
Automatic system messages are e-mail or SMS messages that the system creates and sends automatically on your behalf respectively. on behalf of the reservation page subject. These are all confirmation of successful reservation, cancellation confirmation, payment confirmation, PDF with reservation codes, notice of upcoming reservation and more. Notifications are sent based on settings that you can customize to suit your needs. For example, you can only send confirmation of your reservation by e-mail, but notifying you of an upcoming date by e-mail and SMS, 24 hours and 3 hours in advance. Of course, a prerequisite for these automated messages to be sent is knowledge of the customer's contact information (if the customer is registered, he can set up blocking of a certain type of communication himself).
Settings - Notification
Automatic messages can also be addressed to individual employees or the system administrator.
The content of these system messages cannot be changed in any way and is generated on the basis of booking information and data, the customer, etc. customer. However, if you need to tell the customer something beyond the generated information, you have three options.
- General information about the event - you can put the necessary information that the customer should receive during the booking process as a description of a specific event. These are also used for e-mail communication.
- Conditional date information - Within the specific date setting (Advanced Settings - Details for customer after) you can specify that your own text information will be included in the e-mail that is sent as a booking confirmation or payment. In practice, this is useful, for example, if you want to provide the customer with some specific information, but only when it is certain that he has paid for the reservation.
- Global Information - You can also define general text information to be inserted in the footer of each e-mail related to the booking process or customer registration (Settings - General settings - E-mail)
Manual reports
If you need to send some information to your customers, you can use so-called manual messages. The advantage of this approach is total flexibility and the possibility of entering any own text. The possibility to send your own message is available in the system in various places and it is up to you in what situation you need to communicate with the customer (eg when the planned action is canceled). In all cases, messages (e-mails and SMS) are sent directly by the system, so everything above applies.
- Customer detail - messages can be sent using the buttons on a specific customer's card.
- Customer list - You can use a filter in the customer list to check more customers for a bulk action. Among these bulk actions are also the options "Send e-mail" and "Send SMS".
- Reservation list - in the reservation list it is possible to use a filter and check more specific reservations, for which you need to communicate with the corresponding contacts. Subsequently, it is possible to perform a mass action, with the options "Send e-mail" and "Send SMS" among the actions.
Custom messages
Notifications that are handled automatically have a fixed structure. If you want to communicate with customers using your own content automatically, you can use the functionality of custom messages.
E-mail messages using SmartEmailing
In case of own messages in connection with e-mail communication, the connection with SmartEmailing system can be used. This link enables very effective and managed management of marketing e-mails that may have their own appearance, multimedia content, attachments or contain questionnaires.
The actual sending of the e-mail message can be realized through this external system, which allows to use all its advantages. When creating/editing your own message, it is necessary to select one of the e-mails that is prepared in the SmartEmailing system. If the send event then occurs, the reservation system invokes the sending of a specific e-mail via SmartEmailing.
For proper functionality proper connection between the two systems and necessary e-mail templates on the side of the SmartEmailing system must be available at the moment of sending! More about the benefits of linking to this system read here.
SMS messages
Another type of custom message is a message using the short message communication channel of mobile operators. There is no need for any special configuration or connection with an external system and everything that applies to any SMS sending from the system applies here.
There are also several options for setting up the addressee of a particular message.
- Customer - the phone number (if available) is taken from a specific reservation.
- Custom recipient - any phone number to which the message will be sent can be entered.
Thanks to your own SMS messages and a specific phone number of the recipient (a specific sender number cannot be defined), you can, for example, control specific devices using SMS codes. You can, for example, automatically switch on the sauna heating 60 minutes before the start of the reservation by means of your own SMS message with the contents "TURN ON THE SAUNA".