Overview
This document will go over creating message templates and sending messages through SmartWare.
1 - Navigate to Message Templates
(1.0) To navigate to Message Templates, press Setup Franchise (1) in the main menu and then select Message Templates (2) from the drop down list.
Figure 1.0
2 - Message Template Screen
(2.0) The Message Template screen will contain a list (1) of all the different message templates that have been created. Next to each one is an edit icon (2) which will allow you to edit that message template. Above that is a plus sign icon (3) which you can press to create a new message template.
Figure 2.0
3 - Add or Edit a Message Template
(3.0) When you press the edit icon or plus sign icon you will be presented with a Message Template form.
(3.1) The information in the form that you can add or edit includes:
- The Name (1) you wish to call this message template (for your franchise).
- The Subject (2) you wish the recipient of the email to see when they see the message in their inbox.
- The Message Type (3) that this message is. Generally for emails it will be HTMLEmail and for text messages it will be MMS.
- You will be able to assign a Notification Type (4), to emphasize which category of message this is.
- Below that will be the message Body (5) where you can customize and create the message that you wish to send.
- At the bottom there will be an Active (6) checkbox where you can activate or inactivate a message template from being in use by your franchise.
Figure 3.0
4 - Message Body
(4.0) The message body is where you can customize a message template with the information and material you want to send in the message.
(4.1) While there are many things you can do with the menu bar of the Body for an email message, the three most notable things you can put in it are:
- Tags (1): These are 'boxes' that will automatically be filled in with information based on who/what the Tag is referring to. For instance, if a Customer's first name is 'Jeff' then the [[Customer.FirstName]] Tag will be replaced with the name 'Jeff' when he receives your message template in an email, but if you have that same Tag and send it in an email to a Customer named 'Rebecca' then the Tag will be replaced with 'Rebecca.'
- Hyperlinks (2): These are clickable links that will take the reader of the email to a certain website (such as a franchise website). Letters, words and images can all become Hyperlinks.
- Images (3): Images can be directly put into a message.
Figure 4.0
4a - Tags
(4.2) To add a tag to your message body, press the Insert Tag button if it's a text message, or if it's an email press the [Tags] drop down button in the menu bar.
(4.3) Hover over the Insert option (1) that appears and you will see a list (2) of all the different categories of Tags that there are.
Figure 4.1
(4.4) If you hover over one of the categories (1) another list will appear (2) of the various Tags that you can choose from.
(4.5) Of these, the ones that are quite different from the others are the ones that have 'Site' in front of them (3). The ones with Site will pull the information from whatever Territory is sending the message rather than the franchise.
Figure 4.2
5 - Sending a Message
(5.0) To send a message using the message template, press the speech bubble icon for a cell phone number (1) or an email address (2) in the Communications panel of a Customer/Employee or anywhere else that they appear in SmartWare.
Figure 5.0
5a - Sending an Email Message
(5.1) Once you've pressed the speech bubble icon next to an email address a form will open and cover your screen.
(5.2) At the top of the form you will be able to select one of your saved Message Templates (1).
(5.3) Below that you will see the email address you are sending the message to, along with anyone else who may be getting the message through CC or BCC (2).
(5.4) The Subject (3) will contain the subject that the receiver of the email will see in their inbox.
(5.5) The Message body (4) will contain the default information that you have created for the message template you chose. In addition you can also customize the message right then and there, writing and using the menu bar as needed.
(5.6) Below the Message body is a black and white plus sign icon (5). This will allow you to attach a file to the email.
(5.7) Once you have created an attachment, or if there is already one that has been created from the Attachments panel of your Customer or Employee screen, it will appear in the Select Attachment drop down (6). Press that and select all the attachments you wish to assign to the email. They will not appear in the message body but they will appear as files attached to the email when you send it.
(5.8) If you wish to reset the tags you can press the Replace Tags button (7) to reset them.
(5.9) When everything is ready press the Send button at the bottom right corner of the form to send the email.
Figure 5.1
5b - Send SMS (Text) Message
(5.10) After pressing the speech bubble icon next to a cell phone number, the Send SMS Message form will cover your screen.
(5.11) At the top you will be able to select one of your saved Message Templates (1).
(5.12) The cell phone number (2) that you are sending the message to will be displayed.
(5.13) In case you wish to make any changes to the message you can Insert Tags (3) or write/edit (4) any information inside the message body as you see fit.
(5.14) If you wish to reset any Tags you can press the Replace Tags button (5).
(5.15) When you are ready press the Send button (6) to send the text message.
Figure 5.2
6 - Notifications
(6.0) Through SmartWare you can also automate certain types of messages.
(6.1) In the Notifications tab (1) of the Logs Panel in the Customer or Employee screens you can designate under which conditions an automated message will be sent out to the Customer or Employee.
(6.2) At the left side you will have a list (2) of all the types of communication you have for the Customer/Employee and alongside each form of communication will be check boxes (3). Whenever you want a message to be automatically sent for a certain condition, check the check box for the corresponding condition (for instance, if you want to automatically send the Customer a receipt then checkmark the check box under the Receipt column).
Figure 6.0