Automatic Messages

Automatic Messages are emails your ERS folder will automatically send your customers based on Active Orders, Canceled Orders, and/or Incomplete Orders. All ERS folders come pre-configured with a few Automatic Messages, and you're welcome to edit them, disable them, and/or add new ones, as you see fit. See below for detailed instructions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: you can send your customers Automatic Text Messages using our High Level service, and High Level also enables many other useful add-on features, such as popup marketing messages on your website, targeted email and text marketing campaigns, and more. Click here if you'd like to learn more about High Level.

• To start, navigate to Admin>Documents>Automatic Messages.
• Next, either click into the Automatic Message you'd like to edit, or click "Add New" to add and edit a new Automatic Message.
• Fill out the Name field. This will not display to your customers; it's only for internal tracking purposes. So name the message something intuitive that will make it easy for you to remember what the message is about.
• In the Days to Send field, enter in a number representing how many days before or after the event you'd like the message to send, using "0" if you'd like a message to send on the same day as the event. See the next step for how to specify how your folder should count (should it be x number of days before the event begins, y number of days after it ends, z number of days before it ends, etc.).
• In the Send Option field, choose the option that best suits how you'd like the message to send.
  • "Upon Order Completion" = the message will send immediately as soon as the order is activated. If you choose this Send Option, type "0" into the Days to Send field. PRO TIP: remember the Receipt will also send as soon as the order is activated, so your customers will receive that as well as any Automatic Message using this Send Option. To edit your Receipt, you can navigate to Admin>Documents>General Documents>Receipt Bottom.
  • "Before Order Starts" = the message will send x number of days before the order start date (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field).
  • "Order Start Date" = the message will send on the day the order starts. If you choose this Send Option, type "0" into the Days to Send field.
  • "After Order Starts" = the message will send x number of days after the order start date (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field).
  • "Before Order Ends" = the message will send x number of days before the order ending date (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field).
  • "Order End Date" = the message will send on the day the order ends. If you choose this Send Option, type "0" into the Days to Send field.
  • "After Order Ends" = the message will send x number of days after the order ending date (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field).
  • "Before Customer Birthdate" = the message will send x number of days before the customer's birthday (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field). In order to use this Send Option, you have to collect birthdate data about your customers. You can consult this chapter of this tutorial for instructions on how to submit a Tech Support ticket requesting a birthdate field on your Customer Information Page.
  • "Before Due Date" = the message will send x number of days before the payment due date (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field). PRO TIP: By default, customers are marked as "COD," or "Cash on Delivery," meaning they're required to pay their balance in full no later than the time their event starts. However, you can change a customer's Payment Terms if you'd like. For example, if you have a corporate customer who regularly does multiple events with you each month and you'd like to bill them once a month and make them a "Net 30" customer (meaning they have 30 days from the date you've sent them their invoice to pay you for all their outstanding balances), you can do that. This Send Option will honor whatever the due date is for each of your customers based on whatever the customer's Payment Terms are. Please feel free to consult this tutorial for more information on Payment Terms, and this tutorial for further information about Multi Invoice Billing.
  • "After Due Date" = the message will send x number of days after the payment due date (x is the number you entered into the Days to Send field). PRO TIP: By default, customers are marked as "COD," or "Cash on Delivery," meaning they're required to pay their balance in full no later than the time their event starts. However, you can change a customer's Payment Terms if you'd like. For example, if you have a corporate customer who regularly does multiple events with you each month and you'd like to bill them once a month and make them a "Net 30" customer (meaning they have 30 days from the date you've sent them their invoice to pay you for all their outstanding balances), you can do that. This Send Option will honor whatever the due date is for each of your customers based on whatever the customer's Payment Terms are. Please feel free to consult this tutorial for more information on Payment Terms, and this tutorial for further information about Multi Invoice Billing.
  • "N/A - Incomplete Order" = only for use with Incomplete Order Alerts. If you choose this Send Option, type "0" into the Days to Send field.
• Type an email address or Merge Field into the From field. The most common entries here are "[setting:company_email]" or "[setting:company_receipt_email]".
• Create a Subject Line for the message. This field is compatible with some Merge Fields.
• Edit the Content of your message using either the WYSIWYG controls ("What You See Is What You Get," meaning the word processing controls; all the buttons above the area where you type, like the font-size button, the font-color button, etc.), or the Source code area, if you're comfortable working in HTML. See the picture below for clarification. PRO TIP: typing the "Return" or "Enter" key will start a new paragraph with a double line break. If you'd like to start a new line, but just with a single line break, type "Shift-Return." If you'd like to embed a video into the body of the email, you have to paste the embed code into the Source code area. Simply click on Source, find where you'd like to embed the video, and paste the code there; then you can click on Source again to go back to the WYSIWYG controls and see what the video will look like.
  
  
• Choose a Filter for this message.
  • "Active Only" = the most commonly used Filter. This will send this message to each customer who has an active order with you.
  • "Active and Canceled" = this will send this message to each customer who has an active or canceled order with you.
  • "Incomplete" = this is only for Incomplete Order Alerts. You should only have one message in your folder using this Filter, as you don't want to spam your customer with multiple Incomplete Order Alerts (unless you deactivate all but one of the messages; see below for how to deactivate an Automatic Message using the Disable Message field).
• If you like, you can restrict this message to only send under certain circumstances using the Rules field. This will show you a list of your Availability Rule Sets. For example, if you'd like this message to send only if the customer rented a water slide, you can use an Availability Rule Set for that. Click here for a detailed tutorial on Availability Rule Sets.
• Send Only To is rarely used. If you'd like this message to only ever send to specific email addresses, enter them in here, separated by a comma and a space. For example, "nobody@nobody.com, none@no.com", etc. (don't use those email addresses, or other fake email addresses, as they can get marked as spam and hurt your email deliverability! If you need a "burner" email address that won't hurt your deliverability, you can use junk@eventrentalsystems.com).
• Send BCC To is rarely used. If you'd like to receive copies of this message, or you'd like someone else to receive copies of this message, type the email address(es) you'd like to receive the message into this field. This field does not support Merge Fields, so type the email addresses out manually, and separate them with a comma.
• Disable Message allows you to stop the message from sending. It's a useful feature if you're still editing a message and don't want it to send to anyone just yet, or if you'd like to disable a message temporarily without deleting the message.