Tutorials: creating notifications
In these tutorials, we will go through the steps of setting up some common notification types.
Tutorial: Create an appointment confirmation
In this tutorial, we will create an appointment confirmation. It will contain links for canceling and rescheduling the appointment, and some variables to provide information related to the particular appointment.
First, go to Appointments > General > Appointment Notifications where all appointment notifications are configured.
To be able to make changes, click Edit notification.
We will start with creating a booking confirmation for the primary language, in this case English US. Plan the content of your message before you start writing.
When you start writing the message, note that it needs to be formatted with HTML. To the right, you can find some information about basic HTML formatting. You can also find the available variables that you can use.
The message could look something like this:
When you have a first version you want to test, fill in your email address in the Email notification preview field, and click Send preview. After you have seen the preview, adjust the message if needed.
Since we also want some information that is tailored per service, let's go to Service settings to add a service-specific notification addition. Click Manage > Edit and add the service-specific message. Click Confirm to save.
Go back to Appointment Notifications and insert the variable {15} where you want to place the service-specific addition.
The message could now look something like this:
We have now created a booking confirmation with some different variables for appointment information, service-specific information and a QR code for checking in for the appointment. When the confirmation is sent, it would look something like this:
Tutorial: Create a Visit Create notification
In this tutorial, we will create a notification to be sent when a visit is created. It will contain information about ticket number and also a link to Mobile Ticket.
Go to Business Configuration > Notification Admin > Visits > Create.
For Notification Type, select SMS, since this is the recommended way to communicate with customers in real-time. Save your choice.
Select the queues to send the notification to by clicking Edit for each branch and select your queues. To send the notification for all queues, select All.
Note
Note that you can not have different notifications for different branches and queues, you can just select for which branches this type of notification should be sent.
When at least one queue is selected for the branch, you will see that the branch is marked as Enabled.
Now, go to the Messages tab. It's possible to have different messages for different services, but for now, we want to create a standard message for all services. To do that, select All from the service drop-down.
Note
The standard message is sent for all services that don't have a specific message configured. If a specific message is configured, that overrides the standard message.
Plan the content of your message before you start writing. To the right, you can find the variables (parameters) you can use.
The message could look something like this:
Adjust the message until your are happy with it. Test it by creating a visit with your own phone number.
We have now created a Visit Create notification containing the ticket number and a link to Mobile Ticket. When the message is sent, it would look something like this:
Tutorial: Create a staff alert for customer arrival
In this tutorial, we will create an alert that is sent to the primary resource of an appointment when a customer checks in. It will contain information about queue, service and appointment time.
Go to Business Configuration > Notification Admin > Staff > Arrival.
Select a branch.
To create a new alert, click Add.
Configure the settings for the arrival alert:
Based on: Queue
We can select Queue or Service, but in this tutorial, we want the alert to be triggered by new customers in a specific queue.
Queue: Building permit appointment queue
We select an appointment queue since this is where the appointment customers end up when they check in.
Ticket type: Appointment
Receiver type: Primary Resource
We want to notify the person that is booked for the appointment so he or she can prepare.
Notification: Email
When notifications are sent to the primary resource, we can only choose Email, since the system does not have access to the phone number.
On Event: Create Only
Since visits can not be transferred to appointment queues, we only want notification to be sent when a visit is created in the appointment queue.
Start creating the message. Plan the content of your message before you start writing. To the right, you can find the variables (parameters) you can use.
Adjust the message until your are happy with it. To test it, temporarily change the resource type to "Direct" and enter your own email address. Then book an appointment and check in the customer so it ends up in the queue configured for the arrival alert.