CompuSuite offers an add-on module called Automatization. In this module you can set up scheduled messages for specific customers through various channels such as SMS, email or even Task Manager tasks, such as cleaning- or kitchen orders for your staff.
Using the Automatization module can save you and your staff tons of time by automating tedious tasks. Let us face it - who remembers to send customers a Thank you for your visit-message to each customer manually after each stay anyway?
The following article will take you through creating your first automation by sending a simple email to your customers after departure. Using the automation tool for such as Tasks Manager tasks and inserting dynamic content will be documented in future articles.
You might notice my CompuSuite looks different than usual. This is due to me having activated Early access in my settings, allowing me to see the upcoming version of the CompuSuite interface. I recommend trying this out by clicking on your name in the upper right-hand corner in CompuSuite and setting a checkmark in the box below.
Creating an automation
First navigate to the automation overview by going to Settings -> Automatization or via the direct link: compusuite.dk/automatization/scheduled.
Once at the overview a new automation can be created by clicking Add in the top right.
Clicking Add will open a new window and you will notice four menu options on the left-hand side: What, Who, When and Scripts.
When creating an automation you start by defining What should be sent, to Whom is it sent and finally When is it sent.
Scripts allow CompuSoft to assist with advanced features and logic as the automation is triggered. This topic will not be covered.
What is being sent?
In this example we imagine a situation where the destination would like to send the customer an email saying Thank you for the visit one day after checking out, asking the customer to review the destination via CompuAsk.
Seeing as the automation is related to a Thank you for the visit-message it will be names as such.
It is also possible to set the status of the automation to either Enabled or Disabled. Disabled can be helpful if you wish to pause the automation or if it is not ready for use yet, separating it from all the Enabled ones.
Note that when an automation is created using a Timer (more on this later in the article) it might start sending immediately depending on the criteria. As such, it is generally advised to keep your automation Disabled until you are confident it has been fully set up and ready to be sent to customers.
Selecting the correct communication channel
It is important to ensure you are reaching the customer through the correct channel. Depending on the situation, one channel can have a much higher engagement rate than others.
If the automation is regarding PIN codes / access control, sending an SMS a few hours before arrival is more beneficial to the customer than sending the PIN code five days before on an email.
A Channel can be selected by clicking on the +:
In our case we select Email as the channel of choice:
You have the option to make the channel Required and select a specific Sender.
Required: Means that the selected channel must be used. This is typically used when you have several channels in the same automation, e.g. both email and SMS. Usually, depending on the order of your channels, an email is sent first, and if that fails, the system tries with SMS.
Sender: If your system is configured with multiple senders you can choose the sender for your message in this section.
Click on the + to start adding translations:
Provide a relevant Subject for the email.
If you are using the Composer tool for creating email templates you can select such template in the Document-field. For simplicity's sake we are writing in the Rich Text Editor in this example.
The What is now defined and it is time to focus on the Who. However, before doing so, it might be worth your time to consider Expiration, which is found a the bottom of the What page.
Expiration defines when the automation can be considered expired and thereby sent again to the target audience. Usually this is left at 365 days (default) but can be reduced. Reducing the Expiration might be useful if you are sending payment reminders for a missing payment on the second rate, for example.
To whom is it sent?
Who is all about finding the right target audience. In Filter your recipients you can select Send one message per customer or Send one message per booking and Only active bookings or Include historical bookings.
Send one message per customer might be useful if the automation is sent to a customer the first time they are making a booking at your destination.
Send one message per booking is the most used segment as this is used for all types of messages related to each individual booking on the customer.
Only active bookings will ensure the automation is only applied to current bookings on the customer.
Include historical bookings will allow you to target previous bookings.
Note there is a performance benefit to selecting Active bookings and setting the When to departure compared to finding old bookings to send new information to.
In our case we want Send one message per booking and Only active bookings.
Conditions allow you to provide a set of criteria that must be matched for the automation to be sent. This includes (but is not limited to) the duration of the stay, unit categories, customer type, due date, invoice balance and much, much more.
In our case we want all guests to review our destination so Conditions are omitted, making our Who appear like so:
Now that the What and Who are defined you can finally specify the When.
When is it sent?
The automation can be sent using a Trigger or a Timer. Trigger will let you specify exactly it should be sent using various parameters while a Timer is useful for recurring messages, such as a weekly notification each Monday for seasonal guests. Timers are not covered in this article.
Setting a checkmark in Trigger will display additional fields in which various parameters can be set.
In our case we want the automation to be sent exactly 1 day after departure. This will take the precise departure time into account, meaning if the customer departed at 3 PM on Tuesday they will receive the message at 3 PM on Wednesday.
The automation is now complete and you can Save and close in the bottom right.
Congratulations! Your new automation is now visible in the overview.
Testing
Wait.. you have created a new automation.. but what if you want to this how the message looks when the customer receives the email?
If you click on the row you will have optional menu options available at the top of the page.
Most useful is the Show Recipients button which will bring up a list of all (if any) recipients you have in your system.
If you create a test booking matching your criteria you can select yourself on the list and click Send to recipient in the bottom right to send a test to yourself.
Alternatively you can also preview the message in the window by going to the Preview page.
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