SMS templates

SMS templates

What
With SMS templates, messages can be created and managed for various use cases. They are used for communication with employees and customers.

Where
Admin: Global settings > SMS templates.


SMS templates offer the ability to store messages for communication with employees and customers.

SMS template types

  1. Shift Schedule - Employee invitation: For using the SMS template when creating a shift schedule
  2. Shift Schedule - Employee scheduled shifts: For using the SMS template when sending a completed shift schedule
  3. Customer - Order tracking SMS/order confirmation: For use with portal orders. SMS can be sent to portal customers.
  4. Customer - Portal SMS order cancelled: For use with portal orders. SMS is sent to customers after order cancellation

General

In the admin, SMS templates can be created for various purposes. This includes SMS and WhatsApp messages for employees, primarily regarding shift schedules, as well as for customers regarding orders.

However, for some types of messages, there are also base templates that are already active in the background. In this case, their functions can be used without having to manually create a template first.

WhatsApp messages require the use of the app and the performance/completion of an opt-in process before they can be sent and received.

These notifications, such as for planned work shifts for employees or order confirmations, order cancellations, and soon also order delays for customers, are automatically triggered when certain actions are performed.



Requirements

However, of course, only employees or customers who have their mobile phone number stored in the system can receive messages.


Employees

For employees, the numbers must be entered under Admin: Personnel management > Employee when editing an employee in the list in the corresponding tab.


Customers

For customers, the same can be done under Admin: Customer management > Customer list or in the POS: Customer management > Customer list, but also when creating a delivery or pickup in the "Order overview" in Admin and POS after customer selection via the button with the pencil icon "Edit" at the top right in the first step and in the checkout/order completion in the last step or when adding a new customer in the corresponding field.

Furthermore, customers can also enter their number in the web shop in their profile or when creating orders there in the checkout/order completion.

It is also possible to make the number field mandatory for various order entry channels (sources) and order exit channels (order types) (portal orders are not included in this).



Setup

For the messages to be sent from anywhere/via any service, however, the first step is to set up the function in the store-wide settings, which is currently only to be performed by SIDES employees and is only available with the service "BerlinSMS".

However, (soon) various order entry channels (and order exit channels) can be enabled or disabled for the function.

You can also stop the sending of the base templates of the customer SMS there by disabling the functions associated with them.



Main view

In the main view, you can see a list of the SMS templates already created.

You can also search specifically for templates or filter by status in general.

Templates can only be created once per type. Already created templates can be edited, deleted, deactivated, or reactivated.





Add and edit templates

Using the "Add template" button at the top right, new templates can be added, and using the button with the pencil icon "Edit" on the right of each SMS template list entry, existing templates can also be edited later.

If you click on one of the mentioned buttons (Add template or edit), you will go to the creation/editing view, in which templates for different languages can be stored, either with default values via the "Load default template" button or written individually.

Depending on the type, various placeholders are also available that are helpful or even necessary for proper functioning - these can be seen below (more are expected to be available in the future).

It should be noted, however, that the maximum sendable or displayable message length/character count is currently limited to approximately 120-180 characters or similar with the available service provider. A too long SMS, such as through a URL, may therefore not be fully readable.




Example template "Customer - Order tracking SMS - SMS":




Example template "Customer - Portal SMS order cancelled":





View templates

After a template has been written and saved and thus successfully created, it can be checked by clicking the eye icon "View" on the right of each SMS template list entry, as an alternative to the "Edit view", depending on how user permissions are configured:





Test placeholders and communication logs

To better see how placeholders look or have an effect in real use, it is (currently) necessary to actually send test SMS by performing the normal corresponding actions (the same applies to emails).

After sending, the messages can be viewed under Admin: External services > Logs > Communication using the "SMS" filter. The details of a message can be displayed by opening or expanding the corresponding entry. In addition, there is the option to resend the message.

Additional information on "Communication log" is available here: https://support.get-sides.de/portal/en/kb/articles/communication-log.