Setup>Main >> Reminders
Reminders create automatic ToDo items for each reservation. See the setup page itself for Directions and field help.
Reminders provide:
- A ToDo list that shows on each Reservation
- A ToDo list for all Reservations on the To-Do List page
- Actionable items that make sending Emails or printing letters from custom templates easy
- Automatic ToDo completion for Email actions. Set a reminder with an Email action to complete automatically and it will be done as soon as it becomes active. Never forget to do some of the simple things that can make a lot of difference.
Special Note for Payment Reminders
When setting up reminders related to payments (when they are due etc) please use the "Payment Due" triggers rather than a date-based trigger (such as Arrival Date). Provided that you have set up the payment schedule in the Setup>Main >> Property>Payments tab then setting the reminder this way will take into account any payments that may already have been made. If a payment has been made earlier than the due date then we don't want the reminder to trigger - if you use a date-dependent trigger then the reminder will show up even if the payment has already been made. See this link for more info and how to set up Payment Due and Overvuew reminders.
Email Reminders
NOTE: These must be sent from a reminder - sending an email any other way will not include the correct link to the orginal email
With email tracking you can now set up reminders that trigger on the email activity (or lack thereof). There are 2 types of email source (Reservation and Quote) and the triggers are as follows:
Reservation Emails
- Reservation email not opened or replied to
No activity recorded (the recipient did not click a link in the email and may not have opened it)
Quote Emails
When the email did not get looked at:
- Quote email not opened or replied to
No activity recorded (the recipient did not click a link in the email and may not have opened it) - Quote email not opened or replied to - quoting requested dates
No activity recorded AND the quote included the dates asked for in the request - Quote email not opened or replied to - not quoting requested dates
No activity recorded AND the quote did not include the dates asked for in the request
... for trying to get the original quote email through to the inquirer.
You would typically either use the first or second trigger above -
the first for sending a follow-up no matter what was quoted and the
second for following up only on the ones that included the a quote for
the dates the inquirer asked for.
NOTES: If you respond to a request with no quotes then that is not considered a Quote Email and will be excluded.
When the email quote was opened but there was no reply and no reservation made:
- Quote email has been opened but not replied to
The recipient looked at the email has not responded by email nor made a reservation - Quote email has been opened but not replied to - quoting requested dates
The recipient looked at the email has not responded by email nor made a reservation AND the quote included the dates asked for in the request - Quote email has been opened but not replied to - not quoting requested dates
The recipient looked at the email has not responded by email nor made a reservation AND the quote did not include the dates asked for in the request
... these are for sending a followup to see if they may be still interested, and if not to find out why.
NOTES:
The system looks for requests that have been sent containing quotes, then excludes any that have NOT been looked at and finally excludes those where another email has been received from the same email address AFTER the quote was sent out. What's left will be processed by these reminders.
If your guest calls you, or sends you an email that does not go into your MyVRZone account then it will not know that there have been any further communcations - so make sure that your email deals with that situation (eg. say that it's an automated email and you may have already had further discussions - in which case they can ignore it).
Reminders - sending follow-up emails?
Email-related reminders are checked every hour and new todo's created as needed. Look at your todo list to see what's pending there, and once you are happy that the system is working as you want then you can turn on the automatic action checkbox so the follow-ups will go out automatically.
For sending a followup to an unopened email there are Predefined Templates for Reservation and Quote Emails that do not use the stationery in order to keep them as simple as possible so that they have a better chance to get past the spam checkers. The templates contain special code that checks the latest activity status (activity may have happened since the todo item was created) - if there has been activity then the email will be blank and will not automatically be sent.
Sending Newsletters and Reservation Followups
See this "FAQ" for details on sending Newsletters and follow-ups to previous reservations.