Alerts to Customers: Difference between revisions
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=Introduction= | =Introduction= | ||
Starting with CommitCRM 5.3, [[Alerts Server|Commit Alerts Server]] provides the option to send email alerts to customers. | Starting with CommitCRM 5.3, [[Alerts Server|Commit Alerts Server]] provides the option to send email alerts to customers. | ||
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The Alerts to Customers feature sends automatic email alerts to customers when: | The Alerts to Customers feature sends automatic email alerts to customers when: | ||
* A new ticket is created | * A new ticket is created | ||
Revision as of 18:26, 20 May 2010
Introduction
Starting with CommitCRM 5.3, Commit Alerts Server provides the option to send email alerts to customers.
The Alerts to Customers feature sends automatic email alerts to customers when:
- A new ticket is created
- A ticket is closed
Alerts are sent via the Commit Alerts Server, to all External Recipients defined for the Ticket in the Email Recipients tab.
External Recipients are defined per Ticket and contain the email addresses of the parties that should be notified whenever there is email correspondence concerning the Ticket. The email addresses may belong to existing Accounts in the database, or they can be email addresses that do not currently exist in an Account. See more details in Ticket Recipients.
New Ticket Alerts are sent when a new Ticket is created for the Account by an employee or via Commit API. See more details in New Ticket Alerts Special Cases.
Closed Ticket Alerts are sent whenever a Ticket is closed, i.e. the Ticket Status changes to Completed.
Alerts Format
The Alerts to Customers email format is defined using textual Ticket Email Templates, which allow users to design the Alert email format.
The system comes with default alert templates which can be found in Settings > Email Templates.
The default template for new Tickets is: "Ticket – Alerts to Customers – New Ticket".
The default template for Closed Tickets is: "Ticket – Alerts to Customers –Ticket Closed".
Additional templates can be used for alerts by selecting them for the Alerts via Options > Alerts to Customers tab.
To switch the template for an Alert:
- From the Tools > Options menu
- In the Alerts to Customers tab
- Choose the template for the alerts
See more details in Alerts to Customers Settings.
New Ticket Alerts Special Cases
New Ticket Alerts are sent when a new Ticket is created for the Account by an employee or via Commit API.
New Tickets will not trigger an email alert to the customer when:
- You manually change a Ticket's status to New.
Note: Only when a new Ticket is actually created in the database an alert is sent. - Tickets are created by customers via Commit Email Connector's Email-to-Ticket feature.
Note: In this case the customer will be notified about the new Ticket by the automatic-response sent by Commit Email Connector if enabled. See more details in Commit Email Connector. - Tickets are created via Commit Email Connector using automated emails (i.e. formatted emails which are usually sent by external applications) do not trigger an email alert to the customer. See more details about automated emails in Automated Emails.
- Tickets are created by customers via Commit Web Interface.
Alerts to Customers Settings
Enabling Alerts to Customers requires Commit Alerts Server activation. See more details in Commit Alerts Server.
Once Commit Alerts Server is activated, the Alerts to Customers settings should be enabled and configured from Tools > Options > Alerts to Customers.
The Alerts to Customers settings are defined globally and require Sys Admin privileges.
The settings include:
OFF – choosing this option disables all alerts to customers triggered by the events of new Tickets and closed Tickets.
ON – choosing this option will enable the Alerts to Customers feature within Commit Alerts Server.
In this section, administrators can choose which events trigger alerts and which email template will be used for the alerts. Separate templates can be used for new tickets and for closed tickets. The email alerts templates can only be based on plain-text templates.
It is also possible to attach a predefined PDF Ticket Report, which will be created automatically and attached to the email upon sending the email alert to the customer. The report format can be selected from predefined reports, or, from your own customized reports. To learn more on how to design your own layouts click here.
Web Links
Web Links allow your customers to quickly open the customers' Web portal and view or edit the Ticket details. This saves the need to go explicitly to the Web Interface site, login and search for the Ticket in order to see its details.
The Web Links feature requires using Commit Web Interface for Customers.
When using Web Links the system automatically adds links to the email alert body. The Web Link should be part of the email template and links will only be added when the email template includes a reference to add links.
Even when this option is enabled, Web Links will be added only when sending email alerts to Accounts that have active Web Users. The Web Links will be added to all Ticket Recipients, regardless of the Contact selected for the Ticket.
Note: This option requires enabling Web Links from Tools > Options > Web Interface. See more details in Setting Web Links Options.