SMS templates can be created so that staff members can send pre-set text messages to customers. They can be used to quickly update customers in the queue or before an appointment booking.
For example, if the venue is running behind schedule for an appointment booking, a staff member can notify a customer quickly by selecting a template that says; “Hi {customer-name}, due to a delay in service earlier today, your appointment will begin 15 minutes later than expected…”
Create SMS Template
Go to Merchant > Main Settings > SMS Templates
Input a Title for your SMS Template - this will make it easy to identify the template when the staff member is selecting it in the app.
Enter the SMS Text - we recommend keeping SMS content shorter than 160 characters (including spaces)*.
Enable the SMS to allow staff members to view and select it within the app.
- Choose queues that you would like the SMS template to be available for. For example, you may have an SMS template that is only relevant to one specific queue. You would not want that SMS template to be sent to customers in another queue.
If you do not select a queue, then it will not appear for use, even if you have chosen to Enable it. - Click 'Add Template'.
- You can 'Edit' or 'Remove' the template after it has been added
To use Placeholders in your SMS template, select Show Placeholders.
These can be used to send your customer more specific information. For example, using their name, or telling them what position they are in the queue.
The number of characters used by a placeholder is dependent on the word it replaces. For example, using {customer-name} could use 5 characters for Sarah, or 3 characters for Ben.
* We recommend keeping SMS content shorter than 160 characters (including spaces) in order to reduce the cost of SMS sent. When you send an SMS over 160 characters the message gets split into two or more messages, of which you will be charged for each one.
Large messages are segmented into 153 character segments and sent individually and then rebuilt by the recipient's device. For example, a 161 character message will be sent as two messages, one with 153 characters and the second with 8 characters.
However, older devices sometimes do not have this functionality, meaning the SMS can get sent through to the customer in a random order, and appear disjointed.