Communication Templates are standardised messages that you can use when you need to contact customers. This means you don't need to create an individual message every time you wish to communicate with a customer. You can simply apply the appropriate template and send the message.

From the main menu in the Back Office, expand the Setup section, then select the Communication Templates option:

From the Communication Templates screen, you can create new templates, or you can edit or delete existing templates.

Creating a New Communication Template

1)  Click the New button on the Communication Templates summary screen :

2)  This will open the Template Editor panel:

A Communication Template is made up of four parts :

1. Title
2. Type
3. Subject
4. Content

Title - This is the name you give the template to help you locate it in Cloud POS. Your customer will never see the Title.

Type - There are three Communication Types :

1. Email
2. SMS/Text
3. Note

A 'Note' is used to record an internal note against the customer record. This is most commonly used following a telephone call from or to the customer.

Subject - This is used to describe the context of the communication. It is also used as the Subject Line of an email communication, so it is customer-facing.

Content - This is the main body of content that makes up the communication template. You do not need to add a signature to your Content, as this will be added automatically when the communication is sent. However, you are advised to complete the Content with a sign-off that matches the tone of your business. Please see the section below for more information on greetings and signatures in templates.

3) When you've created a template, click Save to save this for future use.

You can create as many templates of any type as you require. 

Adding placeholders to Communication Templates

Placeholders are tags that you can use in a message template, which are swapped out for real information when the message is actually sent. For example, instead of typing the customer's order reference manually, you could put `{{OrderReference}}` into the template and Cloud POS will fill in the correct reference automatically. This means every customer receives something that feels personal to them, even though it's been sent from a template.

These are the placeholders that you can use in Cloud POS communication templates, both in the Content and in the Subject Line:

{{CustomerName}} - the customer's First Name

{{CustomerFullName}} - the customer's First Name and Last Name

{{StoreName}} - for an automatic Workshop Booking Reminder or an automatic Workshop Service Reminder, both of which are sent by the system, this will be the name of the store where the job is scheduled. If you create a customer communication yourself using this placeholder, the Store Name will be the store of the cashier who sends the message (either email or SMS/text).

{{OrderReference}} - this requires a reference to be set against the order

{{OrderTotal}} - the order total including tax/VAT 

{{OrderBalanceDue}} - the outstanding balance for the order (i.e. the order total, less any deposits)

{{OrderLines}} - the Description and Item Lookup Code (in brackets) of each item on the order

{{ServiceItemName}} - the name of the serviced item — this requires a Service Item to be set on the Workshop Job

How does this work in practice?

Here is an example Communication Template, with several placeholders in use:

When this is sent for an order, the placeholders are completed. This is what you would see in the communication panel in Cloud POS:

The customer would receive an email as shown:

Do I need to include a greeting or signature in my template?

Signatures

You do not need to include a signature at the end of your template(s). The signature of the sending cashier will always be added automatically (though you can delete this from the message body before clicking ‘send’, if you prefer).

The signature will include:

• The cashier name (as set in Users > Users)
• The store name (as set in Setup > Stores)
• The store address (as set in Setup > Stores)
• The store phone number (as set in Setup > Stores)
• The cashier email address (as set in Users > Users)
• The store's website link (as set in Setup > Stores)
• The store's Google Map link, displayed as a clickable ‘Visit Store’ link (as set in Setup > Stores)

Here is an example signature. The red line shows where the communication template ends and the signature begins:

Greetings

When you send a customer communication, either from a template or otherwise, you will see two options regarding customer greetings:

• Use customer name in message? - check this box if you would like Cloud POS to add the customer's name to the start of your communication. 
  It will take the form, ‘Hi [First Name]’.
• Formal greeting - check this box if you would like Cloud POS to add the customer's name to the start of your communication, in a more formal style. 
  It will take the form, ‘Dear [Customer Title] [Last Name]’.

You can see an example of both of these here:

If you plan to make use of these checkboxes when sending messages from communication templates, there is no need to also include a greeting in the template itself. Alternatively, you could include a greeting within the template (perhaps utilising the {{CustomerName}} or {{CustomerFullName}} placeholders), and then leave these checkboxes unselected when sending your communications.

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