Visit Reminders

Visit Reminders  

What’s New?

Save more time by automatically sending Visit Reminders via SMS to your customers for upcoming visits the day before a work ticket visit occurs. Your customers will also receive a visit cancellation or reschedule notification when using this functionality.

Requirements

You must meet the following requirements before providing this service to your customers. 

Permissions 

• You must have Manage Notification Settings permission enabled under your user role at the System and/or Branch level enabled to create message templates for your visit reminders. 
• You must have the Edit All Contacts permission enabled under your user role to enable SMS notifications for a contact. 

Prerequisites 

•  You must enable SMS Notifications at the System and/or Branch level in Aspire.  
•  Your customer must opt-in for SMS notifications before receiving a visit reminder. 
  • You can review the SMS Notifications Knowledge Base article for step-by-step setup instructions. 

 Configuration

You will first need to configure an Appointment Reminder SMS notification template.  

Create an SMS Visit Reminder Notification 

Customize your visit reminder notification template to reflect when the reminder should be received, what the reminder should state, and which service type and service should be applied. 

Take the following steps to create your visit reminder: 

1. Navigate to the Administration menu. 
2. Select Notifications. 
3. Click Manage Notifications. 
4. Click New. 
5. Select Add SMS Notification.                                                                                        
6. Complete the following fields. All fields, unless otherwise noted, are required. 
   1.  Notification Name - choose a naming convention that best suits the purpose of the visit reminder. For example - St Louis - Irrigation Enhancement - Initial Reminder
   2. Branch- Select the branch(es) associated with the visit reminder. 
   3. Route - Optional Field. You can use this field to associate a time-based or sequenced route to your visit reminder.
   4. Divisions - Choose the division(s) to associate with the visit reminder. 
   5. Service Type -  Select the service type(s) to which the visit reminder should be applied. 
   6. Service - Select the service to which the visit reminder should be applied. 
   7. Notification Type - Select Visit Reminder. 
   8. Trigger Type -  This is a read-only field. The current option is Work Ticket Visit Scheduled.  
   9. Delivery Time - This is a read-only field. The current option is Day Before. 
   10. Delivery Time Details- select when the visit reminder is sent to the customer. 
       1. You can set the minutes to one of the following 15-minute intervals - 00, 15, 30, or 45. 
       2. The time is in the 12-hour clock format (HH: MM). 
   11. Message Body - You can manually type out the message you want your customers to see and add message tokens to display specific key information automatically. Click Notification Tokens for a complete list of available tokens. 
       1. Manually typed text and tokens will go against the maximum 320-character count.
          1. You must designate a time-based route under the Route(s) field to use time-based visit tokens in the Message Body field. 
7. Click the Test button in the upper right corner to send a  message preview to a number belonging to a Test Recipient before you save the notification template. Taking this step allows you to view how the message tokens you use will reflect on the end of your customer.
   1. You must enter the phone number of a test recipient and checkmark the attestation field to confirm that the test SMS will be sent to a solicited number before you can click Send Message. 
   2. All required fields must be filled before you can Test a notification. 
   3. Information provided in the template fields will be retained after you click Test, but you will still need to click Save to add the notification to the advanced search list. 
   4. You will see a duplication caution dialog box appear if the message you are creating or changing reflects a notification that already exists. 
   5. After you click Send Message, you will get a confirmation that the message was successfully sent if you sent the test message to a valid phone number. You will be redirected to the Visit Reminder detail screen so that you can make any changes before you save the notification.
8. Select Save once you are satisfied with the Visit Reminder template.
   1.  The option to Save or Test will be disabled until all required fields are properly completed. 

Receive a Visit Reminder

• Once you have configured and enabled your visit reminder, your customer can expect to receive that visit reminder the day before the visit at the time you selected in the notification template.  

• Although you can not duplicate a visit reminder, if you want your customer to receive more than one visit reminder the day before their visit or create a visit reminder that is very similar to an existing reminder, you can copy the original template you created and change key points such as  Delivery Time Details field in the new visit reminder template that you create.  

• If you set a day-before-visit reminder and then schedule a work ticket visit for the next day after the time you set for that reminder, the visit reminder will not be sent to your customer because the notification will not be triggered. 
  • For example, if you set your day-before-visit reminder to go out at 1:00 PM on Tuesday and then schedule a work ticket visit after 1:00 PM on Monday, the reminder will not go out to your customer. 

Cancel a Visit Reminder 

• A cancellation is triggered when you delete a work ticket visit. 
  • The cancellation notification will be sent to your customer within 15 minutes after the work ticket visit is deleted. 
  • All cancellation messages will state the following: [Service Name] originally scheduled for [Date/Time] has been canceled. Please contact [Company Name] if you have any questions.
    • Currently, this automated message can not be modified. 
  • Cancellation notifications will not go out if a visit is canceled or rescheduled before the visit reminder for a visit is triggered. 

Reschedule a Visit Reminder

• A reschedule notification is triggered when you update the date or the date and time of a scheduled work ticket visit.
  • The rescheduled notification will be sent to your customer within 15 minutes after the work ticket visit is rescheduled. 
  • If a visit is rescheduled for a future date, your customer will receive two notifications. The first will be the reschedule notification, and the second will be the visit reminder reflecting the date or date/time for the newly scheduled visit. 
  • A rescheduled notification will be sent after a visit reminder is sent or before a visit reminder is sent for visits that will occur in the future. 
  • All rescheduled notification messages will state the following: [Service Name] has been rescheduled to [Scheduled Date]/[Schedule Date/Time]. Please contact [Company] if you have any questions. 
    • Currently, this automated message can not be modified. 
  • If you change the sequence under which a rescheduled visit occurs but the exact date or the date & time of the visit remain, a rescheduled notification will not be triggered.