Tips & Tricks - Reminder Emails & Email Mailings
Being proactive about communication with your customers is key to ensuring that your customers return to your shop for future services regularly. This can easily be done with Reminder Emails and Email Mailings within AutoFluent®. To utilize these you will have to have your email already set up within the system.
Reminder Emails
Email reminders can be generated for recurring services performed by your shop. These are sent a set number of months after the service was completed. The email reminders are set on Comment or Labor type items in your Inventory Entry. To set these reminders, open your Inventory Entry and locate the Comment or Labor item you would like to generate reminder emails for, and select the Email tab on that item. In that tab you will check the box next to ‘Send this Email’ and enter the number of months you would like to send this email after the service was completed on an invoice.
The actual email message you would like to send is entered into the Email tab for that service as well. You can enter the Email subject and the body of the email. Merge Fields are available to make the Emails more personalized for your customers. Select Merge Fields on the left (such as First Name and Model) to add them into the body of the Email. When the Email is generated, the merge field will be replaced the the information relevant to that specific customer. If you had designed an email template already in the Email Mailings section, you may choose that template here. Additionally, if you are familiar with HTML, you have the option of inputting HTML directly into the Email body to increase the visual aesthetic of your Email.
Now whenever you create an Invoice with that Comment or Labor item on it, an Email will be added to your Email Mailings with its ‘To Be Sent’ date correctly set based on the number of months after the service specified. You will want to occasionally go into this window and press ‘Sent All Emails Due to be Sent’ to get all those emails to your customers!
Email Mailings
In addition to sending the Email Reminders to your customers in the Email Mailings window, you can also create New Mailings to send custom Emails to different types of customers directly from your AutoFluent® system. Select Email Mailings from the main menu, and click the Create a New Mailing button.
Use the Create a Mailing window to create mailings, either based on purchases or customer information. After entering your desired parameters, select Create Preview List to see a list of all the customers in your system that will be sent an email as long as they have a valid email address on file. With that list generated you can enter a subject and message for the email you would like to send, or you can Select a Template if you already have a template saved for what you would like to send out. You have the option of sending this mailing out on a specified date, or sending right away. Then periodically, simply click Send All Emails Due to be Sent. Emails are an effective and free way to keep in touch with your customers, and keep them coming back to you.