SMS and e-mail notifications - set up, types and triggers

If you haven't yet configured your SMS notifications in Urbantz, you will find all the necessary information here: SMS notifications - activation

Overview:

1. Automatic notifications 
   1.1    Customer triggers
   1.1.2 Options
   1.2    Internal triggers
2. Manual notifications (SMS)

1. Automatic notifications

Automatic notifications are sent using a trigger that you need to select amongst a predefined list. They can be sent as an SMS, as an e-mail or as both.

Attention! If you wish to configure SMS notifications and email notifications for the same trigger you should create a single entry with Delivery Type: BOTH. Setting up two separate notifications (one for SMS and one for email) will have only the first notification configured of the two be sent out.

You can customize the content of your notifications in different languages, insert emojis and add automatic information called "variables" (delivery day, delivery time window, customer name, link to the tracking page, etc.).

For all of them, you need to specify the flow, the sender (client) as well as the task type (delivery/pick-up/service). This will define who receives or not a notification.

1.1 CUSTOMER TRIGGERS

The triggers you can select for sending notifications to the customers are listed below:

• Inform the consumer when the driver has started his round:

It will be sent to all customers when the driver clicked on "Start the round" in the mobile application.

• Notify the consumer when the optimizer finished generating the rounds:

It will be sent when the tasks are optimized. You can add the option to validate rounds first (manually) if you prefer to make some changes in the Round Editor.
Rounds can be validated on the Announcement page per announcement line or in the Task View (1, some, all round(s)- depending on your selection) by clicking on "validate" which will trigger the notifications.

• Notify the consumer when the task has been successfully completed:

It will be sent as soon as the task has been a successful delivery/pick-up/service.

• Inform the consumer when the task has failed:

It will be sent if the delivery/pick-up/service has failed and therefore has not been completed.

ℹ️  Note: When this trigger is chosen it can lead to a lot of notifications being sent out during the night when rounds are closed automatically by the system. To prevent these notifications from being sent, you can activate the corresponding toggle in the message setup.

• Notify the consumer when the time window is approaching:

It will be sent based on the start of the task's time window.

You need to specify, in addition to the flow, sender and task type, a value in minutes and/or hours indicating how much in advance compared to the time window the notifications have to be sent. (Example: time window from 10am to 11 am with 30 minutes of 'delay' = the notification will be sent at 9:30 am)

ℹ️ If the driver is late, the time window will not be updated. The notification will be sent at the beginning of the initial time window, despite the delay.

ℹ️ Tasks need to be planned in a round for this trigger to work. Notifications won't be sent for orphan tasks.

• Notify the consumer when the ETA is approaching:

It will be sent based on the estimated time of arrival that was calculated during the optimization (= theoretical ETA).
You need to specify, in addition to the flow, sender and task type, a value in minutes and/or hours indicating how much in advance compared to the ETA the notifications have to be sent. (Example: 30 minutes before theoretical ETA)

• Notify a consumer when a task is missing

It will be sent if the driver indicated during his preparation that a task is missing.

• Notify consumer when the previous task has been completed

This notification will be sent once the preceding task has been delivered. The purpose of this notification is to inform recipients about an imminent delivery in order to reduce the number of failed deliveries.

NB: To be effective, this notification should only be configured if drivers respect their delivery sequence.

• Notify consumer when an unplanned task is ready for scheduling:

This will be sent as soon as an unplanned task has been announced. The task is announced without a date and without a time window, leaving the choice of scheduling to the recipient. You need to specify, in addition to the flow, sender and task type.

• Notify the consumer when the task has been planned:

This notification will be sent as soon as a task with status unplanned is getting a date and a time window of execution, and therefore it is considered as planned.  It is the confirmation that the task has successfully been planned.

• Send a reminder to the customer after X days if an unplanned task has not been scheduled:

A reminder will be sent every X days if the task remains unplanned. You need to specify, in addition to the flow, sender and task type, the number of days after which the reminder will be sent to the recipient. You can specify several rounds of days.

• Notify the consumer when the task is ready to collect:

This notification will be sent as soon as the driver delivered the task to a collection point and is ready to be collected by the recipient. 

• Notify the consumer when the driver is close to their address:

This will be sent when the driver is at X distance from the recipient address. You need to specify, in addition to the flow, sender and task type, the distance in meters from when the notification will be.
Example: if you define 200m as the distance, then when the driver will be away from 200m from the recipient's location, the notification will be sent.

1.1.2 OPTIONS

• Tracking page

As mentioned above, you have the possibility to add several variables in the text body, specific to each customer trigger. One of them is adding the "link" variable allows the customer to follow his delivery in real-time from on the tracking page. Please have a look at the link below for a detailed explanation of the tracking page:

Configuration of your tracking page

• Customer satisfaction

Sending customers the link to the tracking page after delivery via SMS or email allows you to capture feedback on the driver as well as on your service and other topics.

Please reach out to us if you want this feature to be activated.

• Contactless delivery/pick-up/service

Now, by sending the tracking page link to your customers you can also choose to display an individual pin code. This allows your customers to experience contactless servicing. To know more about the contactless feature and how it works, please access the following How to use the contactless option?. 

1.2 INTERNAL TRIGGERS

The triggers to be selected for INTERNAL messages are listed below:

• Inform when tasks are geocoded and assigned to a hub:

It will be sent when tasks are announced in their respective hubs and the geocoding errors have been corrected. You need to specify the flow, the sender and the internal user(s) of your platform who may receive this notification.

• Notify when drivers do not start their round on time:

It will be sent when a driver is late compared to the rounds starting time. You need to specify the hub and the internal user(s) of your platform who may receive this notification.

• Notify when the optimiser has finished generating rounds:

It will be sent as soon as Urbantz has finished optimising your tasks. You need to specify the hub and the internal user(s) of your platform who will receive this notification.

• Notify drivers when the start time of their rounds is approaching:

It will be sent to the drivers when the time estimated by the optimisation approaches. If you want to send this message by SMS, you will have to fill in the driver's phone number in their user profiles. You need to specify the amount of time in minutes and/or hours (delay) before the notification can be sent, and the associated optimisation as well as the task type.

• Notify when a task is rejected by a carrier:

It will be sent as soon as a carrier rejects the task for X reason. This trigger is interesting when you work with associated platforms. You need to specify the hub and the internal user(s) of your platform who may receive this notification.

• Notify Platform Manager if the task has not been planned since X days:

This will act as a reminder. In addition to the flow, sender and task type, the number of days after which the reminder will be sent to the PM. You can specify several rounds of days. If an unplanned task remains unplanned after X days, the notification will be sent.

2. Manual notifications

Manual notifications are templates that you define in advance in Urbantz. For example, you can predefine a template with an appropriate text to be sent out manually when there is a delay. This type of notification is only available as SMS.

Manual SMS can be sent in 3 ways:

• By a driver, from the mobile application, by clicking on the task details, selecting the 'Phone' icon. A pop-up will open, selecting the 'Messaging' icon will allow the driver to preview the SMS before he/her sends it.

• By a manager, from the web application, by clicking on the task detail, selecting the 'SMS' tab.

• By a manager, from the web application, by clicking on the round itself, selecting the 'Notifications' tab. The messages will only be sent for all tasks that are not yet delivered.

ℹ️ The roles allowed to send manual notifications via the platform are: Platform Agent; Platform All in One (MDD); Platform API; Platform Dispatcher Manager; Platform Dispatcher Manager - Task Update; Platform Manager and Sender Platform Manager.