Cut-Off Time Notification

Cut-off Time Notifications can be used to notify your customers by SMS or email if they have not yet placed an order and it is getting close to cut-off time.

You can set up notifications to be sent automatically a pre-determined number of minutes before your cut-off time, or you can manually send notifications by selecting Cut-off Time Notification from the Customer menu.

Notifications are usually used by vendors whose customers order online via the vendor website or using the EasyVend Orders app. However, if you enter orders as they are received by phone or fax, you can also set up notifications for customers who do not order online. Bear in mind that customers will not like getting reminders if they have already ordered and they are receiving the reminder only because their order has not yet been entered into EasyVend.

Notes Setting Up The Cut-Off Time Notification Screen Top

Notes

• The ability to send automatic notifications is enabled in the Cutoff Notifications tab of the General Settings screen
• The sending of automatic notifications is then enabled on a customer-by-customer basis by ticking the Cutoff Time Notification in the customer's Options tab
  • If you do not enable automatic notifications, you can still manually send notifications from the Cut-Off Time Notification screen
• Notifications to each customer are sent by email and/or by SMS, depending on the Contact Method(s) chosen in the customer's Customer Information.
  • For email notifications, the customer must have an online login email address, or an email address in their Customer Information
  • For SMS notifications, Burst SMS must be enabled in General Settings and the customer must have a valid phone number for text messages in their Customer Information
• Automatic notifications are only sent when required. They are NOT sent if:
  • Automatic notifications are not enabled in the Cutoff Notifications tab of the General Settings screen
  • The customer does not have Cut-off Time Notification enabled in their Options tab
  • The customer does not have Email or SMS enabled in their Customer tab
  • The customer already has an order in My Orders for that day
  • The customer has already been sent a notification for that day
  • The customer does not usually receive deliveries on that day (i.e. the day is not selected as a Usual Delivery Day in the customer's Standard Orders tab)
  • The customer is on holiday on the delivery day
  • The vendor does not have deliveries enabled for the delivery day
  • The vendor is on holiday on the delivery day
  • Your vendor account is a trial account or is suspended or expired
• Your automatic notifications are processed once a day within approximately 5 minutes of the time before cut-off  that notifications are to be sent
  • Once automatic notifications have been processed:
    • Automatic notifications for that day can no longer be sent
    • Any changes you make to settings (such as cut-off times or the number of minutes prior to cut-off that notifications should be sent) will not take effect until the following day
      • Manual cut-off notifications can still be sent up until the cut-off time

Setting up Cut-off Time Notifications

To set up cut-off time notifications:

1.  General Settings
   • Email Setup: Enter your email details and send yourself a test email if you have not done so previously
   • Cutoff Times:
     • Enter the cut-off time for customers to submit their orders for each delivery day
     • If you do not deliver on all days of the week, untick Delivery Enabled for any days on which you do not deliver
   • Cutoff Notifications:
     • Automatic Notifications:
       • If you wish to send cut-off time notifications automatically, tick the Enable auto send notification option and enter the number of minutes prior to the cut-off time that you wish notifications to be sent
         • Automatic notifications are processed every 5 minutes
         • Allow sufficient time for your customers to receive the notification and enter their orders prior to the cut-off time
         • Automatic notifications are only sent to customers who have Cut-off Time Notification enabled in their Options tab
       • If you do not wish to send automatic notifications, they can be sent manually from the Cut-Off Time Notification option in Customers menu, as described in the next section
     • Notification Templates:
       • The templates determine the wording of the emails and text messages sent to customers to remind them the cut-off time for orders is near
       • Click Edit to view and, if required, modify each template
     • Burst SMS: If you wish to send notifications via SMS, you will need to contact the JealTech Support team on (02) 9188 4470 to enable Burst SMS. 
       • You will need to have ready:
         • Your mobile phone number for return messages, or a short sender name
         • Your email address
         • A temporary password for JealTech to use when setting up your Burst SMS account (you will be able to change this later)
       • Once a Burst SMS account has been created for you, a confirmation email will be sent with your log-in details. You will need to:
         • Login to Burst SMS
         • Read and accept the Terms and Conditions of the Burst SMS service
         • On the Billing page, add your credit card and select your Auto Credit Re-charge amount if desired
         • Update the password on your Burst SMS account to replace the temporary password used when the account was created for you
       • If you already have your own Burst SMS account, let the JealTech team know so they can enable your account in EasyVend
   • Vendor Holidays: Be sure to add any holidays on which you will not be delivering (e.g. Christmas day)
2. Customers
   • In the details screen for each customer:
     • Customer tab:
       • Tick the Contact Methods you wish to use in EasyVend, as described in Customer Information
     • Options tab:
       • Enable Cut-off Time Notifications by ticking Cutoff Time Notification in the Options tab
         • When this option is enabled:
           • If Automatic Cut-off Notifications are enabled in General Settings - Cutoff Notifications, the customer will receive automatic notifications
           • If Automatic Cut-off Notifications are NOT enabled in General Settings - Cutoff Notifications, the customer's selected contact method(s) will be ticked automatically when you open the Cut-Off Time Notification screen
       • If you do not enable this option, you can still send a notification from the Cut-Off Time Notification screen by manually ticking the email and/or SMS option for the customer

The Cut-Off Time Notification Screen

When you select Cut-Off Time Notification from the Customer menu:

• The drop-down list displays the delivery date/cut-off time for the next available cut-off time
  • Once the cut-off time has passed, it is no longer displayed in the list
  • The drop-down list enables you to select a future cut-off time if required
    • The next four cut-off times are included in the list, excluding:
      • days on which the vendor is on holiday, and
      • days for which deliveries a not enabled in the Cut-Off Times settings
• The customer list displays a list of your customers excluding:
  • Customers who already have an order for the selected delivery date
  • Customers who do not usually get a delivery on the selected delivery date
  • Customers who are on holiday on the selected delivery date
• You can further filter the displayed list of customers by: 
  • Customer Round: Select one or more Rounds from the drop-down list, and/or
  • Customer Group: Select one or more Groups from the drop-down list
  • Click Search to display only customers who match the selected criteria
• For customers who have cut-off time notifications enabled:
  • SMS and/or Email is ticked automatically, depending on that customer's settings for Contact Methods in the customer details screen
    • If Burst SMS is not enabled or the customer does not have a phone number, SMS is disabled and unticked
    • If the customer does not have an email address, Email is disabled and not ticked
  • If you have ticked Enable auto send notification in General Settings - Cutoff Notifications, these customers will automatically receive a notification the nominated number of minutes before the cut-off time
  • If you have NOT ticked Enable auto send notification in General Settings - Cutoff Notifications, you can send a manual notification to these customers
• For customers who do NOT have cut-off time notifications enabled:
  • SMS and Email are not automatically ticked in the Cut-Off Time Notification customer list
    • If Burst SMS is not enabled or the customer does not have a phone number, SMS is disabled
    • If the customer does not have an email address, Email is disabled
• The date and time a notification was last sent to each customer is shown in the list

Manually sending cut-off time notifications

Select the customer(s) to whom you wish to send notifications:

• Make sure you have the correct delivery date selected in the drop-down list at the top of the screen
  • When you send reminders manually, they will be for the delivery date/cut-off time selected in this list
• If required, filter the displayed list of customers to show only those in selected Rounds and/or Groups: 
  • Customer Round: Select one or more Rounds from the drop-down list, and/or
  • Customer Group: Select one or more Groups from the drop-down list
  • Click Search to display only customers who match the selected criteria
• Within the list:
  • Click on a column heading (except for the SMS and Email columns) to sort the customers by that column
    • Click the heading again to sort in reverse order
  • SMS: Select the customers for whom notifications are to be sent via text message
    • Click the check box in the SMS heading to select/deselect sending of text messages for all customers in the list
    • Tick or untick the SMS option for each customer to select/deselect sending of text messages for that customer
    • If required, both Email and SMS can be ticked
    • Notes:
      • If Burst SMS is not enabled, the SMS option is disabled
      • The customer must have a phone number for the SMS option to be available
  • Email: Select the customers for whom notifications are to be emailed
    • Click the check box in the Email heading to select/deselect emailing of notifications for all customers in the list
    • Tick or untick the Email option for each customer to select/deselect emailing of notifications for that customer
    • Note:
      • The Email option is not available for customers who do not have an online login email address or an email address entered in the customer details screen
  • Click Search to refresh the customer list
    • Any manual selections you have made will be removed

Once you have selected the SMS/email options, click:

• Send SMS: Notifications for the customers with SMS selected are sent via text message
  • If Burst SMS is not enabled, the Send SMS option is disabled
  • Notifications will be sent to the customer's first available phone number when looked at in this order:
    • Mobile
    • Mobile 2
    • Phone
• Send Email: Notifications for customers with Email selected are generated and emailed to each customer
  • If you have an online website and the customer has a login ID, the login email address will be used
  • Otherwise, the customer's email address as entered in customer details will be used
    
    
• Once the notifications have been sent, a window is displayed with information on the number of notifications successfully sent and whether any errors were encountered

Note: If you manually send a cut-off time notification to a customer who is set to receive automatic notifications, the automatic notification for that delivery will not be sent.