SMS messages are a quick and easy way to communicate to both your customers and mechanics


This article will go through how to set-up SAM in order to send messages


See the following guides for more information:


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TABLE OF CONTENTS


Pre requisites


It is HIGHLY recommended that you are using version 6.014 or higher for the best experience



Initial Setup

SMS Method

Choose Send via "API" - this is available from version 6.014 and above


To make changes to SMS settings this can be done by going to Maintenance > System Set up > Forms.  Select SMS tab


SMS API option:

  • Change Send via to API
  • Click Get Key to fetch your unique SMS API key from our server
  • In the Reply To field, enter the email address you want customers replies to your SMS messages to be sent to
  • Click Ok to save settings


SMS SMTP option:


This is NOT recommended - upgrade to version 6.014 or higher and use API as above




Default Messages


Default messages or templates make it easier to send personalised messages to your customers and can be set-up for the following types of messages:

  • Repair orders - letting your customer know when they have booked
  • Invoiced - letting your customer know the job has been finished
  • Technician - Letting your technician know when a car is available to be worked on
  • Follow up - Letting your customer know when a follow up should be booked (like a WOF)
  • Quote - informing your customer of a quote


All messages have a limit of 160 characters - type 161 characters and two messages will be sent.
And the second will have only one letter in it...



The legend on the left of the Invoice and follow up tabs indicate what customer information will be populated with the tags and can be used to create more personalised reminders. 


Setting up SMS templates:

  • Go to Maintenance > System Set up > Forms.  Select SMS tab.
  • Select a tab that you would like to update.  Some of these tabs will be pre-loaded with text that you may want to keep.



User Setup


Make sure you can actually send SMS messages


Log into SAM, click on the ‘Maintenance’ menu and select ‘Users’.  SMS must be enabled for each user that need access to send SMS messages.



Customer Setup

Customer Mobile

Each customer that is to receive SMS messages will require a mobile phone number entered into the “Mobile” field.



The phone number can be entered with or without spaces.  Please ensure that this is field only contains numeric characters


Customer Marketing

Customers can receive an SMS message as a booking reminder for when their vehicle is booked in if the “Booking to SMS” is ticked.

The customer can also receive a SMS reminder that when the job has been invoiced (e.g. indicating that their vehicle is ready for collection), but the customer must have a tick on “Ready” to SMS. This can be found on the marketing tab on customer maintenance.

Additionally, you can specify the default communication modes for a customer, or block any marketing going to a customer

 

Booking and Ready Bulk Update

If you would like to apply this option to all your customers there is a utility that can be found under Maintenance - System Setup – Forms – SMS - Tick ‘Booking’ and ‘Ready’. This will enable all customers with mobile numbers to be send SMS reminders from invoices and repair orders. (This may take some time depending on the customer database size).