Overview
An automation rule can send an email or text message to your customer on its own, using one of your sales templates.
The message goes out immediately, after a delay you set, or a set time before the job or survey date.
You add it the same way as any other action, in the rule's Actions section.
Before You Start
Setting up automation rules requires an admin.
You need at least one sales email template for a Send Email action, and at least one sales text template for a Send SMS action. The action cannot be saved without a template.
Sales templates are managed in Settings > Sales Templates.
How to add a Send Email or Send SMS action to an automation rule
Click the Settings icon, then go to Workflow Automation > Automation Rules. Your automation rules appear.
Click an existing rule, or click Add Rule and give the rule a name.
Choose the trigger event that starts the rule, then set your conditions.
In the Actions section, add Send Email or Send SMS. The action's settings appear below it. You can add both, and combine them with other actions such as Create Follow-up.
Set when the message goes out. Either select Trigger immediately, or enter a number of days and hours and choose a timing option from the dropdown.
Select your template from the Email Template or SMS Template dropdown. The dropdown lists only templates of the matching kind.
Leave Only send if conditions are still met selected if you want SmartMoving to re-check the rule's conditions before a delayed message goes out.
Click Save changes. The rule saves with the new action attached.
Turn the rule on. It begins sending the next time its trigger event happens.
When does the message go out?
A Send Email or Send SMS action offers three timing options, chosen from the dropdown beside the day and hour fields.
After Event is Triggered sends the message the set number of days and hours after the rule is triggered. This is the default. Entering 1 day and 6 hours sends the message 30 hours after the trigger.
Before Earliest Job Date on an Opportunity sends the message the set number of days and hours before the opportunity's earliest job date, timed from your opening time on that date.
Before Earliest Survey Date on an Opportunity works the same way, counting back from the opportunity's earliest survey date.
To skip the wait entirely, select Trigger immediately. The day and hour fields are disabled and the message sends as soon as the rule is triggered. A delay of 0 days and 0 hours is not accepted on its own, so use Trigger immediately instead.
⚠️ Warning: The delay on a Send Email or Send SMS action is straight elapsed time. It is not adjusted for your hours of operation or your company holidays, so a delay that lands overnight sends overnight. Set your delays with that in mind, especially for text messages. This is different from the Create Follow-up action, whose due date does respect your business hours.
What happens if the date moves or has already passed
The send time is worked out once, when the rule is triggered. Changing the job or survey date afterwards does not move a message that is already scheduled.
If the calculated send time is already in the past, the message sends immediately.
If the opportunity has no job or survey date to count back from, the message sends immediately.
Only send if conditions are still met
A delayed message can go out hours or days after the rule was triggered, and the opportunity may have changed in the meantime. The Only send if conditions are still met checkbox controls what happens then.
Selected, SmartMoving re-checks the rule's conditions just before the message is sent. If the opportunity no longer matches, the message is skipped.
Cleared, the message is sent regardless of whether the opportunity still matches the conditions.
The checkbox is selected by default.
A skipped message is recorded, so the opportunity shows that the send was skipped because the conditions were no longer met.
Use this when a message would be wrong if the situation changed. A rule that texts a customer two days after their estimate is sent, for example, should not text a customer who has already booked.
Who receives the message?
A Send Email action goes to the email address on the customer record. If the opportunity has no linked customer record, it uses the address captured on the lead.
A Send SMS action goes to the mobile number on the customer record, falling back to the number captured on the lead.
Nobody on your team receives a copy. To notify a salesperson instead, use the Create Follow-up action.
Where automated messages are recorded
An email sent by a rule appears in the opportunity's email history as an outbound sales email, the same as one a salesperson sent by hand. A text appears in the text history.
The opportunity's activity log records a line naming both the template and the rule, such as Email 'New Lead Welcome' sent by automation rule Fast Lead Response.
A failed email is recorded in the activity log and marked as bounced in the email history.
A failed text is not recorded in the text history, so check the activity log when you are confirming whether a text went out.
A message skipped because conditions were no longer met is recorded with that reason.
Key Details
The message content comes entirely from the sales template you select. There is no place to write a one-off message inside the action.
Tags in your template are filled in when the rule sends the message. Because no person is signed in, tags that refer to the sender use the salesperson assigned to the opportunity.
A few tags only work when someone is signed in and sending by hand. Those come through as two dashes, so avoid them in templates used by a rule.
A Send Email action is skipped when the customer has no email address, the address is not valid, or the address is on your unsubscribe list. Nothing is sent and no error appears.
A Send SMS action is skipped when the customer has no mobile number, or the number is not a 10 digit number.
Your email unsubscribe list applies to Send Email actions only. It does not suppress text messages.
Turning the rule off before a delayed message sends cancels that message.
Deleting the sales template a rule uses stops the action from sending.
A delayed message does not hold up the rest of the rule. The other actions run on schedule while the message waits.
Templates are created and edited in Settings > Sales Templates, not inside the rule. The action links to that page.
Best Practices
Send yourself a test of the sales template before attaching it to a rule, so you can confirm the tags fill in correctly.
Keep delays on text messages inside daytime hours, since the delay is not adjusted for your hours of operation.
Leave Only send if conditions are still met selected on any delay longer than a few hours, so a customer whose situation changed does not get the wrong message.
Pair a Send Email action with a Create Follow-up action when you want the customer contacted right away and a salesperson to follow up personally.
Turn a new rule on for a short period and review the opportunity activity logs before leaving it running.
Troubleshooting
Send Email and Send SMS do not appear in the Actions dropdown. These actions are not enabled for your account yet. Contact SmartMoving Support to have them turned on.
The rule ran but no message reached the customer. Check the opportunity's activity log first. If there is no line naming the template, the action was skipped, usually because the customer has no email address or mobile number, the address is on your unsubscribe list, or the number is not a valid 10 digit number.
The activity log says the message was skipped because conditions were no longer met. The opportunity changed between the trigger and the scheduled send, so it no longer matched the rule's conditions. Clear Only send if conditions are still met if you want the message to go out regardless.
A message scheduled before the job date sent immediately instead. The calculated send time had already passed when the rule was triggered, or the opportunity has no job date to count back from. Both cases send immediately.
The template dropdown is empty and a message points to Sales Templates. Your account has no sales template of the kind this action needs. Create one in Settings > Sales Templates, then reopen the rule.
The message arrived overnight or on a holiday. The delay is straight elapsed time and is not adjusted for your hours of operation. Change the days and hours, or select Trigger immediately.
Parts of the message show two dashes instead of real values. The template uses a tag that only works when a person is signed in. Replace it with a tag that refers to the opportunity, the customer, or the assigned salesperson.
The email shows as bounced in the opportunity. SmartMoving accepted the send but delivery failed. Confirm the customer's email address, then resend by hand.