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Send automated messages to your customers

This article explains how create emails that are sent to your customers automatically a certain times you specify. They can be sent before your customer's travel date such as reminders, or after for review and feedback requests.

 

Who can use automated messages?​

The feature is available for all START, PLUS, and PREMIUM subscribers who are getting bookings through new widgets (old widgets don't support this).

 

When can I send automated messages?​

The Auto messages feature allows you to send customised messages:

  • On confirmation
  • X days and Y hours before travel
  • X days and Y hours after travel
  • On cancel
  • On change
  • X days and Y hours after abandoned cart

     

How to set up automated messages for your account​

  1. Either type Auto messages in the search bar or navigate to Settings > Operations > Auto messages.
  2. Click Create message to create a new auto message.
  3. Toggle the Active button to activate the message. If this is not checked, the message is not being sent out.
  4. Fill out the below fields along with the text you would like to include in your message and save your changes.

     

The create automessage message form in Bokun

Title​

Add the title of the message. This is just an internal title for you to recognize the message.

Message Trigger​

Select at what point in time the message should be sent out. You have few triggers to select from:

  • On Confirmation: Send message when they complete the booking process.
  • X days and Y hours before travel: Send message X days and Y hours before travel, e.g. send a reminder 1 day or 5 hours before departure. (Note: 1 day is 24 hours before departure).
  • X days and Y hours after travel: Send message X days and Y hours after travel, e.g. send a thank you message and ask if the customer wants to rate you on TripAdvisor, Viator, Expedia etc. If you select this trigger you can add a Review link for your experiences and send to your customers.
  • On cancel: Send a message when a booking is cancelled.
  • On change: Send a message when a booking is changed/edited.
  • X days and Y hours after abandoned cart: Send a message when a customer abandons their check-out process (for example 2 hours after they leave the check out process).

     

Number of sent messages​

Here you have two options, these are more valid for account specific messages, than product specific messages:

  • Always send this message for every matching product booking means that if the customer books 3 products separately they will get this messages three times, once for each product.
  • Never send this message to the same customer more than once means the customer only gets this message once, regardless of how many products they book.

     

Conditions​

You can select the following options:

  • Only send when booked through specific booking channel: Tick this box if you only want this message to be sent when a tour is booked through a specific booking channel, and select from the drop-down menu which booking channel(s) the auto message will be sent from when a booking is made.

  • Send only to customers who have required booking questions left unanswered:. Enabling this unanswered question notification, sends only if the customer has required booking questions that haven’t been answered.

  • Set a pick-up condition: Tick this box if you would like to send a message depending on pick-up selection. There are two options you have:

    • Only send message if pick-up was booked.
    • Only send message if pick-up is offered but was not booked.

  • Only send for specific experience: Tick this box if you only want to send your message when specific products are booked. A drop-down menu of your experiences will appear where you can select which product(s) this message should apply to.

  • Only send for specific product (non-experience): Tick this box if you have products other than experiences, such as accommodations, that you want to send an auto message for.

  • Only send to customer subscribed to receiving marketing emails: If you configure your auto message to be a marketing message, the email is only sent out if a customer consents to Email me with news & offers in the booking process.

     

Bcc: email addresses​

Add email addresses you want to have BCC’d in the email.

 

Email builder​

You can either pick an email template for your auto message or choose a blank template to create your own custom one. Learn more about email templates here.

Fill in the following sections:

  • Customer information to include in the email: Place holders you can select to be shown automatically in the message, such as first or last name and customer email.
  • Booking information to include in the email: Place holder information include booking reference, travel date, start time, product, booking portal URL.
  • Message subject: This is the subject of your e-mail.
  • Message body: This is where you add the message itself.

When in the Subject or Message body field, the place holders are activated, where you can select the relevant ones by clicking on them. They will appear blue in the message text box, and you can write your message around the automatic options.

 

Can I send auto messages to Viator/GetYourGuide (GYG)/Expedia customers?​

Please note that not all customers will receive the automated messages:

  1. OTA customers (Viator, GYG, or Expedia) do not receive automated messages that are set to on confirmation
  2. OTA customers (Viator, GYG, or Expedia) do receive an email when the auto message is set to X days before/after travel

⚠️Please note that if Only send when booked through specific booking channel filter is enabled, no emails will be sent to OTA customers (Viator, GYG, or Expedia).

✴️Note: You might own a legacy booking channel called Viator.com (depending on the age of your account). Even though it’s selectable in the booking channel filter, messages will not be sent for Viator customers.

If you wish to learn about Auto message History, please check this article here.