Overview
Zaui offers many different ways of notifying your customers. Whether it is with a Booking Confirmation, a Pre Travel Notification or an SMS, we can do it all!
This article will go over how to set up and use the SMS Notification tool in Zaui.
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Please note that a membership with Twilio is required to use the SMS Notification tool. |
This article will cover the following topics:
Why Use SMS Notifications?
- Communicate with your customers in their preferred way
- Quicker notification in case of last-minute service changes
- Better Customer Experience
How to Connect Twilio with Zaui
Twilio is a service that enables you to send texts (SMS) to your customer from within your Zaui system. There are 3 steps involved in connecting Twilio with Zaui:
Step 1: Create an Account with Twilio
- You will first need to create an account with Twilio. Go to their website and sign-up for a free trial. In order to continue to use the integration past the trial period, you will need to subscribe to Twilio.
Step 2: Copy your Account SID and Auth Token
- Once you have created your account and have logged in to Twilio, copy your Account SID and Auth Token:
- In Twilio, Click on Get a Trial Number or upgrade to provide a specific business number as the 'From' number. Copy the phone number created.
- Then, go back to your Zaui system. From the navigation bar, select Settings > Marketplace
- From the left menu select Customer Support
- The Twilio app is already included with the subscription [Note: This refers to the App being included within your Zaui system. You are still required to have an active membership with Twilio]
- Click the Twillio title to open the settings.
- Paste in the Account SID and the Auth Token. Enter your Trial or Business Phone Number provided in Twilio, the Country Code, make sure "enable Twilio" is on and Save App Settings.
- Your Twilio integration is now connected with Zaui, time to create your Notifications!
Creating SMS Notifications
Automated SMS Notifications
If you would like to send SMS Notifications for an upcoming tour reminder or after a tour, we recommend you set up Tour Notifications as automated notifications.
- From the navigation bar, select Settings > Notifications.
- Click on Tour Notification from the shortcuts panel.
- You can then configure this notification as you wish.
- Make sure to Enable your notification so those text messages send automatically based on your configuration. If you are creating a Generic Notification, we recommend you disable it so that you can manually send it out when needed.
- Make sure to check the SMS Notification Type (you can also have the Email notification enabled at the same time).
- Configure SMS Recipients for this Notification, if you want to send the SMS to the Guests on the Booking or the Agent who made the booking.
- Then fill in your message in the SMS Box. Try to keep your messages short (160 characters max).
- Feel free to use Smartags
to pull Booking Information into the text message. - Don't forget to Save your notification.
Manually Triggered SMS Notifications
If you need to create last-minute notifications to alert customers of a delay or change in schedule, for example, we recommend you use the Generic Notification template and have it disabled.
- From your system desktop, select the date of the tour you wish to notify your customers for (if not the day of).
- Click on the manifest
next to the relevant activity, a separate tab will open up. - From the manifest, click on Send Notification.
- A pop-up will appear where you have the option to either create a Custom Alert or choose from a drop-down of Generic Notifications you have already configured.
- Select the SMS delivery option and either enter your free form text or select your template.
- If your tour has multiple customers booked on it and you only want to notify some of them, you have the option to customize your list of recipients.
- Once you click on Send, text messages will immediately be sent to your customers' cell phones.