Working with the Template Editor
Purpose:
The Template editor allows you to create the base for the emails you need to send to your customers when working with your bookings within RCM.
The information for the emails is taken directly from these templates along with data entered into RCM for your quotations and bookings.
After any template is created or updated, we recommend that you test the template by creating a test booking with your email address against it and sending the email to yourself to review.
This article covers how to use the editor - if you need any further information on what these templates are used for and where the emails are sent from - please view this article - Templates Overview
Accessing the Template Editor
The templates can be found by accessing: System Setup >> Manage System Emails and selecting the Email Setup tab.
Clicking on any of the Email Template names under the main headings will open the template editor.
Creating/Updating the templates
The Top section of the Editor may have some or all of the following fields depending on the template:
Template to Update:
This will appear on all Templates and is the name of the template you are currently creating/updating.
For Location:
This field will only appear on Templates that can be location specific - Please see the "Location Specific Templates" section and the end of this article.
Not all of the following fields will appear on all templates.
Currently Active:
Indicates whether this template is active or not - most emails would remain active after creation, however there may be some custom emails that have been created for a specific purpose (eg: a Covid safety plan custom email) that will only be valid for a specific time. It might also be the case that you want to set your e-signature invitation email template to inactive while you are making changes to it. Setting the currently active flag to 'No' would stop these templates from appearing for selection in various areas of RCM.
Email Subject:
Some templates will have pre-defined subjects (eg. Quotes and Confirmations) that you are unable to change - this field will not appear on those templates.
This field will only appear for Templates that allow you to define the Subject.
Email From:
This is the from email address for the email. If the Customer replies to the email, this is the address that will be used.
Not all templates have this field - in most instances, the 'From' Address will be pulled from the Location or Company info record (depending on system setup document settings)
Email Copy To:
This allows you to CC the sender (from address) and also choose any other CC address you wish to include. For example, you might like the email to be cc'd to the administration address, but also copied to the Location manager.
The Text Area:
This section allows you to enter free text - this section is available on all Templates and has a standard set of Editing Tools available to assist in formatting your message.
Note that you should not cut and paste text from another formatted document such as Word, as the formatting will not copy across.
Formatting should be completed using the formatting tools on the top toolbar, or, if you are familiar with HTML, you can click on the 'Source' button and use HTML to format your text.
It is important to note that not all HTML tags will display correctly when the document is produced. The following is a complete list of tags that will render as HTML when defined as placeholder text:
- Hyperlinks: <A HREF>
- Fonts: <FONT>
- Header, style and block elements: <H{n}>, <DIV>, <SPAN>,<P>, <DIV>, <LI>, <HN>
- Text format: <B>, <I>, <U>, <S>
- List handling: <OL>, <UL>, <LI>
Any other HTML mark-up tags will be ignored during report processing. If the HTML represented by the expression in the placeholder text is not well formed, the placeholder is rendered as plain text. All HTML tags are case-insensitive.
Note that on emails that include the Booking Details, the details will appear below the text you enter here.
Terms and Conditions:
The Confirmation and Quote templates have a section at the bottom where you are able to enter your Terms and Conditions or any additional information the customer may require in relation to the booking. This section will appear under the Booking Details.
In this example, this section has been used to provide the customer with additional information for when they arrive at the airport.
As in the previous text area, you should not cut and paste text from another formatted document such as Word, as the formatting will not copy across.
Formatting should be completed using the formatting tools on the top toolbar, or, if you are familiar with HTML, you can click on the 'Source' button and use HTML to format your text.
Email Example
Below is an example of a Quotation and a Confirmation that have been emailed to a Customer.
You can see that the top section text is appearing first, followed by the booking details and the Terms and Conditions section appearing after the booking details.
Location Specific Templates
Some templates allow you to create different versions of the email for different Locations.
If the email is to be the same for all Locations, then you can just create the one template with the Location set to 'Default'. This means that the template will apply for all Locations.
However, if for example, you include the location of the Rental desk in the Airport in your email footer, you would need to create a template for each Location as each would be a little different.
To create the Template for a single location, select the location from the list, create the template and Save it.
You would then need to repeat this process for each Location that is going to be different.
When the email is generated, it will look to the templates to see if there is a template for the pickup location on the booking - if it finds one, it will use it. If it doesn't find a Location template, it will use the default template.
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