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Utilizing Your Automated Communications Settings Page

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Utilizing Your Automated Communications Settings Page: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1115452

In our August 2019 release, we added Automated Communications - and therefore, automatic pre- and post-show emails. In this article, we'll check out the Settings page for this feature - there's a lot of important fields and information on it, so you may find yourself returning to it often.

All told, we'll:

  1. See where the Automated Communications Settings page lives
  2. Set your default pre- and post-show templates, email times, and "from" address
  3. Block automatic emails from sending to certain ticket holders
  4. Set your default cancellation email template
  5. See which custom templates are being used by which Ticketable Events
  6. Get a reference list of merge fields for our templates

If you're coming here from our Set Up & Use Automatic Pre- and Post-Show Emails article, be sure to complete steps 1-4 before you head back to that article!

1. Find your Automated Communications Settings page

In the app launcher, find Automation Templates. From there, click the Automation Settings button:

I can't find Automation Templates in my app launcher!

Anyone who needs access to the Automated Communications Settings page also needs the Automation Templates - Full Access permission set. Here's how to assign it.

2. Set your default pre- and post-show templates, email times, and "from" address

These defaults are super important, so let's take the time to make sure they're correct!

  1. From Email Address:select which email your automated emails should appear to come from.
    • If you don't see anything available in the drop-down field, take the time now to add an organization-wide email address in part A of this this article. Once you add your org-wide email address, reload the Automated Communications Settings page, and the email address will appear.
  2. Pre-Show Email Time (hrs):how many hours before each show your email will send; 24 hours, 72 hours, it's up to you.
    • Note: emails send every 5 minutes. 
  3. Post-Show Email Time (hrs): how many hours after each show your email will send; most organizations set this field to 24 or less.
  4. Default Pre-Show Email Template: if a custom template isn't set for a Ticketable Event, the template you set here will be sent as the automatic pre-show email.
  5. Default Post-Show Email Template: if a custom template isn't set for a Ticketable Event, the template you set here will be sent as the automatic post-show email.

3. Block automatic emails from sending to certain ticket holders

Most of the time, automatic emails are fantastic, but sometimes they don't make sense. Here's a couple ways you might want to restrict them:

3.1. Cut-off time for pre-show email

It might be a bit silly to send a pre-show email to someone who just bought a walk-up ticket at your box office window 15 minutes before the show - after all, they probably don't need any parking instructions or venue information anymore.

The "Pre-Show Email Cutoff Time" helps prevent that. How many minutes before a show starts do you want to stop sending pre-show emails? Enter that here. If left blank, the pre-show email will always get sent, no matter when they buy the ticket.

3.2. Send the post-show email only to attendees

If a patron didn't make it to the show, you probably want to avoid sending them a "thanks for attending" message. Check the "Only send post-show email to attendees" checkbox to prevent that.

If you don't check your patrons in at the door - either by hand or by scanning tickets - skip this step! Enabling this feature without checking patrons in will block all automatic post-show emails.

The setting here is your default for all Ticketable Events - but you can also set this on a Ticketable Event-by-Event basis. Check it out!

4. Set your default cancellation email template

Need to cancel a show? You'll want to use automated communications to send an email to your ticket holders. After you create a cancellation/rescheduling template, assign it as your default here.

5. See which custom templates are being used by which Ticketable Events

Scroll down on your settings page to see a list of any Ticketable Events using a custom template (i.e. they're not using the default template you set above). You can click to those Ticketable Events from here and change those settings if you wish!

6. Get a reference list of merge fields for our templates

Scroll down on your Settings page to find a list of the standard merge fields available for your templates. Remember that custom merge fields won't show up here, but will show up when creating/editing your templates.

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