MaxOptra system allows sending the order status notification to the customers via the external SMS gateways and by e-mail.These channels can be used both separately and together.
What do you need to send SMS to your customers
Enter into a contract with an SMS-provider (make your choice; as an option, we have experience with the SMS-centers: for the UK and Europe - Oxigen8 Communication Ltd: http://oxygen8.com/ and Clickatell Inc.: https://www.clickatell.com/; for Spain -Lleida.net: http://www.lleida.net/es, for the USA -CS Networks: https://www.cs-networks.net/, for the USA and Canada - Nexmo: https://www.nexmo.com/) according to its tariffs and conditions.
Deposit your balance.
Inform MaxOptra support about the number of your contract with the SMS-provider to contact with their support service for setting.
Fill out the phone numbers to all orders you need (“contactNumber” field in the import file; a number should be written in the format 89271234567, 79271234567 or +79271234567, without spaces, brackets and dashes)
Fill out the MaxOptra template settings (section SMS/Email).
SMS will be sent automatically. You can monitor the number of SMS messages sent from your personal account at your SMS-provider.
To know more about SMS sending to customers, see SMS sending via external SMS Gateway section.
To learn more about notification templates, see SMS/Email messages (Notification templates).
To learn more about notification settings, see Managing Individual Customer Notification Settings.
There following SMS notifications can be sent:
N minutes before estimated time of arrival: you notify your client that the order will be delivered to the specified address in N minutes before the order's ETA in MaxOptra. This message will be sent to the customer automatically within the specified period before estimated order arrival to the customer's address.;
Notification about start of order delivery: this SMS will be sent to the client automatically after the driver notifies that he starts off for the order;
Order details notification: this SMS will be sent to the client at the same time as the order details are sent to the driver.
Order completion: this SMS will be sent to the client automatically after the order is completed.
Order failure: this SMS will be sent to the client automatically if the order failed.
SMS not sent/received
Sometimes, the situations may occur when not all customers are notified. It may happen due to the following reasons:
If the way from the depot to the customer location takes less than the specified N minutes
If the customer location contact telephone number and/or email are not correct.
Incorrect parameters are specified in the settings of SMS-provider (refer to the SMS-provider technical support).
The internet connection was off at the time of pressing the Start button on the smartphone. It may cause a delay in the order status transmission to the server and, as a consequence, the delay in sending the notification to the client
Sometimes a smartphone loses connection or gets into GPS none-coverage area (even if Internet connection is available). The server does not get or gets the incorrect coordinates of the vehicle. It causes the failure in determining the exact time of arrival, and as a result, it may be late or early to send a notification to the client