2010-2Q: SIMPLer: Enhanced Ability to Mass Notify Customers
A new feature has been added to SIMPLer which gives an operator the ability to mass notify (e-mail) all of their customers who are subscribed to a certain product. The old interface has also been upgraded to be more functional. The radio buttons used previously to specify customer groups have been replaced with drop-down menus that can be used concurrently. Finally, the operator can choose between "Plain Text", "HTML Code" or "Rich Text" for the email's format.
Mass Notifying Customers
The option to mass notify customers can be found on the "customers" page under "Maintenance Tasks".
When the "Mass Mail Notification" screen loads, the user is presented with a radio-group [ORANGE BOX], which gives the option to enter email addresses manually, or to specify a group of customers to email, given certain criteria. The screen-shot below shows an example of a manual mass notification. Note two things: email address that are entered manually are comma separated [PURPLE BOX], and the default value of "Plain Text" is used in this example [RED BOX].
The "From" field is populated automatically according to which user is logged in to SIMPLer. This can be changed manually.
However, instead of entering email addresses manually, the operator may prefer to choose which customers to email, using certain criteria, such as all marketing enabled customers who are subscribed to a certain product. This is done by selecting the "Specify Criteria" radio button, which causes a list of options to appear [YELLOW BOX]. Here, the operator may select customers based on (a) their status (All, Current, Installed, Waiting For Install, Potential and Post), (b) are they marketing enabled? (c) the WIB number that they are connected through, (d) the Access Point that they connect to, and (e) a product they are subscribed to.
As the operator is selecting the required criteria, the "Group BCC" field is updating with a description of the customers that will receive this email [GREEN BOX]. When the "Specify Criteria" radio button is selected, the "Group BCC" field can not be edited manually.
The operator also has a choice over what format the email should be in. The options are: "Plain Text" - simple text with paragraph layouts now preserved, "HTML Code" - HTML code which will be rendered correctly on the receiving end, "Rich Text" - a WYSIWYG editor which allows the use of bold, italics, underline, numbered-lists and bullet-points. The three options can be selected from the radio group on the left-hand side under "Message" [RED BOX]. Rich-Text options are available (once "Rich Text" is selected) underneath the message's contents [BLUE BOX].
Information on how to send a mass email using dynamic variables can be found at the link below. It has been explained using the option of sending EUP username and passwords to customers.
Q: If we send a Mass Email Notification, to which email address within the subscriber SIMPLer record does it go to, especially if the are numerous emails on the account?
The Mass eMail will ever use ONLY the "eMail" address(s) field. Note that there may be multiple defined for each customer account. If multiple are defined - email should be sent to all of them. The Mass eMail tool does NOT use the "Accounts" or "Support" emails from the customer account.
Contact Azotel Support:
Need more help? Save time by creating a maintenance ticket to Azotel through your instance.