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Messages
Rangefront Waste sends customers emails and texts on its own, and lets you write your own. Replies to texts come back to a Messages inbox.
Everything goes through your own email and SMS accounts, so messages come from your domain and sender name. Your administrator sets that up; see SMS and email setup.
What goes out on its own
Each message is a template plus a rule. The rule says which event sends it, on which channel and to whom. Rangefront Waste installs these standard ones, switched off until an administrator turns them on:
| Event | Channel | Goes to |
|---|---|---|
| Booking confirmation | The customer | |
| On the way | Text | The customer, with a tracking link |
| Service report completed | The customer and site contacts, with the report PDF | |
| Invoice sent | The customer, with the invoice PDF and pay link | |
| Payment receipt | The customer | |
| Urgent breakdown assigned | In-app notice | The assigned technician |
More events can be set up under Admin > Messages: service reminder (sent the day before by default), invoice reminders, quote reminders, review requests and more. See business settings.
Each message goes once per booking, report, invoice or payment. If the same event fires again, it's not sent twice.
Templates
Under Admin > Messages, each template has a subject, a body and a channel. The body can use placeholders such as the customer's name, the address, the technician, the date and the pay link. Before a template can be switched on you must render a preview with sample data and check it.
Rules decide the recipient, for example "customer", "site contacts", "assigned technician", "dispatchers" or a custom list. They can also set quiet hours and a timing offset.
A customer contact only gets reports or invoices if their contact record allows it.
Write your own message
- Open a customer and choose "Message".
- Choose to send by Email or Text.
- For email, add a subject. Write the message, or use the AI draft button to turn a one-line instruction into wording in your tone. Read it before you send.
- Choose Send.
Sent messages appear in the customer's Texts block and in the delivery log.
Two-way texts
When a customer replies to a text, the reply lands in the Messages inbox. It's filed under the customer and the open job.
- The inbox has two tabs, All and Unread, a search box, and a count of unread conversations. The menu badge shows the same count and updates live.
- Click a conversation to read it. It's marked read when you open it. The mark read and unread button toggles it.
- Type in the box at the bottom and choose Send. A reply can be up to 1000 characters. It goes out through your SMS account.
- The links at the top jump to the customer and the job.
Replies only work with Twilio, ClickSend or Telnyx. MessageMedia and Vonage can send but can't receive replies, and the built-in service can't receive them either. Your administrator also has to point the provider's reply webhook at the address shown under Admin > Email and SMS.
STOP and YES
Customers can answer with certain words and the system acts on them:
| Reply | What happens |
|---|---|
| STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT | The customer is opted out of texts and campaigns. The conversation shows "Opted out", and you can't send them texts |
| START or UNSTOP | The customer is opted back in |
| YES or Y | If the customer was sent a reminder or booking text in the last 7 days, the visit is marked confirmed. The job sheet then shows "Confirmed by customer" |
The system answers these itself and keeps them in the thread without needing you.
Tracking links
The "on the way" text carries a link. The customer sees the technician's first name, the vehicle, a map with the truck's position, a rough arrival time and progress. The page never shows another visit, the technician's surname, or where anyone is once the visit is over.
A link works for 12 hours after it's sent, and shows "Link not found" after that. The position is refreshed about every 20 seconds and only shown if it's under 20 minutes old. When there's no position yet, the page says it's waiting for one. The arrival time is an estimate from straight-line distance and an average speed, so treat it as a guide.
Delivery log
Admin > Messages has a Delivery log listing every email and text with recipient, message, channel, status and time. A failed message has a Resend button. The log search takes a recipient or subject. The same list for one booking is on its job sheet under Messages sent.
Staff chat
Messages between your own staff are in Team, not here.