Home → Arctic Reservations → Emails → Email Templates Part 1: Template Categories & Triggers
18.2. Email Templates Part 1: Template Categories & Triggers
Arctic gives you the ability to create email templates for the various types of correspondence that you need to manage your business. Using templates allows you to quickly and efficiently send information to guests, whether it is information about the types of trips you offer, a reservation confirmation, invoice and payment details, or even trip reminders. In addition, the templates use placeholders that will give your emails a personalized feeling to them. With placeholders, Arctic can pull in specific information based on the relevant trip, reservation, rental, invoice and customer record. Using the templates can dramatically increase the efficiency of your email correspondences with your guests as well as ensure that each guest gets all of the important information they need.
When creating a new email template, you will go to the "Email" menu and choose "Templates". On the "Browse Templates" page, you will notice that you can select a specific business group for the email template you want to create or you can create it in the "System-Wide" business group which will make the template available for use for all of your business groups.
Once you have selected the appropriate business group for your new email template, you will notice that you must choose a category to create your email template in. The categories determine when the email template will be available for use and what information can be included in the email template. Here is a quick summary of the categories, when emails in them will be available for use and what information can generally be included in them in terms of the placeholders that will be available in that category.
Marketing Email
This category of email can be sent from the "View Inquiry" page or from the "View Person" page. They are generally designed to give basic information regarding your trips in response to inquiries received from guests online or over the phone. The placeholders in this category will allow you to pull in information from your "Inquiry" form or your "Trip" form since a guest can make an inquiry about a specific trip. You can also put in a personalized greeting using the "Recipient" placeholders as well as personalized signatures using the "Sender" placeholders. You can create as many templates for Marketing as you want. If you have multiples, Arctic will display a list of all of the templates you have available when you click the "Send Marketing Email" button.
Invoice Email
This email template is generally the one that is most widely used and it is the one recommended for creating email confirmations for guest activities. This template exposes the most placeholders, as it includes information about both the booked reservation or rental, as well as payment information (payment details and an attached copy of the invoice). It is also convenient to send, because most reservations and rentals will end on the "View Invoice" page either because you are giving the guest their total and are going to send them a copy of their invoice to pay online or you are collecting a payment for their reservation or rental. From the "View Invoice" page, you have immediate access to send the invoice email template.
In addition to the standard recipient and sender placeholders, you can also add information about the booked activity including the guest account link for completing registration forms and online waivers {$activity->manageurl}; the reservation including add on selections, guests counts, etc; the trip information including start dates, duration, etc; the rental including number of items, description of items, start date, etc; the invoice including balance due, total paid, their personalized payment link so guests can pay their invoices online {$invoice->payurl}. Arctic will also automatically attach a copy of the guest's invoice as well as any attachments for the specific trip or rental items that are relevant to the activities on the invoice.
Since you will also use the invoice category for payment reminders and past due notices, you can again create as many different templates as you need and Arctic will display a list of the templates available when you click the "Email" button on the "View Invoice" page or the "Email Invoice" button on the "View Reservation" and "View Rental" page.
Note: Trip and/or rental specific attachments will only be included with the invoice email templates until the activity starts. After the relevant activity's start date, Arctic will only attach a copy of the invoice to the email.
The invoice template also supports more advanced logic, which allows you to easily create email templates that can handle invoice emails or confirmations for guests who have multiple activities on their invoice. From the add logic menu, you can add a loop to print all activities on the invoice. For instance, you can have the email list the trip/rental item name, start date, number of guests, etc. for each reservation or rental on the invoice. More details about advanced logic can be found in the "Placeholders & Logic" section of the email chapter.
Order Confirmation Email
This category is specifically to send your online guests a confirmation for their online reservation. When an email template is set up in this category, Arctic will automatically send it to all guests who make online reservations, online rentals or purchase items through your e-commerce store. If no email template is set up in this category, you will have to manually send confirmation emails to your online guests once you receive notice of their reservations, rentals or e-commerce orders. You can create your own personalized thank you message or set this email template up to be a copy of your activity confirmation letter used by the invoice template (all the same placeholders are available). To view sample content for this email template, click the "Sample" button in the "Order Confirmation" box shown here:
This email template has all of the same placeholders available as the invoice template including the ability to use advanced logic to print information for orders that contain multiple activities.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can only create one order confirmation email template per business group, so your email template may need to be pretty elaborate in terms of the kinds and variety of placeholders used if you want to send all of your online guests their final activity confirmations using the order confirmation. It can be done but it can be a challenge. It is recommended, rather than trying to have one confirmation for all activities, to setup separate "Order Confirmation" templates per business group especially if the information that needs to be contained in a guest's confirmation will vary widely depending on the activity they have chosen.
Arctic also automatically includes a copy of the guest's invoice and any relevant trip and/or rental attachments that you specified to be included with emails. This email template is only sent by the system, it is not one that you can manually send to guests, and it is only sent to online guests after they complete their online purchase.
Reservation Details Email
This email category is used to send the other reservation guests information about a trip or reservation, without any of the financial or payment information. This is great for those primary guests who want to give all the other guests on their reservation specific trip information but do not want them to see the invoice. You can again create multiple templates for this category if you want and it has all of the same placeholders available to it as the invoice or order confirmation templates with the exception of the invoice and rental placeholders. These email templates are sent from "View Reservation" page and again if there are multiples to choose from Arctic will display them in a list so you can choose the appropriate template.
If you click the "Email Reservation Details" button, Arctic will automatically enter the primary guest's email address and you can manually add any additional guest to the email recipients list. If you click the "Mail" icon next to a guest's name in the "Guest List", Arctic will automatically enter that guest's email address and you can again manually add any additional recipients.
Arctic will also include any specific trip attachments that you specified to be included with emails. It will not include a copy of the invoice with these email templates.
Rental Details Email
This category is the same as the reservation details category, except it is used to send rental information. You can create multiple rental details email templates. They can only be sent from the "View Rental" page and are a good way to provide rental details to your guests be it the primary customer or another contact for the rental, without sending financial information. This category has access to all of the placeholders available in the invoice and order confirmation templates with the exception of the invoice, trip and reservation placeholders. Arctic will also include any specific rental attachments that you specified to be included with emails. It will not include a copy of the invoice with these email templates.
Gift Certificate Email
The Gift Certificate email gives you the ability to send the Gift Certificate Number and Balance Details to the customer who purchased the gift certificate or to a manually entered recipient. This template only has access to placeholders for the recipient (bill to customer), the gift certificate and the sender. The Gift Certificate email template will not include a copy of the invoice with the emails. To send Gift Certificate emails, go to the "View Gift Certificate" page and click the "Email" button. Note: the email button will not appear on this page until an email template has been created for this category.
Online Registration Invitation Email
This email is sent when guests access their online guest account and invite the other members of their party to complete their registration forms and online waivers. You can only create one online registration invitation email. Arctic has default content it will use even if you do not set up an email template. To view this content, click the "Sample" button in the "Online Registration Invitation" box. Again this email is only sent by the system when a guest invites the other members of their party to register from their guest facing account. It cannot be manually sent via the backend.
Group Mode Booking Invitation Email
This email is sent when group leaders for group mode reservations send group booking invitations to the other members of their party to create a reservation for themselves on the group reservation. You can only create one group mode booking invitation email. Again, Arctic has default content it will use if a template is not set up. To view the default content, click the "Sample" button in the "Group Mode Booking Invitation" box. This email is only sent by the system when a guest invites the other members of their party to make a reservation on their group reservation from their guest facing account. It cannot be manually sent via the backend.
Group Mode - Group is Growing Email
If an email template is created for this category, Arctic will automatically send a "Group Is Growing" email to the group leader to notify them that additional guests have booked a reservation in their group reservation. Via the backend, when adding a reservation to a group reservation, you can choose to not send the "Group is Growing" email by deselecting the check box next to "Send your group is growing notification to the group leader" as shown here:
If the other guests use the group booking link to make their reservations online, Arctic will automatically send this email notification to the group leader. If you do not have a template set up in this category, Arctic will not send a notification, nor will it show the "Send your group is growing notification to the group leader" check box when adding reservations to a group reservation on via the backend. You can only create one group is growing email template.
Activity Cancellation Email
This email can be sent after cancelling an activity. It is sent from the "Reservation Canceled" or the "Rental Canceled" page by clicking the "Email Cancellation Confirmation" button shown here:
If you need to edit the invoice first or issue a refund, you can always send the cancellation email later from the "View Reservation" or the "View Rental" pages by clicking the "Email Cancellation" button.
This email category has all of the same placeholders available for both the invoice and order confirmation categories. Arctic will attach the invoice to the email only if there are charges (cancellation fees) and/or payments/refunds on the invoice.
You can create multiple activity cancellation email templates. If you have multiple templates in this category, Arctic will display a list for you to choose the template you want to use when you click the "Email Cancellation Confirmation" button.
Purchase Order Email
If you are using the Retail module on your Arctic installation, you can create purchase order email templates to use when emailing purchase orders to your vendors. If you set up a Purchase Order email template, you will be able to email your purchase orders after they have been created from the "View Purchase Order" page.
You can create multiple purchase order email templates, potentially one for every vendor you have if you need a different format for each purchase order email. In this category, you will be able to pull in basic purchase order information, recipient (vendor) information, and sender information from the placeholders available. You can even create a purchase order email template for checking on the status of unfilled purchase orders with your vendors. Arctic will attach a copy of the purchase order to the email.
Booking Agent Registration Email
If you are using the booking agent features available in Arctic, you can use this email template to send booking agents a link to create a guest facing account or login if they already have an account where they will be able to view/pay their invoices if they are specified as the "Who Pays" for their client bookings. Arctic has a default template it will use for this invitation if no template has been set up. To view the default content, click the "Sample" button in the "Booking Agent Registration" box. To send this email template, you do so from the "View Person" page for the booking agent you wish to invite to register.
You can only create one Booking Agent Invitation email template and you can only pull in the booking agent's personalized registration link, recipient (booking agent) and sender information from the available placeholders.
Guest Facing Site Invitation Email
This email can be sent to any user who would like to have a password on the guest facing site rather than using the personalized links included with their emails. The link included will walk the user through the entire account registration process and link their person account with their guest facing site account. This template can be especially useful when creating accounts for guides and other staff. If a template is not set up, Arctic will send a default email. To view the default content, click the "Sample" button in the "Guest Facing Site Invite" box. This email can only pull in the personalized registration link, recipient and sender information from the available placeholders. You can only set up one email template for the Guest Facing Site Invite category. This template is also sent from the "View Person" page for the person whom you want to invite to create a guest facing site account by clicking the "Send Account Invite" button.
Email All Trip Guests Email
If you have information that you regularly email all of the guests on a particular trip, you can set up email templates in this category to quickly and efficiently email all of the guests reserved on the trip. You can create multiple templates in this category. These emails are sent from the "View Trip" page by clicking the "Email All Guests" button.
If you have multiple templates set up in the email all trips category, Arctic will display a list for you to choose the template that you want to send. This category is great for whole trip cancellations when mother nature is just not cooperating or for photo site invitations or any last minute reminders you want to send to all of the guests on a trip. Arctic will include all of the trip attachments you specified to be included with emails.
Evaluation Follow-up
If you would like, you set up email templates in this category to send evaluation follow-up emails to the guests who complete their evaluations. These templates have basic activity, reservation and rental placeholders available so that the guests activity information can be pulled into the emails as well as recipient and sender placeholders that give you the ability to create personalized greetings and signatures. You can set up as many evaluation response email templates as you want or need. To send the evaluation follow up email to your guest, click the "Follow-up Email" button, on the "View Response" page. Again if you have multiple templates set up, Arctic will allow you to choose which template you want to use when you click the "Follow-up Email" button. Note: If no email template is set up for this category and you choose to send a "Follow-up Email" from the "View Response" page, Arctic will send a default email.
Email Triggers
Finally you can also create email templates called "Triggers" that can be automatically sent before or after specific actions occur with an inquiry, reservation, rental, trip, or invoice including payments. The triggers available are:
- After Inquiry
- After Cart Abandoned
- Before Balance Due
- After Balance Due
- After Scheduled Payment Succeeds
- After Scheduled Payment Fails
- After Reservation Created
- Before Hold Expires
- Before Group Hold Expires
- Before Trip - Missing Details
- Before Trip
- After Trip
- Before Rental
- After Rental
- Before Package (only available if you are using the package feature)
- After Package (only available if you are using the package feature)
Each of these triggers will have specific placeholders available depending on the type of trigger selected. For instance the "After Balance Due" will be able to pull in invoice information including an online payment link, balance due, due date etc., recipient information, sender information, reservation information, rental information, and activity information. As with the email categories above, some triggers will have more placeholders available than others.
In addition to being able to create the body of the email template for the triggers, you will also tell Arctic when to send them and how you want it to send them i.e. immediately or after manual approval. All of this is done in the "Trigger" section of the "Create New Template" page.
Note: Trigger settings only appear on the "Create New Template" page when creating "Trigger" email templates.
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about "Trigger" email templates:
1. Triggered emails are most often generated at night on the day they are scheduled to go out. For instance, if you set up a trigger to go out 0 days after an inquiry has been received, Arctic will not generate this email until that night meaning the guest will most likely see your email the following day assuming the trigger was set to be sent immediately rather than wait for manual approval. If you have a trigger that is scheduled to go out 3 days before a trip starts and create a new reservation on the 3rd day before the trip starts, Arctic will generate the triggered email the guest should receive within 20-30 minutes of their reservation being created.
2. Triggered emails will not be generated for reservations or rentals that have been created after the trigger was set to go out. For instance, if a reservation is created 7 days before a trip starts but you have a trigger that goes out 10 days before the trip, the new reservation will not get this email because it did not exist when the triggers were generated. If the guest needs this information, you will have to manually send them this email which means you may want to create a template in either the reservation details, rental details, or the invoice categories to allow easily sending information out to late booking guests.
3. All triggered emails will include any attachments that were specified to be included in emails for specific trips and/or rentals unless the "Suppress Attachments" option is selected in the trigger's settings. Only triggers referencing invoices will include copies of the guest's invoice. Post activity triggers will not include trip and/or rental attachments.
Now that you know about the categories of email templates that you can create, in the next section will will discuss how to create a new email template.