Emailing Customers
The billing platform can be used to send a variety of emails to your customers, such as bills, ticket updates and other correspondence. To do this, email addresses are stored for each customer and/or specific contacts belonging to that customer. When emailing a customer, the platform will pick the appropriate address(es) to use, though you may override this and specify an address to use.
As emails are sent out, the platform will monitor any failed emails where possible. Depending on the severity of the bounce, and the previous sending history, the platform may temporarily suspend sending to that specific address (other addresses belonging to the same customer are unaffected). For less severe problems you will be able to reinstate sending to that address directly in the platform, though for more severe problems you will need to have the customer reactivate their address to confirm the issue is resolved.
For the most reliable delivery, emails should be sent out through your own email provider, though if this is not possible, emails may be sent out through the platform email server. The platform server may only be used for sending account-related emails to customers who have agreed to receive them. If you would like to send out marketing information, whilst this can be managed through the billing platform, the emails must be sent through your own server.
Email Data Protection
To protect personal data in line with legislation such as the GDPR, DPA and PECR we obtain clear consent from the customer before sending personal data by email. This means that until we have obtained that consent we will send out a de-personalised version of their invoices. If the customer would like to receive further detail, such as full itemisation, they can verify their address and provide consent for this - see below and the separate end-user Online Billing documentation for further details.
Sending Individual Emails
You may send an individual email to a customer - for example to send out a copy of a single bill or item of correspondence. To do this, visit the invoice or correspondence details and click the Email button. For additional options, such as to attach additional documents or to specify a different email address, use the Email option in the Actions menu. Note that sending to an arbitrary address not linked to the customer requires Expert Mode.
Sending Bulk Emails
You may send emails to customers in bulk - this is most often done to send out all invoices following a billing run. Follow-up emails can be sent in bulk for unpaid invoices.
Tracking Emails
Once an email has been sent to a customer, you can track the status of the email from the customer’s account page, the email address details page, and/or from the details page of anything included in the email, for example an invoice. Emails will initially be shown with a grey background. Once the email has been accepted by the customer’s email service, the email will change to “Delivered” and be shown with a green background. This does not necessarily mean that the customer has received the email. If the customer has verified their email address (and therefore accepted the Privacy Policy to allow it) we can add a tracker to the email so that it possible to see if/when a customer has actually opened the email.
Remember that email is not a guaranteed medium, and emails can be, and often are, delayed or lost altogether, with some providers showing a lower reliability than others. If you have issues with emails going missing, please contact support, as there are sometimes problems which can be resolved. If emails do not reach the customer once they show as “Delivered” and there are no obvious problems with your email settings, the problem can only be resolved by the customer’s email provider.
Email Details
You may view the details of any sent email by clicking on the Sent Email link, which will be shown on the customer page on the right-hand side, and will also show on the page when viewing the invoice or correspondence, if one was attached. This will show you where and when the email was sent and its current status. If the email has been delivered or bounced, the full details of the delivery attempt will be shown in the Delivery Details section, these may be used for diagnostic purposes if emails have been bounced or have gone missing.
A preview of the content of the email will be shown on the right-hand side.
Verifying Email Addresses
There are two methods by which a customer may verify their email address, and consent to our sending of their personal data. Both of these methods rely on the customer receiving an email sent to the address being verified. This demonstrates that the address is correct, and that the customer does have access to it.
Email Verification
The primary method is to click on a link contained in an email which is sent to them and following the verification steps (documentation is available for the end user for this). These links are typically sent out with each invoice, and can also be included in correspondence. We recommend setting up a “Welcome” correspondence which can be sent out to new customers containing this link - this will allow customers to verify their address in advance of you sending out their first invoice, which means this invoice can contain personal data (such as call itemisation) if the customer prefers.
This method does not rely on the customer contacting you, as they can manage the entire process themselves.
Phone Verification
As a secondary method, the customer can be sent a PIN by email which they can provide to you to verify their address. This is intended to be used in an interactive manner, i.e. whilst you are speaking with the customer on the phone you may send out a PIN for the customer to read out to you. This will enable you to resolve queries regarding the removal of personal information and immediately resend the invoices being queried.
Phone Support PIN
To help you protect your customers’ data, you may use a phone support PIN in order to help confirm the identity of a customer you are speaking with on the phone. Whilst you are speaking with a customer, you may send a PIN to the customer to their email address, which they may read out to you. If they are able to provide this PIN it demonstrates they have access to the address, helping to prove they are an authorised contact on the account.
Sending a PIN
Sending a verification or support PIN can be done by clicking the Send PIN link against the address on the customer’s account page or contact page. If the address is not verified, you may send out a verification PIN. If the address has previously been verified, you can send a support PIN. Alternatively, you may send either a verification or support PIN from the Actions menu of the specific email address.
Once the PIN has been sent out, you will be asked to enter the PIN provided by the customer. The platform will check this PIN and provide confirmation if the PIN is correct, or ask for a new PIN if not. If the PIN is for verifying the address, the address will be verified (and re-enabled if suspended) immediately upon entering the correct PIN, meaning you can then send out emails.
Reactivating Failed/Unsubscribed Addresses
Directly Reactivating
If an email address is unable to receive emails from the platform, or the owner of the address uses the unsubscribe link, then sending to that address will be temporarily suspended. This serves both to avoid the reputation damage caused by sending unwanted emails, and to protect your customer’s personal data by not sending to an address they may no longer use. Once the problem is resolved, the address can be reactivated using the Actions menu when viewing the address (which is usually access through the customer’s account page - the address will show in red to indicate there is an issue with it). Unless there has been an indication that the emails are unwanted, it is usually possible to directly reactivate the address, using the Reactivate Email Address Action.
Sending Reactivation/Resubscribe Emails
When viewing an address which has recently failed, you will be able to see troubleshooting information to help the customer understand and resolve the problem. If you would like to email the details to the customer, then suitable content may be found in the Customer Troubleshooting tab. If your email client supports mailto: links, then the email may be prepared using the link. If this does not work, you will need to copy/paste the content. In either case, you should customise the content if necessary, then send the email through your own email provider.
If you have not set up the platform to send emails through your own email server, then in more severe cases (where it appears the emails are unwanted) you will need to use the Send Reactivation Email Action to send an email to the address so that the customer can confirm the address is working and should be used for billing emails. This email will contain a link to the reactivation page, and the address will be immediately reactivated once the customer has followed the link and confirmed the address is correct. In cases where the customer has unsubscribed, they will be given the option to resubscribe should they have changed their mind, or unsubscribed in error.
There are limitations in place on how often reactivation/resubscribe can be sent to individual addresses, and on the number of pending reactivations. Therefore, you should ensure that the customer has completed the troubleshooting steps and resolved any issue before sending the email.
Spam Complaints
If the platform receives a notification that a spam complaint has been made, then the address will be permanently blocked.
Finding Problem Email Addresses
It is possible to list the customers who are not able to receive bills by email, or those which are unable to receive full bills by email. These lists can be viewed from the View Email Addresses link from the Main Menu. By default you will be shown the customers who do not have valid email addresses, and are thus unable to receive their bills by email. By switching to the Missing Verified Addresses tab you can view the customers who have not verified their email address, so will be receiving only the de-personalised version of the invoice. A link to send a verification PIN will be shown against each invalid/unverified address in the event you are contacting the customers to resolve the issue.
You may also view or download the full lists of all/verified/pending/failed email addresses from this page.