Actions are a great way to customize when and how your emails and text messages should be sent. But how do you make sure they're being sent at the correct time? That's where choosing an event time frame comes in!
How to Enable Actions with Spectora Advanced
First, you'll want to make sure your Spectora Advanced Actions are enabled!
Once you sign up for Spectora Advanced, you'll have new tools at your disposal. To use these new tools, you'll need to enable them under your settings.
 💡 Quick tip: Click on the video above to expand it in another window. |
Click "Settings:
Click "Advanced Tools"
Click "Enable Actions"
Decide if you want to use Actions on all inspections or a per-inspection basis
Per Inspection: Use Actions only for inspections that you choose.
All Inspections: Use Actions for all inspections, including inspections that are booked through your Online Scheduler.
Click "Save"
You'll automatically be redirected to your Company Actions page! This is where you can create, edit, and delete your Actions.
Now you're ready to begin!
🔹Note: If your Actions are enabled "Per Inspection" and an inspection is scheduled to use Spectora's standard Automations, there is no way to convert it to one that uses Actions.
To achieve this, you would have to reorder the inspection and check the "Use Actions on this Inspection?" box during the reorder process.
What is an Action Event?
Let's break down what this means! The "event" of an Action is when that Action is sent out to the recipient.
Think of it as a time frame - do you want to send the Action as soon as the inspection is scheduled or 1 day before the inspection?
You can choose from minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months before or after an event happens on your inspection. We give you the flexibility to customize a time that works best for you and your clients to receive these updates.
Here's a closer look at the Event screen:
The first line is for a numerical value.
This is the number of minutes, days, months, etc.
The first dropdown menu is the frame of time.
This can be set as minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months.
The second dropdown menu is for "before" or "after" the event trigger.
This determines whether the Action will trigger before a specific event happens (i.e. before the Inspection Start Time) or after a specific event has already happened (i.e. after the Inspection has been scheduled).
These triggers include things like:
Inspection scheduled
Inspection published (i.e. any report within the inspection is published for the first time)
Inspection canceled
Inspection rescheduled (i.e. date/time changed)
Agreements being signed
Inspection being paid
Report being viewed
Report being published
Note: These are the only trigger options available.
Below the event time frame, you'll see 4 different checkboxes. Let's review what each one means.
Only trigger once
This should be selected for an Action that shouldn't be sent out repeatedly.
For example, you might publish multiple reports (residential, mold, radon) and link a follow-up request for a review to happen 3 days after publishing.
If you don't want 3 separate follow-ups going out, mark this to only fire once, and subsequent report publishing won't send out additional emails!
Send even when notifications are disabled
This is just how it sounds! If this is selected, your emails and texts will go out when notifications are disabled.
You would want to select this if your trigger is "Inspection Requested" because notifications are always disabled for requested inspections!
This is great if you wish to send internal notifications to office staff or quotes to customers for unconfirmed inspections.
Send during certain hours only
This is a wonderful tool to use if you wish to avoid middle-of-the-night texts or emails.
These Actions will be delayed until the next time when you're sending window starts. Once you check the box, you can use the slider to adjust the time frame:
Do not send on weekends
Exactly how it sounds! This will stop your notifications from going out on a Saturday or Sunday, it will resume on Monday.
Voilà! Those are the first steps to creating an Action.
Ready to move onto Action Rules? Click here!
If you have any questions or feedback, write into our chat bubble or email support@spectora.com!
