Turn on automatic follow-ups and reminders

Automations send the follow-ups, reminders and review requests nobody has time to remember. Your account comes with a set already written. The ones that email your customers start switched off, so nothing goes out in your name until you've read it and turned it on.

What's included

• Follow up on unanswered estimates: emails the customer three days after you send an estimate, if they haven't answered.
• Second follow-up, then hand to a human: a week later, one more email and a call task for whoever owns the estimate.
• Appointment reminder the day before: reminds the customer about their visit and the arrival window.
• Thank you and review request: asks for a review two hours after a job is marked complete.
• Invoice reminder when overdue: emails a reminder once an invoice passes its due date.
• Welcome new leads: a short thank-you when someone enquires through your website or instant quote.
• Win back quiet customers: a marketing email to customers you haven't worked with for six months.
• Recover declined estimates and Tell the team about new leads only tag customers, create tasks and notify your team, so they start switched on.

Floor refinishing companies also get three written for their work: Floor prep instructions when the job is booked (sent once per job), Floor care instructions after the final coat, and Recoat check-in a year later, which stays quiet if the customer has booked more work in the meantime.

Turn one on

1. Go to Automations.
2. Click an automation to read and edit its wording. Words in double curly brackets, like {{customer.first_name}}, are filled in for each customer.
3. Click Preview to see exactly what a customer would receive, using one of your own records. Nothing is sent.
4. Flip the switch on the left of the automation. Recoatly confirms with Automation on.

Build your own

1. Click New automation and give it a Name.
2. Under When, choose a Trigger — for example Job is completed or Invoice is paid in full — and how long to wait.
3. Under Only if…, add a condition if it should only run sometimes, such as only for commercial customers.
4. Under Then, add one or more actions: send an email, notify the team, create a follow-up task, tag the customer or move their stage.
5. Click Save automation.

Good to know

• Recoatly checks the record again just before sending. An estimate follow-up isn't sent once the customer has answered, an overdue reminder isn't sent once the invoice is paid, and a visit reminder isn't sent if the visit was cancelled.
• Automated emails to customers go out between 8 AM and 9 PM in your company's time zone. Anything due overnight waits until the morning.
• Switching on an estimate follow-up doesn't chase every estimate you've ever sent — only recent ones.
• Customers with no email address on file, who unsubscribed, or who are marked Do not contact are skipped. The Run history tab shows every run and the reason anything was skipped.
• Automations you build, and ones you add from the Library tab, are switched on as soon as you save or add them.
• Automated emails include an unsubscribe link. See How emails to your customers work.
• Automations don't run while your account is read-only, and they don't catch up afterwards, so customers never get a backlog of old reminders.
• To email a whole group of customers once, use a campaign instead. See Send email campaigns and ask for reviews.
• Text message actions are coming soon. For now, automations reach customers by email.