Triggers have always been one of the most powerful features in both Spectra and myStratus Desktop, and every year this feature becomes even more powerful. Today I’m excited to share with you what’s new with triggers in the new 2016 Version.

First of all, for those of you that aren’t using triggers, let me answer the question, “What are triggers?” Triggers are the ability to have the software automatically perform some type of action for you, like automatically send an email or SMS text message to your client, or automatically create a task once some type of event occurs. Triggers can be set up for a variety of events, like client, session, task, invoice, or production statuses or on specific dates, such as create dates, birth dates, invoice dates, or session dates.

So, what’s new in 2016?

• You can now automatically trigger a communication to a client based on a family member’s birth date. If the family member has an email address, the email will be sent directly to the family member. If not, the email will be sent to the primary email address for the client. If you don’t want to send an email, you could trigger a phone call or task instead.
• A new type of trigger has been created called SMS/Email. This type of trigger will send a text message to the client if they have a text-enabled mobile number on file. If they don’t, an email will be sent instead.
• A new option has been added to Exclude Confirmed sessions or appointments. For example, you can set up a trigger to send a client a confirmation email three days before their session date, along with a hyper-link they can click to confirm their session. You can create a second trigger to automatically create a confirmation phone call record for all sessions one day before their session date but EXCLUDE those that have already confirmed their sessions. This way you only have to call those clients that are still unconfirmed, saving your staff valuable time.
• You can now specify a start and stop time the Control Center will use when processing each trigger. This option gives you a lot of flexibility! Choose to send a particular email in the evening, or make sure your SMS texts only go out during daytime hours.
• For invoice triggers, you can now create separate triggers for different invoice types, such as session fee invoices versus print order invoices.
• Finally, you can use triggers to automatically create web forms. More on that topic next week!

Summary

If you’re not already using triggers, now is the time to get started. Use triggers to automate your personalized communications with your clients. Just set it and forget it! Let the software do the work for you!