Answering calls and replying to emails from customers asking where their packages are is boring and time consuming. Parcelizer does this for you automatically by sending your customers an email and/or text notification whenever there is an update to their delivery. Here's how it works.

Click on your email address on the top right of the navigation bar and click on [Settings]. This opens the Settings menu. Choose [Notification Settings] on the right.

Notifications can be sent at three stages in the delivery life cycle. The first is when an order added to a route plan is assigned to a driver and dispatched.

The second is when the driver is about to complete a stop and presses the [Going Next] button on the driver app.

And the third is when he completes the stop by hitting [Complete Delivery] on the driver app.

The first thing to decide on is how your notification will be sent. You have three options - by text message, email or both.

If you select text message, you must ensure that the delivery phone number (which includes the country code e.g. +17781234567) is included on the order. Text messages are sent out using a third party service called Twilio, which means that they will appear as being sent from a local US number.

If you want to send the notification by email, remember to specify the delivery email address on the order. Emails are sent using Sendgrid. If your customers don't receive the notification email, there's a good chance it ended up in their spam folder.

Parcelizer lets you edit the contents of each notification message however you want. You can also toggle each notification (dispatch, going next and order complete) on or off as needed.

What makes the custom notifications feature extremely powerful is the ability to use custom fields to add variables to your message. For example, suppose you are delivering flowers to a customer called "Amy", and want to send her a notification when the driver is on the way to make the delivery. You would enter:

in the Going Next section. The custom field {delivery_name} is automatically created with the order (provided you've given it a value).

What about {package_contents}? This custom field isn't among one of the default ones that come with Parcelizer so you have to add it yourself when you create the order.

{eta} is special custom field that automatically takes the value of the estimate arrival time generated by Google Maps based on the driver's real time location and distance from the delivery address.

If you have any questions about Parcelizer's customer notifications, don't hesitate to contact support@parcelizer.com.