10. Email and SMS templates

Insight, then Email and SMS templates. Every message your shop sends a customer comes from a template here. They are all seeded with sensible defaults, so this step is editing rather than authoring.

What ships, and when each one fires

Template	Channel	Fires when
Order thank you	Email	An order is created
Quote sent	Email	You send a quote
Quote follow up	Email	You chase an unaccepted quote
Artwork approval request	Email	You send a proof for approval
Artwork approved confirmation	Email	The customer approves
Artwork chase	Email	A proof has sat unapproved
Order ready by reminder	Email	Ahead of the promised date
Order dispatched	Email	The order reaches Dispatched
Dispatch SMS	SMS	The order reaches Dispatched
Invoice issued	Email	An invoice is issued
Invoice reminder	Email	An invoice is due or overdue
Purchase order to supplier	Email	You send a PO

Each template has a code, a channel (email or SMS), a name, a subject for email, a body, and an active toggle. Turn a template off and that message simply stops sending.

Variables

Write the variable in double braces and it is substituted at send time.

Variable	Substitutes
	Your shop name from brand settings
	The contact's name
	The order number, for example ORD-2026-0001
	The quote number
	The invoice number
	The formatted total
	The invoice due date
	The promised ready date
	The tracking number or link
	The signed one-click approval link
	The hosted payment link
	Days a proof has been waiting
	Quote expiry date
, , ,	Purchase order fields

Use only the variables that belong to the template you are editing. A in the quote email has nothing to substitute.

The approval link is the one to leave alone

in the artwork approval template is a signed, time-boxed link that needs no customer login. It is the mechanism that gets proofs approved same-day. If you rewrite that template, keep the link and keep it above the fold.

Editing for your voice

The defaults are deliberately plain. Two passes are worth doing:

1. Sign-off and tone. Replace "The team" with however you actually sign off. Read each one aloud once.
2. Add the thing customers always ask. If every second customer asks about turnaround, put your standard turnaround in the order thank you. If they ask where to park for pickup, put it in the ready-by reminder. Each answer you add here is a phone call you do not take.

SMS specifics

SMS needs Twilio connected and a plan where SMS is enabled. Keep messages short: a long SMS is billed as several segments, and the dispatch SMS is the highest-volume message most shops send.

Inbound STOP and START are handled automatically for compliance, and a customer who has texted STOP is excluded from further SMS without you doing anything.

Test before go-live

Send one of each to yourself:

1. Create a test customer with your own email and mobile.
2. Quote, send the quote, convert it, send a proof, approve it, dispatch it, issue the invoice.
3. Check every message: from-name, reply-to, links that work, variables that actually substituted.

An unsubstituted in a live email is the kind of thing a customer screenshots.

Next

11. Payments with Stripe