Automated communications creation overview
An automated communication is one that is generated as an unattended process in response to an event having occurred. The nature of the event used to trigger the communication is controlled by the definition of one or more conditions. For example, an automated communication may be created to despatch an acknowledgement email or text message to all relevant contacts, once a new repair request is recorded onto Civica Cx Housing. Similarly, a reminder communication may be despatched to all relevant contacts 24 hours prior to the date of a confirmed inspection or works order appointment.
A separate automated communication can be created for each potential event on the system for which an unattended correspondence is required. Both a module and entity must be specified (e.g. Repairs and Repairs Request) as part of the automated communication set-up process. In addition, one or more conditions must be defined to control the circumstances under which the communication will be generated, as well as any consequential updates to the status of an entity. So, extending the example above, once a repair request acknowledgement is despatched, a condition may be set to update the repair request status from, say, 'Entered' to 'Open'.
Automated communications are also an excellent method of informing system users in respect of the status of their account. For example, users with a disabled or locked account can receive an email notification triggered by an automated communication. A similar approach can be adopted for passwords that have needed to be reset or for those reaching their expiration date.
As the name suggests, automated communications are created immediately based on the qualifying conditions being met, with the resulting communication jobs despatched to the queue, awaiting generation. They can be defined for any communication output channel - letter, email or SMS - and linked to a queue operating under any management method - scheduled, managed manually or immediately generated.
Separate help articles have been produced for each key aspect of automated communications creation, including: