Auto Shop Writer Bulletins

In Auto Shop Writer, we have used emails for a variety of purposes, including automated followup, emails of anything printed directly to a client, and reminders.

We also used a text system that was no cost which allowed you to email texts to your clients, but you had to know their provider and put it into the system.

We finally found a very affordable alternative to the text system and we’re just completing it’s full integration into ASW.  It is very useful for marketing, notifying the client when the car is ready, or asking them to call at their convenience.  We’re even setting it up to text automated appointment reminders.  

Our email system for all automated processes works fine with SMTP setups, but many people use online email and don’t have access to an SMTP channel.  In addition, those who have a dedicated system just seem to have a lot of problems getting it to work.  The reasons are pretty straightforward.  Email service providers have new rules, or are not providing SMTP services to their clients.  They want to have everyone use an online email service.  In other cases, some are using MAPI services with Outlook, but now Windows 11 is not providing that access cleanly, and it may not work, or be intermittent.

We can also use the same company for email that does the texting.  The company is called Twilio and you can read all about it not he web.  ( Twilio.com ).  It is large, well established, and likely to stick around.  A basic Twilio account would cost you about $20/month but you could use it to do extensive marketing emails.  With that, you can send up to 100,000 emails per month.  You could use it to create templates for newsletters, or tips, and keep in touch with your clients in addition to the tracking and marketing you can set to happen automatically with ASW.

 

SO HERE IS THE QUESTION:  Are you successfully connected to your email service so Auto Shop Writer is able to send emails directly ?  Would you prefer an easier connected service like Twilio to handle all of your outgoing emails ?

 

Here is how it works.  The system would be fully setup so all of your outgoing emails go through Twilio.  They will include your “Reply To” address so all responses would go to your normal business email address.

 

Please let us know by sending an email to timstone@masterlinksoftware.com. It would be greatly appreciated to hear from you.