Use the Designer to create personalized emails such as acknowledgements, receipts, and thank-you messages. Customize the content, layout, and timing of each message, and include dynamic merge fields that pull from transaction details and Salesforce Contact records. Once set up, Autoresponders will “fire” (send the email) automatically when they are “triggered” by a transaction that meets the defined conditions.
NOTE:
- Autoresponders must be set up before transactions are received.
- Autoresponders will not send for past transactions unless the transaction data is reprocessed.
- If a transaction is in Temporary Contacts, the Autoresponder will not fire until the Temporary Contact has been processed.
This article includes:
AUTORESPONDER DEFAULT SETTINGS
AUTORESPONDER DEFAULT SETTINGS
Show Tags In Autoresponder – Tags are keywords used to filter an extensive list of email templates when creating your Autoresponder. Tags are created through Designer when you save the email template. If you create a new tag when you save a template in designer, add the tag here before creating the Autoresponder.
Mail From Name – This will tell your patrons who the email is from.
Mail From Address – This is the sender’s email address shown in the email to the Patron. Best practice is to use a dedicated email address that is different from any addresses used for internal notifications (such as BCC recipients). If the same email address appears in both the "To" and "From" fields, some email providers may treat the message as suspicious and block it or mark it as spam.
Reply To Address – This is the email address that is auto populated when the recipient clicks "Reply" in their email program.
Subject – Subject of email the patron will see in their inbox.
BCC – Email address(es) for internal notification. If more than one address is needed, separate addresses with a semicolon and no space.
Log Retention Policy – Enter the number of days you want to keep Autoresponder log records. You may enter a value between 0 and 1095 days (3 years). Once the calculated date is reached, the log entries will be automatically deleted.
DESIGNER
Saved Autoresponder templates will be listed here. Click the 3 dots in the Action column to View, Preview, Edit, Clone, or Delete a saved template. The Clone option will make an exact copy of the template and immediately open the Designer for editing. Edit, then save as a new name.
Note: If your organization upgrades from the legacy C&P version 9 apps to Click & Pay Suite, your existing Autoresponder templates will carry over. However, those templates will not be editable in Click & Pay Suite. Even ‘new’ templates cloned from V9 templates cannot be edited.
Click the “+ Add New” button to create a new Email Autoresponder template.
When you click “+ Add New” you will see templates for Acknowledgements and Receipts. Select the template you want to use.
Edit the template you have selected with your branding, text, images, videos, buttons, social media links, etc. that you wish to include in the email.
When your edits are complete click the “Save” button. Enter the name of the template and the Tag(s) for the template.
You may also add a PDF attachment to be sent with the Autoresponder for this design.
Click the “Save” button.
CREATE AN EMAIL AUTORESPONDER
In Autoresponder > Email you will set the conditions required for the Autoresponder to fire. With a good SKU Schema and/or use of SKU suffixes , you can personalize your responders in unlimited ways.
Autoresponder List
Saved email Autoresponders will be listed here. Click the 3 dots in the Action column to Edit, Delete, Clone, or View. The Clone option will make an exact copy of the existing Email Autoresponder settings and immediately open for editing. Give the cloned Autoresponder a new name, edit, and save.
Click the “+ New” button to create a new email Autoresponder.
New Email C&P Autoresponder
Basic Information
Responder Name: The internal name for the Responder. Use it to indicate the associated template and conditions unique to the Autoresponder.
Responder Status: Change your Autoresponder's status to "inactive" to ensure it will not be sent when it is not currently relevant, but it will retain the details of the Autoresponder to be used again.
Tags: Tags are keywords defined when the Designer template is created to filter the choices you have available in the next field for C&P Template Name.
Tags are useful if you have too many templates to easily review. If you are unsure how to use tags, simply choose "* All Tags” to show the entire list of available C&P Templates.
C&P Template Name: Select from a list of Templates that you saved in C&P Designer.
C&P Account Number: If your organization has multiple Click & Pledge accounts connected to your Salesforce instance, then a dropdown of C&P Accounts will display here.
Mail To: Select the recipient of the email. You may choose from Payee, Specific Email Address, No Email Address, or Fundraiser.
Mail From Name: This tells the recipient who the email is from.
Mail From Address: This is the email address presented as the sender's email. Best practice is to avoid using an address you also intend to use for internal notifications (such as BCC recipients), so the email does not have the same information in a "to" and a "from" field, potentially flagging it as spam.
Reply To Address: This is the email address that is auto populated when the recipient clicks "Reply" in their email program.
Subject: The subject line of the email the patron will see in their inbox.
Create Activity History: When selected, this adds a completed Task record to the Contact Record. To modify the options offered, edit the Subject picklist values for the Task Object in Object Manager.
Salesforce Trail: Manage your Picklist Values
Mail Policies
Stop delivery after: Enter the number of times you wish to attempt to send the Autoresponders if they are not successfully fired.
Click the Next button to continue.
NOTES:
- All conditions you set up must be met for the Autoresponder to fire.
- Separate Autoresponders must be created for One-Time and Recurring transactions.
Do not send if Opt Out: If the checkbox is selected, the Autoresponder will not fire.
C&P Account Number(s): If your organization uses multiple Click & Pledge accounts (for example, one per chapter or branch), you can choose to create Autoresponders that apply to all accounts or tailor one for each account individually. To select multiple accounts, hold Ctrl and click each account number you want to include. Then click the right arrow to move them to the “Selected” box.
(AND) Payment Method: Check the boxes to select the payment methods that will fire the Autoresponder. If you want the Autoresponder to fire when any kind of credit card is used, check them all.
"Other" refers to Custom Payment types your organization uses. Add a single custom payment type name or * for any name. Do not add multiple names in this field. Please create a separate Autoresponder for each custom payment type.
(AND) Payment Status: Check the boxes to select which payment statuses will fire the Autoresponder. The available statuses are Authorized, Declined, Reversals (e.g., credits, chargebacks, ACH returns), and/or Pending.
(AND) Transaction Date: You may set a start and/or end date for the Autoresponder to be sent.
(AND) Recurring: You may set the Autoresponder to be sent for All Recurring, Definite Recurring (a limited number of installments or a specific end date), or Indefinite Recurring (ongoing recurring transactions without a specified end date).
You may also select which installments you want to send the Autoresponder for. Selections are All Installments, Pre-Authorization (for future recurring / updated card information), First Installment, Middle installments (exclude first and last), Last Installment, or Canceled Recurring
(AND) Future Transaction: Payments scheduled for a future date via the Virtual Terminal or using Payment Scheduling in CONNECT Campaign Details are created as a recurring transaction whether a one-time payment or multiple payments. You may send an Autoresponder for the Pre-authorization of the future dated transaction, for the Actual Transaction, or for Either Transaction.
(AND) Matching Gift: This is a condition that is specific to nonprofits using the C&P Integration with Double the Donation . If you are collecting your patron’s employer on your form for matching gift purposes, but do not use Double the Donation, you are likely collecting this information with a Custom Question. Use (AND) Custom Questions conditions to manage Matching Gift responses through custom questions.
(AND) Transaction Campaign: The Transaction Campaign refers to the Salesforce Campaign assigned “at the Transaction Level” (vs. setting the Salesforce Campaign at the item level). Transactions from CONNECT forms specify the Salesforce Transaction Campaign under Campaign Details > Salesforce Campaign
(AND) CONNECT Campaign SKU: This SKU is assigned in the CONNECT Campaign under Campaign Details > Basic Information > Campaign SKU
(AND) CONNECT Form SKU: This SKU is assigned in the CONNECT Campaign while editing a form in Form Builder under Settings > General Settings > Form SKU.
(AND) Item SKU: This SKU may be assigned in several places. They are:
- CONNECT Campaign > Campaign Details > Payment Settings > Payment Options
- CONNECT Campaign > Campaign Details > Additional Fee
- CONNECT Campaign > Campaign Details > Custom Questions (as SKU suffix)
- Salesforce > Contact > Quick Charge
- Click & Pay > Settings > Virtual Terminal > Basic
- Click & Pay Settings > Virtual Terminal > Basic > Pledge Payment
- Click & Pay Settings > Virtual Terminal > Default Items
- Click & Pay Vault > Virtual Terminal > Batch Upload, Report Batch Upload, and Manual Batch Entry
- Click & Pay Vault > Invoice
- Click & Pay Vault > Invoice Policy > Late Fee, Additional Payment
- Click & Pay Vault > Pledge – SKU Conditions
- Click & Pay Store Events > Catalog > Store Products > Data
- Click & Pay Store Events > Catalog > Event Tickets > Data
- Click & Pay Store Events > Catalog > Salesforce Products
SKU stands for “Stock Keeping Unit,” and is a non-unique, short product code. The Autoresponder will “fire” once for any transaction containing a SKU that matches the conditions set in the sections mentioned above. Be mindful that every Autoresponder with matching conditions will fire.
For example, you have an Autoresponder with a SKU for Membership (e.g., “MEMBER”) and another Autoresponder with a SKU condition for event tickets (e.g., “EVT-TICKET”) when Salesforce PaaS (Payment as a Service) receives a transaction with a Membership and 3 ticket purchases, the patron will receive the “Membership” Autoresponder and the “Event Ticket” Autoresponder. For more examples of using SKUs, refer to the Power of SKUs article.
(AND) Payment Amount: Set an Autoresponder to fire based on the payment amount of the transaction. This is especially helpful to send customized Autoresponders for larger donations.
(AND) Custom Questions: Use the exact text of a donation form's Custom Question that you set up in CONNECT Campaign > Campaign Details > Custom Questions. These "Questions" should have specifically expected answers. Both the question and answer must match exactly with what you have set up in CONNECT, including capitalization and punctuation.
SEND OPTION
Emails from the Autoresponder Queue are sent in hourly batches. This section defines when the Autoresponder should be sent to the Autoresponder Queue for delivery. Choose from the following options:
- Immediately - adds to the queue to be sent with the next 'batch'.
- Delayed - adds to the queue to be sent x number of days after the transaction occurs at a specified hour.
- On a specific day and time - adds to the queue on a specific day and time.
NOTE: Autoresponders will not fire if the transaction is sitting in Temporary Contacts.
Internal Notifications (BCC): Add email addresses that should be "blind carbon copied" when the Autoresponder is sent. As recommended in Best Practices to Ensure Email Delivery , avoid including the same email address that was used in Send From or Reply To. Add multiple emails by separating each address with a semi-colon.
LOG
The history of emails sent as Autoresponders is maintained in the Autoresponder Log.
You may edit the information shown on the list by clicking the “Customize Columns” icon on the right.
QUEUE
Once a transaction has been associated with a Salesforce Contact and has generated the C&P Transaction record and Opportunity record, any applicable Autoresponder emails that should be sent out are added to the Queue. Any Autoresponders that are scheduled for delivery are sent when the PaaS_EmailSender Scheduled Job runs, typically each hour.
Review the scheduled send time:
- Click the gear icon then click Setup.
- Type "scheduled" in the Quick Find search in the left column.
- Click Scheduled Jobs
- Review the Next Scheduled Run column.
You may edit the information shown on the list by clicking the “Customize Columns” icon on the right.
TEST AN AUTORESPONDER
Autoresponders are flexible in how and when they are triggered, so plan an easy way to test them. Create a test Contact and test transactions that can be re-used to confirm everything is working.
Suggested approach:
- Create a Contact record to be re-used specifically for testing Autoresponders.
- Go to Vault > Virtual Terminal to create a transaction that meets the condition of your Autoresponder. In the Payment For field enter the name of your Autoresponder and in the Existing Patron field enter your Autoresponder Test Contact so you can easily re-use the transaction when you want to test the Autoresponder again.
You can re-use the same test transaction to check the Autoresponder each time you modify it. Simply navigate to your test transaction record and use "Resend Autoresponder" to trigger the Autoresponder again. Another option is to click "Process Similar Transaction" when you need to create a similar transaction to adjust for any updates you have made to your Autoresponder rule.
Remove surplus test transactions that are no longer relevant in Settings > Maintenance
TROUBLESHOOT AN AUTORESPONDER
Here is a checklist to help you narrow the cause of Autoresponder delivery failures.
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Timing - consider what occurs before an Autoresponder is sent.
- The transaction must be associated with a Contact. Verify that the transaction is not in Temporary Contacts .
- The Autoresponder is queued in the Autoresponder Queue until it is sent in the hourly batch. Check to see if the Autoresponder made it to the Autoresponder Queue.
- Once the Autoresponder has been sent, an entry is created in the Autoresponder Log. If the Autoresponder exists in the Log, but was not received, consider issues that may affect email delivery.
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Failure to match Autoresponder conditions
- Double-check your conditions to confirm that the transaction qualifies for the Autoresponder. For example, a single Autoresponder cannot fire for both one-time and recurring transactions - a transaction is either recurring or it is not. The same goes for future transactions and Matching Gift transactions - this is either true or false for each transaction.
- Email Delivery Issues
- If the Autoresponder is stuck in the Autoresponder Queue, review Salesforce Settings > Scheduled Jobs to see when the next batch is scheduled to be sent.
- If the Autoresponder shows as sent in the Autoresponder Log, something is preventing the receiving mail server from accepting the email. Be sure any email entered in BCC is different from the those used in Send From or Reply To. (Refer to Best Practices to Ensure Email Receipt Delivery )