Flags act as a task list / personal reminder system for bookings and other events in TourCMS.
Flags can either be set automatically by TourCMS - perhaps because something happened or hasn't happened within a certain period of time - or set manually by a member of staff. Staff users can configure which types of flags they want to see (in the Flags page in TourCMS) and also which they would like to have notifications sent to them via email and/or SMS, flags set within the last 4 days will also be visible on the homepage. Flags are assigned to a user, so it's possible to have multiple flags in a booking, each of them assigned to a different user.
Example:
Flags due to events
Event flags are set immediately something occurs with a booking. Events include:
- New quotation/provisional/confirmed bookings (either made by staff or via the web)
- Expired quotation/provisional bookings
- Cancelled bookings
Flags due to issues
Issue flags are set when a booking may need attention. All bookings are checked nightly for any potential issues and flags are then set. Different priorities can be set at different times. For example, quotations that have not been dealt with may be normal priority after 2 days and high priority after 4 days. Issues include:
- Booking status still quotation/provisional after a certain number of days
- Within a certain number of days prior to arrival date and booking status still quotation/provisional
- Full balance not received within a certain number of days prior to arrival date
- Final check not complete within a certain number of days prior to arrival date
- Tour still not reached minimum confirmed numbers within a certain number of days prior to departure date
How to configure event & issue flags
You can easily activate your event and issue flags, from Homepage you can go to Bookings >Flags and then click on the link Your bookings, flags, and notifications settings.
If you want to restrict Flags only to a certain collection of bookings then you should select the corresponding Product Filter from the dropdown list, otherwise, if you want to apply Flags to all your bookings then just keep selected the default option [All bookings]
In addition to this, you can define what kind of events would generate a flag. If you don't want to be notified when a certain event occurred then just keep the "Off" option selected, otherwise please select the kind of notification you'd like to receive: Flag, Flag & Email, Flag & SMS or Flag, Email, and SMS.
Once you have defined your flags or notifications, then click on Save changes at the bottom of the page.
Flags set by staff users
Staff users can create flags on a particular booking, either immediately if they want a member of staff to be aware of something / carry out an action, or at some future date as a reminder that something needs to be done - perhaps to follow up with a supplier or chase the customer for extra details. New flags can be set on a booking under the Workflow tab.
Once the flag has been created for this booking it will look like this:
And the user will see the Flag in the booking screen.
Booking screen:
View Flags inside TourCMS
You can view/search all other flags - including those scheduled to be raised in the future - by clicking through to the Flags section Homepage -> Flags
Receive notifications of new Flags via email or SMS
When a new flag is created - if a staff user has selected for that particular type of flag to be sent via email/SMS- TourCMS will send a notification message to the email address and/or mobile phone number configured against their login.
To configure which types of flags trigger notifications for a particular staff user just head to Configuration > Users and then go to Bookings, flags & notifications for the staff user in question. Individual staff users can also configure their own settings via the Bookings, flags & notifications link at the bottom of the homepage.
SMS notifications require a paid Clickatell account, full instructions can be found by logging into TourCMS and heading to Configuration & Setup then Clickatell. Details of pricing can be found on the Clickatell website.
Configure the email message
Emails generated by flags will by default have no message body (the flag will be in the subject of the email) however it is possible to customise both the message body and "From:" email address by heading to Configuration > System & Setup > Bookings general settings.
Documentation tags can be used in the message body to add extra information about the booking, for example, %itinerary_table_op% to output the customer's itinerary including operational info. For a full explanation of all of the tags that can be used see the Documentation manual (Emails / Invoices).
Flag product filter
Product filters can be used so that a member of staff will only receive automated flag notifications for certain tours. e.g. if they are based in City A, and you run tours in City A and City B, they could just receive notifications for new bookings in City A.
Mark a flag as complete
Every user can complete his/her own flags by going to the booking screen > Workflow and clicking on the action icon:
It's also possible to complete the Flags by going to BOOKINGS > FLAGS and clicking on the action icon. It means that you have to complete the flags one by one.
Or you can also select multiple flags and complete all of them:
Please, take into account that if a user completes his/her own flag, the same flag is still unaffected for the rest of customers, as the flags are assigned to every user.
Take over a flag
It's possible to take over a flag as your own by clicking on the person icon on the right:
After that, you will be able to complete that flag who was originally assigned to a different user.