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Customer service sends two kinds of message, and treats them differently. A service message is about the customer’s own order. A marketing message asks for something or promotes you. Omnilinker sends one-to-one and service messages only: it has no newsletter or campaign tool.

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What is checked before every message

Whoever sends the message (you from an order, a bulk run or an automation), the same checks run:
  1. Does the order’s source allow it? Allegro and OLX buyers are reached through their marketplace only. See What Customer service does today.
  2. Is there an address? An e-mail address, or a phone number that can receive an SMS.
  3. Did the customer ask not to be contacted? Do not contact on the contact stops everything: service messages and marketing messages, by e-mail and SMS.
  4. Is the address or number on the suppression list? See below.
  5. For a marketing message: is marketing consent in force for this channel?
The message is checked when you prepare it, so the panel can show why a channel is unavailable, and again at the moment it is sent. A message that fails a check is Skipped, never sent, with the reason in Sent messages: The last two come from the choice made for one counter order, not from the customer’s consent. See Keep a counter customer informed. They narrow an order’s updates (a delay notice, “ready for pickup”, a note about the order) and nothing else: a reply, a thank-you, a review request, an invoice and a quote ignore them. When you write a message by hand from the order, they appear as a note and don’t block you.

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Where a customer’s choices live

They live on the contact, in Contact preferences: Service messages and News and offers for E-mail and for Phone · SMS, with the consent history. You can record or withdraw marketing consent, and switch Do not contact on and off, with the Manage consent and do-not-contact permission. See Contacts. Each consent belongs to the address it was given for; changing a contact’s e-mail or phone number means the consent must be recorded again. A consent entry is never edited or deleted: a change of mind is a new entry.
The consent wording in the app is a draft that hasn’t been approved by a lawyer. A consent recorded under the draft wording doesn’t count, and no marketing message is sent on it. Until a wording is approved, review requests are not sent. Omnilinker doesn’t give legal advice: check your wording with your lawyer.

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How a customer opts out

  • By SMS. The customer replies STOP. Omnilinker puts the number on the suppression list and withdraws the contact’s SMS marketing consent. Nothing more is sent to the number by SMS. See Text messages (SMS).
  • By e-mail, with the unsubscribe link. A thank-you or a review request carries a link at the bottom. See Unsubscribe links. A service e-mail (a delay notice, “ready for pickup”, a quote) carries none.
  • By marking an e-mail as spam, or when the address bounces. The address is put on the suppression list for e-mail.
  • By telling you. Switch Do not contact on, or withdraw the consent, on the contact.
The e-mails that Omnilinker sends as a Thank you or a Review request end with a sentence and a link: “Don’t want e-mails from us? Unsubscribe here: … You will then get no more e-mails from us, order updates included.” The sentence is in the language of the conversation, or your organization’s default language. The e-mail also carries the standard unsubscribe header, so a mail program can show its own Unsubscribe button. Omnilinker adds both itself: you don’t write them into the template. If this server can’t issue a link, the e-mail isn’t sent, and Sent messages says: “Nothing was sent: thank-you and review-request e-mails must carry an unsubscribe link, and this server can’t issue one yet.” What the customer sees:
  1. They open the link. The page Unsubscribe from e-mails asks “Stop all e-mails to this address, order updates included?” Opening the link changes nothing yet, because mail scanners open links too.
  2. They click Unsubscribe. The page says “Done. We won’t send e-mails to this address any more, order updates included.” A mail program’s own button does the same at once.
An unsubscribe stops all e-mail to that address, not only thank-yous and review requests. Omnilinker keeps one suppression list per channel and address, so a delay notice or a quote to that address is Skipped as well (“Address on the suppression list”), and the contact’s Contact preferences reads “E-mail stopped (unsubscribed)”. Text messages are not affected. It works for an address that is not a contact, too. A link stops working after a year; an old one says “This link is no longer valid. Use the link in a more recent e-mail.” To let e-mails reach that address again, see Allow messages again.

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The suppression list

The suppression list stops messages to an address or a number on a channel. Omnilinker adds to it by itself when: A suppressed address blocks that channel only, service messages included. The contact’s Contact preferences then reads “E-mail stopped” or “SMS stopped” with the reason, and the contact keeps working on the other channel. The list stores a fingerprint of the address, not the address itself, so it holds when the contact is erased, and it covers an address that was never a contact.

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Allow messages again

A customer who unsubscribed by mistake, or whose mailbox works again after a bounce, can be allowed again. You need the Manage consent and do-not-contact permission.
1

Open the contact

Open the contact and look at Contact preferences. A stopped channel reads, for example, “E-mail stopped (unsubscribed)”, with a button Allow messages again beside it. The button isn’t shown on an anonymized contact, or for a channel that isn’t stopped.
2

Say why

Click Allow messages again. The dialog repeats what was stopped and why. Under Why are messages allowed again? write the reason, up to 500 characters. The button Allow messages again stays off until you do.
3

Confirm

Click Allow messages again: “Messages are allowed again.” Messages to that address are sent again from now on.
Allowing messages again only removes the block. It doesn’t give marketing consent: a review request still needs a consent in force, and a customer who replied STOP has to agree to SMS marketing again. The record isn’t deleted: the contact shows “Allowed again on … by … Reason: …”. A new bounce, complaint, STOP reply or unsubscribe stops the address again. To lift Do not contact, switch it off on the contact.
For an address that bounced or whose owner marked an e-mail as spam, the e-mail provider (Amazon SES) also keeps its own list of addresses it won’t deliver to. Allowing messages again in Omnilinker doesn’t clear that list, so such an e-mail may still not arrive. If it doesn’t, ask Omnilinker support to remove the address there too. This has not been checked against the provider yet.
An address that isn’t a contact has no screen to do this on. If a customer who is not a contact asks to be written to again, create the contact with that address first.

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When a customer is erased

When you anonymize a contact or an order, Omnilinker erases what Customer service holds about them: the text and subject of their messages, their e-mail address and phone number. A message that hasn’t left yet is cancelled. Sent messages then shows “Erased customer” and “The text was erased with the customer’s data.” The suppression list and Do not contact stay, so messages don’t start again. See Contacts and Orders.