Email & SMS templates

Almost every automatic message BenchKey sends, status updates, estimate-ready notes, receipts, review requests, lead follow-ups, comes from a template you control. Edit them once and every future send uses your words.

A sent-event template opened in the visual editor, subject, body, and the AI redesign chip. Recorded from the real app with demo data.

Where templates live

Settings → Communications holds the template library. Every new account ships with 16 starter templates covering the common moments (ticket created, in diagnosis, estimate ready, ready for pickup, picked up, and more), so the system talks to customers from day one. Edit any of them, or add your own.

Templates attach to triggers elsewhere:

• Statuses attach an email, an SMS, or both, that fire when a ticket enters the status.
• Review requests use their own message with your review link.
• Lead follow-up sequences chain templates over days.

Variables, write once, personalize always

Templates support placeholders that fill per customer and ticket at send time:

• {{customer_name}}, {{ticket_number}}, {{device}}
• {{portal_link}}, the customer’s private tracking page, include it in nearly everything
• {{business_name}}, {{shop_phone}}, and the rest of your business profile

Type the variable or pick it from the editor’s insert menu. Preview shows exactly what a customer receives, with real values.

The visual email editor

Emails edit in a visual builder: your logo, brand colors, buttons, and sections, no HTML required. Brand colors come from Settings → Business → Profile, so every template matches your identity automatically.

Let the AI write or rewrite them

Two fast paths instead of staring at a blank box:

• In the AI assistant: “rewrite my ready-for-pickup email, warmer, two sentences, keep the portal link.” It rewrites in your shop’s voice and you review the result.
• During setup, the assistant drafts the whole starter set to match your trade, a watch bench and a phone store should not sound alike.

Texts: short wins

SMS templates should be one or two sentences with the link up front. Texts get read in minutes; nobody reads a paragraph in a text. Keep the detail in the email version and let both fire from the same status.

Test before you trust

Change a template, then run a test ticket through the status (or send yourself a manual message from any ticket). Thirty seconds of checking beats a week of customers receiving {{customer_name}}.