Diagnosing Notification Issues
Sometimes a client claims they are not receiving notifications about their services, or a staff member is missing notifications about scheduled events. This article will walk you through the process of troubleshooting notification issues to fix them quickly for your clients and team.
IN THIS ARTICLE
- Client Notification Diagnosis Tool
- Staff Notification Diagnosis Tool
- Advanced Notification Settings
- Notification Settings In Client And Staff Profiles
- Client Subscriptions And Access In Staff Profile
- Email Logs
- Texting Notification Settings
- Business Hours
- Birthday Reminders
- Device Notification Settings
- Frequently Asked Questions
Client Notification Diagnosis Tool
To run the notifications diagnostics tool for a client, navigate to the client's profile and select "Notification Diagnosis" from the "Quick Actions" menu.
On the next screen, select the type of notification you want to run the diagnostics on. You can choose to run diagnostics on all notifications or a specific type of notification: email, text message, or push notifications. Then click the "Run Diagnostics" button.
The notification diagnostics tool will check the notifications settings for the individual client as well as your company's settings and indicate whether the settings are configured correctly for the client to receive notifications or not. It will also check the email logs for any recent email rejections by the client's email provider.
You can also click on the "Send Test Notification" button to send the client a test email, text message, or push notification.
Staff Notification Diagnosis Tool
To run the notifications diagnostics tool for a staff member, navigate to the staff's profile and select "Notification Diagnosis" from their "Quick Actions" menu.
On the next screen, select the type of notifications that the staff member has not received. You can run diagnostics on all notifications or notifications for a specific event or client that the staff member did not receive. If you select "Notifications for an event" or "Notifications for a client" you'll be prompted to select the specific event or client you want to run notification diagnostics on for this staff member. Then click the "Run Diagnostics" button.
The notification diagnostics tool will check the notification settings for the individual staff member as well as your company's settings and indicate whether the settings are configured correctly for the staff member to receive notifications or not. It will also check the email logs for any recent email rejections by the staff member's email provider.
You can also click on the "Send Test Notification" button to send the staff member a test email, text message, or push notification.
Advanced Notification Settings
To adjust your company's Advanced Notification settings, navigate to Settings > Advanced Settings > Notifications
Company Notifications: This tool will enable/disable notifications for your entire company for clients and staff. Some companies will choose to disable notifications when they are testing Time To Pet during the free trial.
Staff Receive Notifications For:
Scheduled Clients And Clients They Are Preferred Staff Member For: This is the default option. Staff will receive notifications for any client they are scheduled for within the specified interval, and all clients for whom they are a Primary, Secondary or Tertiary Preferred Staff Member.
Only Clients They Are Preferred Staff Member For: Staff will receive notifications about clients for whom they are a Primary, Secondary or Tertiary Preferred Staff Member.
Only Scheduled Clients: Staff will receive notifications for any client they are scheduled for within the specified interval.
Staff Must Have Scheduled Event Within: For notifications based on scheduled client events, Staff Members will receive a notification this number of day(s) before they are scheduled for an event, and this number of day(s) after they are scheduled for the last event with that client.
Most companies prefer to use a value between 1-3 days to cut down on notifications sent to their Staff Members.
Include System Notifications in Conversation Feed: If enabled, Time To Pet will copy Invoice notifications, Schedule Confirmation notifications and Payment notifications emails to the Client Conversation field. Note: These are only visible by Admin/Office Managers with the correct permissions
Admin Schedule Report: When enabled, Time To Pet will send all admins a summary of the entire company’s schedule.
Admin Schedule Reports Days: This tool allows you to configure how many days’ worth of events will be included in the Schedule Report. This is most commonly set to 7 days.
Daily Staff Schedule Emails: The Daily Staff Schedule Email contains only the events scheduled that day or the next, depending on the settings configured here.
Notifications Settings In Staff And Client Profiles
The client profile has information about an individual client's notification settings. In the right hand side bar under "Receives Emails For" there are dropdowns for System Notifications and Announcements. If the client receives emails for those settings, the dropdown will state "Yes". If the client has opted out of email notifications for either setting, the dropdown will state "No".
Staff Notification Settings can be accessed by an admin by clicking "Edit Settings" link in a staff member's profile or next to their name in the Staff List.
Then select the "Notifications" tab.
Notifications can be customized by clicking the checkbox for the type of notification (App, Dashboard and Email) that the staff member would like to receive for each notification event.
Note: Staff Permissions must be set for Staff to be able to manage their own notifications. This can be done in Settings > Staff Settings > Permissions.
If a staff member has permission to manage their own notifications, they can access these by clicking "Edit My Info" in the sidebar.
Then select the "Notifications" tab.
Notifications can be customized by clicking the checkbox for the type of notification (App, Dashboard and Email) that the staff member would like to receive for each notification event.
Staff will only receive notifications for a client that they are subscribed to and when the notification falls within the window outlined in Advanced Notification Settings regarding when a Staff Member will receive notifications.
Client Subscriptions And Access In Staff Profile
Client Subscriptions for staff members can be located by admins or office managers with permission to manage Staff by clicking "Edit Settings" for a staff member from the Staff List or in the staff member's profile.
Then select the "Client Subscriptions" tab.
A staff member's client subscriptions list shows all clients that they have been scheduled for or that have named them as a Preferred Sitter.
Different icons indicate the status relating to this sitter and the client that may impact if a notification is sent.
Preferred Staff Member for this Client is indicated by a blue bell icon.
Do Not Schedule Staff Member for this Client is indicated by a red flag icon.
Scheduled In Past is indicated by a green calendar icon.
No assigned events currently within 3 days is indicated by a orange clock icon.
Note: "No assigned events currently" reflects the "Staff Must Have Scheduled Event For Client Within" setting that is located in Settings > Advanced Settings > Notifications
When a client subscription is toggled off for a client in the staff member's profile, that staff member will no longer receive any notifications for that client.
The filter tool at the top of the Client Subscriptions tab allows an admin to search for client subscriptions that meet the selected criteria. You can also easily select "Subscribe to All" or "Subscribe to None" using the check boxes in the upper right hand corner or search for a client using the search box at the top of the list.
If access to a client is removed for a staff member, then subscription to that client will automatically be toggled off as well.
It is possible to toggle off subscription, and thus notifications, while maintaining client access.
Email Logs
Accessing email logs can be helpful when determining when an email was sent and if the delivery was successful. To access Email Logs for your company, navigate to Settings > Advanced Settings > Email Logs. The Email Log is a record of all emails Time To Pet has sent your clients and staff members. These logs indicate that an email was sent, but it does not guarantee that the message was delivered (for example, it might be rejected due to an invalid email address). Time To Pet will keep a log of all emails sent for a minimum of 14 days.
From the Email Logs tab, you can filter by Staff Member or Client.
Click "Delivery Report" for an email to see the delivery status.
Texting Notification Settings
If the texting integration is enabled for your account, text notifications for clients and staff can be customized by navigating to Settings > Integrations > Texting.
Notifications To Clients
Message Sent To Clients: When Enabled, any messages sent to your clients in Time To Pet will be sent to clients via text message as well. You can adjust the default message delivery setting for individual Clients in the Client Numbers section.
Event Started Notification: When enabled, we will send a text message to your client informing them when a visit is started.
Note: "Notify Clients Of Event Start Time" must also be enabled in Settings >Mobile App > Configuration to send the "Event Started Notification" by text.
Notifications To Staff
Staff Is Sent Message: When Enabled, any messages sent to your staff in their Staff Conversation Feed in Time To Pet will be sent to staff via text message as well. You can adjust the default message delivery setting for individual staff in the Staff Numbers section.
Client Request Services: When Enabled, all Admins/Office Managers will be notified by text when a client requests new services.
Client Request Service Change/Cancellation: When Enabled, all Admins/Office Managers will be notified by text when a client submits a Service Change/Cancellation Request.
Staff Is Late To Own Event: When Enabled, staff will be notified by text when they are late to their own event.
Staff Is Late To Event: When Enabled, all Admins/Office Managers will be notified by text when a staff member is late to an event.
Texting Logs
Text message logs can be found in Settings > Integrations > Texting under the "Messages" tab.
These logs can be filtered by date range, client and status of the text messages. If a client or staff member is not receiving text messages and the logs show as Sent or Delivered, please reach out to support to check for any errors with the messages.
Business Hours
When Business Hours are enabled, Time To Pet will automatically show a message or send an auto-reply to pet parents who message your business outside of your normal business hours. To change this setting, navigate to Settings > Company Settings > Messaging and select "Enabled" in the Business Hours dropdown to enable Business Hours or "Disabled" to disable Business Hours.
With Business Hours enabled, you have the ability to Automate Scheduled Messages. When enabled, any messages your company sends outside of normal business hours will be automatically scheduled to be sent the next time business hours are open. This is not applicable to post-visit reports, as these are always sent immediately. Notifications for these messages will not be sent until business hours are open and the scheduled message is sent.
Birthday Reminders
Pet Birthday reminders can be set to "Never Send" or send in a specified time frame before the pet's birthday. This notification can be sent to Admins Only or Admins & Staff With Access to that pet. To stop birthday reminder notifications altogether, set "Send Reminders" to "Never Send". This setting can be found in Settings > Client Settings > Pets.
Device Notification Settings
For Android:
- Settings > Notifications > App Settings > Time To Pet - This should list every notification type you can receive from the App, and you'll want to ensure nothing is unchecked.
- Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb - Ensure that Do Not Disturb is not enabled.
- Settings > Battery > Power Saving Mode - Samsung/Android has introduced some very aggressive power saving and battery optimization modes that automatically enable and will prevent notifications from coming in. Could you try disabling the Power Saver and see if that helps?
- Settings > Battery > Power Saving Mode - Disable the "Restrict background data" setting
- Settings > Battery > Detail > Time To Pet - Turn off Power Saving Mode
For iPhone:
- Settings > Focus - Check to see if they have any Focus settings enabled that would silence or disable notifications at certain times.
- Settings > Notifications > Time To Pet - Check to make sure "Allow Notifications" is enabled and that they have all three notification types enabled (Lock Screen, Notification Center, and Banners)
- Settings > Notifications > Scheduled Summary - Check to be sure there are no settings here preventing notifications from being delivered at certain times.
- Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Time To Pet - Ensure this is toggled ON for the Time To Pet app.
- Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode - Ensure this is toggled OFF.
FAQs
Q: One of my admins wants to turn off notifications for the Admin Schedule report. How can they do that?
The Admin Schedule Report is a company-wide setting that applies to all users in the Administrator role and it cannot be turned off for individual administrators. This setting can be enabled/disabled at Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Notifications.
Q: Why do I keep receiving birthday notifications? How can I turn that off?
The birthday notification is a company-wide setting that when enabled will send a birthday reminder to all admins or all admins and staff members with access to that pet. To turn off the notifications for all staff members, select "Admin Only" in the "Send To" dropdown. To turn off notifications for all admins and staff members, select "Never Send" in the "Send Reminders" dropdown.
Q: None of my clients or staff are receiving notifications when I send updates. What's going on?
If no notifications from your company are being received, check to make sure your Company Notifications in Settings >Advanced Settings > Notifications are set to Enabled.
Q: My staff member is not receiving notifications for a client that they have events scheduled with. Why is that happening?
Staff members receive notifications for the clients they are subscribed to within the window determined in the "Staff Must Have Scheduled For Client Within" setting located in Settings > Advanced > Notifications. For example, if the setting is set to "Staff Must Have Scheduled For Client Within" 3 days, then notifications from that client will only be sent to the staff member if it falls within the 3 day window. If you want staff members to always receive notifications for clients they are subscribed to, select "Anytime" in the "Staff Must Have Scheduled For Client Within" dropdown menu.
Q: The Notification Diagnosis tool shows a bounce/email delivery error. Is there a way to double check that?
First, check Email Logs to see if emails to that client are going through. If an email address has had a bounce or email delivery error in the past, it will continue to show in the Notification Diagnosis tool. If email logs also show that emails are not being delivered to the client's email address, please reach out to Time To Pet support for additional help.