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Custom messages (overview)

Purpose

Custom Messages lets you communicate more effectively with your patrons and with subject-matter experts to whom you refer questions.

Use Custom Messages to customize:

E-mail messages to patrons.
Acknowledgement page that appears when a patron submits a question through your library's question form. (This is not applicable to global-only QuestionPoint subscribers.) For more information, see Customize the question acknowledgement page.
Custom reply text that appears at the bottom of all e-mail messages to patrons and the acknowledgement page. For more information, see Set custom reply text.
E-mail message used to refer questions to subject-matter experts. For more information, see Customize the Refer by E-mail message to subject-matter experts.

You can also control whether information about patron accounts is included in or excluded from messages to your library's patrons. For more information, see Include/exclude patron account information in custom messages.

Although you are not required to customize these messages, you may want to review them to see if improvements are needed for your patrons. Also, if you want to exclude information about patron accounts from messages to your library's patrons, you need to change that setting.

Location in QuestionPoint

Administration module > Institution tab > Settings link > Custom Messages tab

E-mail messages to patrons

Types of messages

You can customize each of the following e-mail messages to patrons:

New account
New question
Answer
Clarification request
New account from chat
Chat transcript

Content of messages

You can customize some, but not all, elements of e-mail messages to patrons. You customize each message on its screen in the Custom Messages feature. You can view the current content of each message, customize each message as needed, and test the results. In general, each message contains the following elements:

From: The From address is the address that you set using the Outgoing Address feature. For more information, see Outgoing Address (overview).
To: The To address is the patron's e-mail address.
Subject: The subject line varies for each type of message. You cannot change it.
Greeting: The greeting is the first part of the message to the patron. It varies for each type of message. You can accept default content provided by the system or provide your own content.
Message: The message is the second part of the message to the patron. It varies for each type of message. You cannot change it.
Additional Text: The additional text is the third part of the message to the patron. It varies for each type of message. You can accept default content provided by the system or provide your own content.
Custom Reply Text: The custom reply text is the last part of the message to the patron. You set this text using Custom Reply Text in the Custom Messages feature. For more information, see Set custom reply text.

New account

A patron account is created for each unique patron e-mail address.

A new-account message contains information about a patron's QuestionPoint account and acknowledges receipt of the patron's question. It is sent automatically when QuestionPoint creates a new patron account for either of these reasons:

A patron who does not have an account submits a question through a library's question form, or
A librarian uses the Add Question feature in QuestionPoint to enter a question for a patron who does not have an account.

New question

A new-question message acknowledges receipt of a patron's question. It is sent automatically when a patron who already has a QuestionPoint account submits a question through a library's question form. (This is not applicable to global-only QuestionPoint subscribers.)

Answer

An answer message contains an answer to a patron's question. It is sent when a librarian:

Sends a message to a patron using the answer message-type on a Full Question record in QuestionPoint, or
Uses the Add Question feature in QuestionPoint to enter a question and an answer for a patron.

Clarification request

A clarification-request message requests more information about a patron's question to help the librarian answer the question. It is sent when a librarian sends a message to a patron using the clarification message-type on a Full Question record in QuestionPoint.

New account from chat

A new-account-from-chat message contains information about a patron's new QuestionPoint account. It is sent automatically when a patron chats with a librarian for the first time. (This is not applicable to global-only QuestionPoint subscribers.)