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Servtide
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Notifications & automations

Servtide sends reminders, follow-ups, and promotional messages to your customers automatically or on demand. Configure your sender identity, design message templates, set up customer email/SMS campaigns, and let pre-built automations trigger notifications when jobs are scheduled, dispatched, or estimates are sent.

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1

Step 1: Set Your Email Sender Identity

Settings → Branding → Customer email sender
  1. Click the Settings gear icon in the top right
  2. Select Branding from the left navigation
  3. Scroll to the Customer email sender section
  4. Enter From name (e.g. 'Acme Plumbing')
  5. Enter From email (e.g. 'hello@acme.com')
  6. Click Save sender

What to enter

  • From name: Your company name (appears as sender in customer emails)
  • From email: The email address customers will reply to and see in their inbox

Tips

  • Emails must come from YOUR domain, not Servtide's, for branding and deliverability
  • The domain must be verified (see next step) or emails may land in spam
  • Leave blank to use the Servtide default (no-reply@servtide.app)

Watch out

  • If you do not own the domain you enter (e.g. gmail.com), email delivery will fail — use your company domain
  • Changing the email sender does NOT retroactively update already-sent automations; it applies going forward
2

Step 2: Verify Your Email Domain

Settings → Branding → Email sending domain
  1. Click the Settings gear icon in the top right
  2. Select Branding from the left navigation
  3. Scroll to the Email sending domain section
  4. Enter your company domain (e.g. 'acme.com')
  5. Click Add domain
  6. Copy the DNS records shown (CNAME, SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
  7. Log into your domain host (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
  8. Add the DNS records to your domain's DNS settings
  9. Return to Servtide and click Check status
  10. Wait for the badge to show 'Verified' (can take 24–48 hours)

What to enter

  • Domain: The bare domain name of your company (without www, https, or email address)

Tips

  • You only need to set up ONE domain for the organization; all customer emails will use it
  • DNS changes propagate slowly (up to 48 hours); check back later if verification fails initially
  • Ask your domain host's support if you need help adding DNS records

Watch out

  • Without DNS verification, the email provider (Resend) will not send; messages are logged in dev only
  • Some domain hosts rate-limit DNS changes; try again later if you hit an error
  • Servtide requires RESEND_API_KEY to be configured on the server for email to work (configured by your hosting provider or admin)
3

Step 3: Create Message Templates

Settings → Document templates
  1. Click Settings in the top right
  2. Select Document templates from the left navigation
  3. In the 'New template' form at the bottom, enter a template name (e.g. 'Payment Reminder')
  4. Select the template kind: Invoice, Estimate, Email, or SMS
  5. Click Create & edit
  6. In the Blocks panel on the left, add blocks (text, heading, divider, etc.) using the dropdown
  7. Click Add block to insert each one
  8. Use arrow buttons to reorder blocks; click the X to delete
  9. For text blocks, edit the content in the text field (supports {{merge.fields}} like {{customer.name}})
  10. Click Save draft to keep changes without publishing
  11. Click Publish & set default when ready to use the template

What to enter

  • Template name: A readable name for your team (e.g. 'Residential Invoice', 'Appointment Reminder')
  • Kind: The document type — Invoice and Estimate are printed/PDF; Email and SMS are sent to customers
  • Blocks: Modular content pieces (logo, heading, text, line items, totals, terms, signature, pay button, divider, spacer)

Tips

  • Templates are previewed live on the right side; you can see how merge fields render with sample data
  • Publish sets the template as the default for that kind; future jobs/invoices/estimates will use it
  • Use merge fields (hover over the field list at the bottom) to personalize: {{customer.name}}, {{invoice.number}}, {{invoice.total}}, {{company.name}}, etc.
  • You can have multiple templates of the same kind; only one is marked default
  • Invoice/Estimate templates can include line items, subtotal, tax, and a terms block

Watch out

  • Changing a default template does NOT affect already-issued invoices/estimates; they keep their original design
  • Merge fields are case-sensitive and must match exactly (e.g. {{invoice.number}}, not {{invoicenumber}})
  • If you publish a template while in draft mode, the draft replaces the published version
4

Step 4: Send One-Off Email & SMS Campaigns

Settings → Marketing
  1. Click Settings in the top right
  2. Select Marketing from the left navigation
  3. In the New campaign form, enter a campaign name (e.g. 'Spring AC Tune-Up')
  4. Choose Channel: Email or SMS
  5. For email, enter a subject line (e.g. 'Book your seasonal tune-up')
  6. Enter the Message body (plain text; up to 1000 characters)
  7. Optionally, enter a Segment tag to limit the campaign to customers tagged with that label (leave blank to reach all customers)
  8. Click Create draft
  9. The campaign appears in the Campaigns table below with status 'draft'
  10. Review your message, then click Send to deliver it to all matching customers
  11. Status changes to 'sending' then 'sent' with a count of successful deliveries

What to enter

  • Name: A label for your team (not sent to customers)
  • Channel: Email or SMS
  • Subject (email only): The email subject line
  • Message: The body text (for SMS, keep under 160 characters for best rates)
  • Segment tag (optional): Customer tag to filter by (e.g. 'VIP', 'Commercial') — blank = all customers

Tips

  • Campaigns are capped at 1000 recipients per send; if you have more, create multiple campaigns or contact support
  • SMS uses Twilio; each message is charged per SMS rate (usually $0.01–0.02 per message)
  • Email uses Resend; you need a configured RESEND_API_KEY on the server
  • Always proofread before clicking Send — campaigns cannot be unsent once triggered
  • Track sent count in the Campaigns table: 'Sent' column shows 'X/Y' (messages sent / recipients)

Watch out

  • Campaigns cannot be edited after creation; you must create a new one
  • Customers must have a valid email (for email) or phone (for SMS) to receive; missing contact info is silently skipped
  • Without Twilio or Resend configured, messages are logged to the console in dev mode, not actually sent
5

Step 5: Understand Built-In Automations

How automations work (no UI to configure yet)
  1. Automations trigger automatically on job and estimate events
  2. No configuration needed — they are pre-set when your account is created
  3. The following automations run by default and are ENABLED: Appointment reminder (24h before), Tech on the way (SMS when dispatched), Review request (SMS 2h after job complete), Estimate follow-up (email 2 days after sent)

What to enter

  • Trigger: The event that fires the automation (e.g. job.scheduled, job.dispatched, job.complete, estimate.sent)
  • Actions: What happens when the trigger fires (send a template, create a follow-up job, etc.)
  • Offset: Delay the action (e.g. '-24h' = 24 hours before the job, '+2h' = 2 hours after)

Tips

  • To disable an automation, contact your account owner or admin (requires settings.automations permission)
  • Appointment reminders are sent 24 hours before a scheduled job; if the appointment is less than 24 hours away, it sends immediately
  • Estimate follow-ups only send while the estimate is in 'sent' status; once approved or declined, follow-ups stop
  • Technician dispatched (on the way) SMS uses SMS template and sends to customer phone if available
  • All customer-facing messages use the email sender and domain configured in Branding (above)

Watch out

  • You cannot edit default automations via the UI yet; contact support to customize triggers, conditions, or actions
  • If a job is canceled, related automations do not fire for that job
  • Scheduled automations (e.g. 24h reminder) run on a background worker; if the server is down, messages queue up and send once it restarts
6

Step 6: Set Up Review Request Link (Optional)

Settings → Branding (via organization settings) or Settings → Marketing
  1. If you want to include a review URL in your 'Review Request' automation messages, contact your account admin
  2. The admin can set reviewUrl in organization settings (currently no UI for this)
  3. Example review URL: https://www.google.com/business/reviews?mycompany or https://www.yelp.com/biz/mycompany
  4. Once set, the review request template will include the link in SMS/email sent 2 hours after a job completes

What to enter

  • Review URL: A full link to your Google Business, Yelp, or Trustpilot review page

Tips

  • Customers are more likely to leave reviews if the link is direct and easy to click
  • Use a short, memorable URL if possible (e.g. a bit.ly link for a long review page)

Watch out

  • The review URL is not yet editable in the web UI; ask your admin to set it via the API or database
  • Without a review URL, the review request message is generic ('Thanks from [company]')
7

Step 7: Monitor Message Conversations (Inbox)

Main nav → Inbox
  1. Click Inbox in the top navigation
  2. Conversations appear as a list on the left (two-way SMS with customers and AI receptionist chats)
  3. Click a conversation to view the thread
  4. Type a reply in the text field at the bottom and click Send to respond to a customer

What to enter

  • Conversation ID: The phone number (for SMS) or identifier (for AI receptionist)
  • Direction: 'in' for inbound (customer), '↩' for outbound (your reply)

Tips

  • Inbox shows only conversations initiated by customers or the AI receptionist; campaigns and automations do not appear here
  • You can reply to any SMS conversation directly from the app
  • The AI receptionist automatically logs its chats; you can review and respond

Watch out

  • If Twilio is not configured, inbound SMS cannot be received; set TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID, TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN, TWILIO_FROM on the server

Done when

  • Email sender configured in Settings → Branding (from name and email)
  • Email domain verified and showing 'Verified' status (may take 24–48 hours)
  • At least one message template created (Invoice, Estimate, Email, or SMS)
  • Default template published for invoice and/or estimate
  • Understood how built-in automations work (appointment reminder, tech on the way, review request, estimate follow-up)
  • Tested a campaign draft by creating and reviewing it before sending
  • Reviewed inbox to see inbound SMS and receptionist conversations
  • Contacted admin if you need to customize automations or set a review URL

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