When you sign up customers for the Astro program, you can send them a welcome email to verify their participation in the program.
How to Send the Welcome/Verification Email while Adding a New Customer
You should only add a new customer to Astro if you are sure they don't already have a Pet Owner Account at your store.
First select Add Customer from either your header menu or from your Astro homescreen.
Select Add Customer
Then make sure to fill in all the required fields. The
First Name and
Last Name fields are always required. If the customer wants to be a part of your
mailing list or use the
free mobile app then the email address is required. It should be mentioned that you cannot send them the welcome/verification email if you do not have a valid email address saved on their account.
Fill in the First Name, Last Name & Email Address Fields
Once you have these fields filled in you can click the green Save & Send Pet Owner Welcome button. If you want to preview the email before sending it you can click the blue Preview Welcome Email button.
This email will be customized and will include the name of your store. The email will show the name that you have saved on your Astro account for your primary location. If you want to change what the email says for the name of your store you will need to edit that information under the Actions menu within
Account Management. We cannot change any of the wording on this email.
How to Send the Welcome/Verification Email for a Customer who Already Has an Astro Pet Owner Account at your Store.
First look the customer up like you would normally under Checkout.
Once under their account in Checkout you will either see their email address as a link below their name.
Customer with Email Address
Or you will see a link that says No Email on File or an alert that says ! Incomplete Customer Information !.
Customer with No Email Address
Any one of these can serve as a link to open the customer's Pet Owner Info pop-up. Once you are in this pop-up you can edit their info. Make sure that you confirm their email address with them or add one if there isn't one. Then you can click the red Save & Send Verification Email button.
Confirm/Add Email Address then Save & Send Email
The email that will be sent is the exact same email as the one that can be sent while adding a new customer. Welcome Email = Verification Email. See below for an example of what it will look like to your customer. John Demo will be replaced by the customer's First & Last Name, and Midtown Pet Supply will be replaced with the name of your store as it appears on your Astro account.
What Happens Once your Customers Receive their Email
The email performs three functions.
One
It gives the customer a way to verify their email address. If a customer verifies their email address via the Welcome/Verification email then any email that you send to them via Mass Email will be sent via a high speed email server. If a customer does not verify their email address you will still be able to email them, but their emails will be sent to them via one of our private email servers and will be delivered a bit slower.
We use private servers to send emails to unverified email addresses as a way to protect you from being flagged for spam just in case a customer gives you a fake email address or accidentally misspells it.
Two
It gives them links to download the mobile app to either their Android or Apple device. If they use the links from the email to download and setup the app they will also be provided with instructions on how to create their password.
Three
If they want to use the mobile app but they do not want to be a part of your mailing list then they can click the small link at the bottom of the email to unsubscribe from your mailing list.
All emails that you send via Astro, whether they are mass emails or the Welcome/Verification email, will include this unsubscribe link since it is required by privacy law.
Tips for Sending the Welcome/Verification Email to your Customers
It is best to tell your customer to expect this email so they check for it the next time they have a moment to do so. This way they are more likely to open and interact with it. When you are checking them out in Astro for the first time you can tell them about your new loyalty programs, about
Astro Offers, or about any
Custom Programs or
Points Programs you are running at your store. The App will help them keep track of all of these loyalty programs, and it's free! If you plan on using
Push Notifications to send promos or announcements to your customers via the App you can tell them about that as well.
If any of your customers are hesitant to give you their email address you can assure them that they only person that would ever be emailing them would be you. Astro and our partners will never, ever, contact your customers via email without your written consent. The App includes a link to our Secrecy Policy that your customers can access at anytime, you can also review it yourself
here.