For a long time ESC has given you the ability to send important information to your technicians in the field. It started with sending pages, but as pagers were replaced with phones, the pages were eventually converted into emails. Now, thanks to the smart phone revolution, ESC boasts 3 different smart phone apps (for iPhone/iPad, Android devices, and phones using the Windows Phone 7 operating system), a web-based client (Front Office) and a laptop client. This means that email is no longer the first or best choice to get dispatch information to your field techs. Having said that, email can still be extremely useful for other things.
There is a little known feature in ESC that allows you to send free-form emails to any or all of your employees. This can be a great way to remind your service team that uniform pickup is on Thursday this week, or to remind the entire crew about the safety meeting tomorrow morning. So let's take a look at how you do this.
To begin with, make sure all your employees have an email address that has been entered into ESC. You can accomplish this by clicking the Dispatch pull-down menu, then clicking Enter Technicians. Double click an existing employee to recall them and make sure the Email Address field on the General tab contains the correct email address. If an employee is not shown on this screen, whether they are an actual technician or not, now would be a good time to add both them and their email address.
Once you have all your employees entered, click on the Dispatch pull-down menu and select Email Technicians. This will show you a complete list of all the employees that have been entered into ESC AND have email addresses. Check the box next to each employee you want to receive your message or use the Select All and Deselect All buttons to work with everyone. Once you have picked your recipients, click Next.
This is where you get to write your message. Click in the bottom section and start typing. You can use the buttons in the toolbar immediately above this section to add a time and date stamp where the cursor is, or spell check your entire message. When you are satisfied with the content, click Send and it will go to everyone you selected.
If you plan on sending the same message on a regular basis, click the Add New button at the top of the screen. This will allow you save the message as a quick message. Once a quick message has been entered, it can be transferred to the main message window simply by clicking it in the list above. Once in the main message window - the message can be changed if needed.
Please note that if the employee responds to the email, it will go to the email shown in the User Email Address field on the Company → System Setup → Tech Emails screen.
Written by Eric Rausin
Featured in June 2012 Newsletter
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