Sending email based on date picker field

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dcstover1
Member

I'd like to streamline our company's crm. We got a lot of people filling out our application but NOBODY likes to answer their damn phone. So i'd like to use the date picker field to setup an appointment via telephone and then send them an automated email the day of the appointment reminding them that they should answer and not waste our time.

Possible? anybody done this yet? I realize that this will probably have to be done in mailchimp or another autoresponder, but im just wondering what will be easier.

Posted 12 years ago on Sunday October 14, 2012 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

Gravity Forms can capture the appointment information for you, but sending a reminder email based on the date picker date is not something we can help with. I'm not sure even an autoresponder can help, because you want to delay the notification email until some point close to the date/time of their appointment. Is that accurate?

Posted 12 years ago on Monday October 15, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

Yes this is correct. But it wont be the intial email. The initial email will tell them thank you for applying and that to let them know they have set up an appointment. I want the second email to be the reminder that they "have an appointment today". AKA pick up your damn phone

Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday October 17, 2012 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

The email reminder on the day of their appointment is not something Gravity Forms can do. You would have to set up some sort of email notification program, and hold the email or schedule the email for the day of the appointment. This is not something Gravity Forms can do automatically, but I bet there is a way to do it using WordPress.

I've been thinking about ways of doing this which utilize the existing WP Cron. It would be overkill in your situation, but if you somehow published a post at the beginning of the day of their appointment, you could run some code in that post which would email a specific user. You could put all those posts in some sort of "reminder" category, then exclude those posts from the The Loop on your site. The post would not actually need to contain any data: just a custom field email address, and your code or function would read the email address and send the notification when the post is published. Just an 'out of the box' way of taking advantage of existing WordPress functionality.

Maybe there is a newsletter or "email your blog members" plugin which can do something similar, or a mailing service which will send out a reminder on a certain date?

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 18, 2012 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

How about a plugin that sends a birthday reminder, or anniversary reminder, based on a custom field or profile field? Maybe something like that exists and you could adapt that for your purposes.

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 18, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

Thank you for the help! I found a plugin that will give me this functionality! "Appointments plus" will be able to send users an email based upon a certain number of hours before there appointment. Much like travelocity or flight booking websites will send a "are you ready for your flight" type email. The only problem is, integrating these two together might take some doing. Is it possible to use there calendar system within a gravity form?

Again thanks for the help!

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 18, 2012 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

I think you will need to use the gform_after_submission hook to create an appointment in Appointments Plus, rather than trying to integrate them the other way around.

http://www.gravityhelp.com/documentation/page/Gform_after_submission

You need to determine how appointments are stored when you create one using the Appointments Plus plugin, then store all the same data after accepting your form submission with your Gravity Form.

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 18, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

hmm...im pretty noobed when it comes to php, im wondering if i should source this one out.

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 18, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

Ok, i decided to tackle this myself, but I am a bit stuck. Ive used the method that you suggest, and created a test form much like the form i will be using, it redirects to the page with the appointment maker and is supposed to send name, email and phone number into the appointment form fields. But it is not populating...

http://financedhomes.ca/appointment-test/

Posted 12 years ago on Friday October 19, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

anything?

Posted 12 years ago on Tuesday October 23, 2012 | Permalink
alsc
Member

Why not use Mailchimp and the mailchimp add on? Then create a autoresponder that sends out on the specific date, the user has selected for the appointment.

Posted 12 years ago on Tuesday October 23, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

hmm....probably because i had no idea i could do this :)...Would it be able to send me an email on this date as well?

im a super noob when it comes to mailchimp

Posted 12 years ago on Tuesday October 23, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

how is mailchimp supposed to know when they scheduled there appointment? Using the mail chimp addon it only sends email, first name and last name. Is there an option to customize what is being sent to mailchimp?

Posted 12 years ago on Tuesday October 23, 2012 | Permalink
alsc
Member

If you add a date to the mailchimp list (in mailchimp), you can connect it to a form through the add on.

Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday October 24, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

Hmm, i know this is outside the realm of gravity forms probably now. But ive searched and searched, how would i go about adding custom fields to the list such as date like you say? Ultimately id like to have my list in mailchimp show the exact fields of my form, not just limiting to name, email.

Again thank you for the info, googling "custom mailchimp list" or "customizing mailchimp list" turns up nothing helpful.

Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday October 24, 2012 | Permalink
alsc
Member

No no, this is still way inside the GF realm.

For example. Create a new mailchimp list. Name and e-mail are default. Below the list, you see a plus (add a field). Click that and select date. Then define a merge tag and you're done in mailchimp.

Go to GF and select the mailchimp add on. Click "Add new" and select your new mailchimp list. Then select the GF form (which has to have at least name, e-mail and a date field included).

Finally, you connect the different fields - including date - and presto, you will get date info in the mailchimp list.

After that, you can set up whatever autoresponder you like based on the date info.

Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday October 24, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

ok right off the bat im confused...ive already created a list and gf is successfully feeding to it...but within my list in mailchimp i see no big plus or any way to add any custom fields.

and what do you mean connect the different fields?? I dont see any option anywhere to feed the fields to mailchimp, just first name, last name and email.

Sorry for the mess here, i really appreciate your help!

Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday October 24, 2012 | Permalink
dcstover1
Member

ah ha! i think ive found it, i had to edit the "form fields data" under my list, there i found the big ol' plus sign!

woohoo!

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 25, 2012 | Permalink
Chris Hajer
Key Master

Congratulations. Glad you have that working now.

Posted 12 years ago on Thursday October 25, 2012 | Permalink
Samantha
Member

Hello,

I am looking for the same thing. Would like an email to be sent to a user on a certain date. I don't see the 'big ol' plus sign'. Can someone provide a screenshot please? :)
Thank you.

Edit: Found it. Was in Mailchimp's site List Data editor.

Posted 11 years ago on Saturday May 4, 2013 | Permalink