How do I notify Customers to put their bins out?

When configuring a notification to send customers messages about refuse collection there are a few key areas to take note.

Configuration steps

1. Select the category as "Refuse Management". This will add the appropriate options further down.

2. Select the notification groups you want messages to be sent to. Once you select a refuse collection group the different collection types will be displayed below.

3. Select the round

Scheduling the message

You can either send the message immediately or you can schedule it to be sent at a later time.

Send out the notification a day before the collection

This can be done by selecting "Before 1 day" in the scheduling. You can set the time to send the notification out, which can only be selected to run in 30-minute intervals (10:00, 10:30, 11:00, etc).

Repeat scheduling

You can also set this message to repeat, allowing you to reuse the same notification, rather than having to create new ones. This can be done via "Frequency", and clicking on the "Repeat" option.

Click on [Add Schedule] to bring up a new window (see next screenshot). This is where you can configure how the repetition works. You can make it daily, weekly, or monthly, as well as choose what days of the week it will send on.

IMPORTANT - The day of the week selected must be the same day as the notification, not the day of the Round.

Considerations 

Recipients

The recipients of the notification are decided based on two factors - whether they are an Admin User or a Customer, and the address assigned to their account.

When you have selected a Round for your notification and create it, the recipient's address will need to be a part of that Round. For example, a notification created with Round 6 will only be sent to accounts whose address comes under Round 6.

This information is pulled from the waste data that you have implemented, which has all of your borough's addresses and Round numbers. This waste data can be uploaded via a CSV file. A template for this is found in Waste -> Action -> Import.

IMPORTANT - Customers will need to log in to the Mobile App at least once in order to receive Push Notifications from it.

Sending

In regards to the due date, there are a couple of things taken into consideration before sending - the Exception Days, and whether it has been set to the same day or "Before 1 day".

For example, if the due date is set to 20th January at 3pm, and the notification is set to "Before 1 day", the notification will be sent out on 19th January at 3pm.

If the notification is set to repeat, and you have configured it to repeat on the day of the notification, this should also sent out.

Exception Days

The system takes Exception Days into consideration with notifications. If you have a notification to be sent out regarding a Round, and the notification happens to fall on 25th December (an Exception Day), the notification will be pushed back to the 27th December.