Automations – Messages That Send Themselves

Automations are the most powerful side of Vendion Marketing. Instead of creating campaigns manually every week, you set up rules once — then the system sends the right message to the right guest at the right time, endlessly in the background. A welcome message to every first-time guest, the day after their visit. A win-back campaign to everyone who hasn't visited in 60 days, every Monday.

Open:

• Go to Marketing → Automations
• Each automation appears as a card with the number of sends, which channel it uses, and how many guests are queued ("N in queue" — guests who triggered the automation and are waiting for the delay to elapse)
• View log on a card opens the log panel with sent and failed sends

Three trigger types

Eight preset automations — delivered switched off

Eight ready-made automations ship with your restaurant. All are switched off from the start — you choose which ones to use and turn them on with the Active toggle. You can also adjust text, channel, and delay before activating.

(The templates below are the product's actual Swedish texts, translated here for reference. {nivå}, {nivåförmåner}, and {minasidor} are the actual Swedish variable strings the product uses — {nivå} inserts the guest's new loyalty tier, {nivåförmåner} the tier's perks, and {minasidor} a link to the guest's My Pages.)

1. Welcome SMS

• Trigger: Event "First visit", 24-hour delay
• Template: "Hi {name}! Thanks for visiting {restaurant}. We hope you enjoyed it! Book your next visit: {booking_link} 🍽️"
• Purpose: Convert first-time visits to second visits — the industry's strongest profitability lever

2. Win-back (60 days)

• Trigger: Schedule Mondays at 10:00, condition "at least 60 days since last visit and at least 3 visits"
• Template: "Hi {name}, it's been a while! We miss you at {restaurant}. Book a table and enjoy our menu: {booking_link}"
• Purpose: Recover lost regulars before they forget about you

3. Thank you after visit

• Trigger: Event "Visit completed", 2-hour delay
• Template: "Thanks for visiting {name}! We hope you enjoyed your time at {restaurant}. Welcome back soon: {booking_link}"
• Purpose: A friendly follow-up that keeps the relationship warm

4. No-show follow-up

• Trigger: Event "No-show", 1-hour delay
• Template: "Hi {name}, we saw you missed your reservation at {restaurant}. Want to rebook? {booking_link}"
• Purpose: Catch missed bookings before the guest feels shut out

5. VIP upgrade

• Trigger: Event "Tag added" with tag "VIP", no delay
• Template: "Hi {name}! You're now a VIP guest at {restaurant} 💎 That means you always get priority when booking. Thank you for your loyalty!"
• Purpose: Personal confirmation of elevated status, reinforces loyalty

6. New tier reached

• Trigger: Event "Upgraded to new tier"
• Template: "Congratulations {name}! 🎉 You're now {nivå} at {restaurant}. {nivåförmåner}Thank you for your loyalty!"
• Purpose: Celebrate the guest's loyalty journey and highlight the perks

7. Stamp card — guest joined

• Trigger: Event "Stamp card — guest joined" (the guest's first stamp)
• Template: "Hi {name}! You've received your first stamp on {restaurant}'s stamp card. Follow your card on My Pages: {minasidor}"
• Purpose: Engage the guest with the stamp card right from the start

8. Stamp card — 1 stamp left

• Trigger: Event "Stamp card — 1 stamp left"
• Template: "Almost there {name}! Just 1 stamp left until your reward at {restaurant}. {minasidor}"
• Purpose: Nudge the guest across the finish line to the reward

Note: there is no preset birthday automation — Vendion doesn't collect birthdays automatically. To celebrate guest birthdays, build a custom automation with the Date field trigger (requires the birthday to be filled in on the guest card).

The editor — a step flow on its own page

Automations are created and edited on a dedicated page (not in a popup), with the same step flow as campaigns:

Trigger → Channel → AI draft → SMS → Mail → Audience → Activate

• The SMS and Mail steps appear based on your channel choice — if you pick SMS only, there is no Mail step
• New Automation in the top right opens the page for a new automation
• Edit on a card opens the same page with everything pre-filled — the step circles are clickable so you can jump straight to the step you want to change
• The last step shows a summary of the whole automation and the Active toggle: "Active — starts sending when the conditions are met" or "Inactive — saved without sending"

Channel choice — SMS, email, or both

Each automation sends via SMS only, email only, or SMS + email (both):

With "both": if the guest lacks one contact detail (e.g. no email address), the other channel still sends.

Template variables — personalization

All message templates can use variables that are replaced with the guest's actual data at send time. The editor shows variable buttons based on the trigger you've chosen.

Variables work in both SMS and email and are replaced automatically at send time. A template without {name} in the opening feels impersonal — always use it. Remember that {nivå}, {nivåförmåner}, and {minasidor} are typed exactly as shown (Swedish strings), even in English messages.

Delay and schedule

For event triggers you set the delay as a free number in minutes, hours, or days (unit selector) — e.g. 30 minutes, 2 hours, or 3 days after the event.

Schedule-based automations are built with weekday buttons and a time, for example:

• Every Monday at 10:00
• Every Friday at 18:00

The condition for scheduled sends is structured: "Everyone in the audience" or the win-back combination (at least 60 days since last visit and at least 3 visits).

Spam protection — built-in safeguards

Automations are powerful, which means they can also spam guests. Vendion has four protection mechanisms:

1. Weekly limit per guest (2 send occasions per week) Max 2 send occasions per guest per rolling 7-day window. One occasion = one automation — a "both" send with SMS + email counts as ONE occasion. If the limit is hit, the next send is silently skipped. Protects against overlapping automations all triggering at once.

2. 30-day cooldown per automation and guest The same automation can't send to the same guest within 30 days. If a "Thank you after visit" was already sent 15 days ago, the next visit's thanks is skipped. This means a VIP who eats with you 8 times a month doesn't get 8 thank-you SMS.

3. Consent check per channel on every send Guests who have unsubscribed are skipped entirely. Guests who declined SMS or email consent are skipped in that specific channel. GDPR is respected automatically.

4. Contact requirement Guests without contact info for the channel (e.g. no phone number for SMS) are skipped.

Activate and deactivate

Each automation is turned on and off with the Active toggle — on the card in the list or on the last step of the editor. Inactive automations are saved without sending.

Audience — an optional restriction

In the Audience step you can limit which guests receive the send: pick a segment, a tag requirement ("Also require tag"), or both. If you pick both a segment and tags, the guest must match both. Remember: the audience is a restriction — the automation sends to the guest who triggers it, the audience only filters out guests who don't match.

Tips

• Start with the presets — the eight ready-made automations cover most needs; turn on the ones you want to use
• Use audience filters sparingly — overly narrow automations rarely trigger
• Inspect the log — click View log on a card to see sent and failed sends
• The 30-day cooldown is protection — not a race; it protects the guest from irritation