Matching an applicant to properties
The below process shows how to manually match an applicant to properties.
To do the opposite and match a property to applicants please see this guide.
Or for information on how to enable automatic matching please see this guide.
When in a contact record, under the 'Relationships' tab and in an applicants tab you will see a 'View Matching Properties' button:
This allows you to enter a step-by-step wizard where you'll be returned a list of any matching properties. You'll be able to select the properties that you wish to include in the email alert, then customise and send the email.
The matching properties
After clicking the 'View Matching Properties' button the first thing you'll be shown is a list of properties whose details match those of the requirements of the applicant in question:
At the top you'll be shown the applicants' requirements, and then for each property you'll be shown basic property details including the address, price, beds, property type, availability and a summary description.
Note that for a property to come back in this list it needs to meet a few criteria:
- To have matching details than those of the requirements of the applicant
- To have 'On Market' ticked under the 'Marketing' tab.
- To have a valid availability selected if you have specified only certain statuses should be returned in matches in the 'Only include properties with statuses' setting .
- To have not had this property marked as 'Not Suitable' in the past
The checkboxes on each property allows you to select how to proceed with sending the property to this applicant:
If you have the SMS add on active you'll also have the option of 'SMS Property To Applicant' here.
If you know the property isn't a good match or isn't suitable you can tick 'Property not suitable' to ignore it from this match and any future matches.
Once you've gone down the list of matching properties and selected the relevant actions click 'Continue'.
Customising the email contents
Prior to the email being sent you'll have the ability to customise various aspects of it:
To/CC/BCC - The recipient of the match. Defaults to the email address of the applicant.
From name - Defaults to the 'Site Title' entered in WordPress under 'Settings > General'.
From email address - Defaults to the email address of the user performing the match.
Subject - The subject of the email. The default subject can be customised under 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails'.
The only tag supported in the email subject is [property_count] .
Email body - The body of the email. The default body can be customised under 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails'.
The following tags are supported in the email body:
[contact_name]
[contact_dear]
[property_count]
[properties]
[office_name]
[office_email_address]
[negotiator_name]
[negotiator_email_address]
From there you'll the be able to preview the email first by clicking the 'Preview email' button to see how it's going to look for the recipients.
The colours and branding of the generated email can be customised under 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails'.
And finally, you can click the 'Send matches' button to actually send the emails.
The email queue and why emails are sent out in batches
When a mailout is performed and emails are sent, we don't send them there and then that second. You might notice under the 'History & Notes' tab that it reads something like so:
This is because they go into an email queue and get processed in batches.
You can get to the email queue and find out more by navigating to 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails > Email Queue'.
Viewing sent mailouts
Aside from the email queue (mentioned above) where we log all email mailouts sent, you can also see any sent mailouts on the contact record.,
Under the 'History & Notes' tab we'll show any mailouts sent to this contact, including the date and time that the mailout was sent, who sent it when applicable, as well as the ability to view the email to see exactly what they were sent:
Important: Using an SMTP plugin
If you're sending any kind of email from your website such as property enquiries, email alerts or booking confirmations, we highly recommend that you use an SMTP plugin to send emails via an SMTP server.
Without this, emails will be sent via the server which could decrease deliverability and increase the chances of emails getting missed because they're going into users junk folders.