Communication Preferences

Open any contact and you’ll see a Communication Preferences tab (right after Additional Info). It’s where you record how a customer wants to hear from you — and, importantly, it now controls what the system actually sends them. Make your changes and hit Save (the same Save button at the top — there’s just one).

How to reach them

On the left you choose the destination for each channel:

• Text messages go to — pick which of the customer’s numbers gets texts. It lists the numbers already on the record, so you never re-type. Pick the mobile line; if a number is mislabeled (a cell entered as “Business”), it doesn’t matter — the one you pick is the one used.
• Email goes to — same idea when a customer has more than one address (very common).
• Mail goes to — pick which address receives physical mail (holiday cards, etc.). It’s Addressed to the contact’s Mailing Label Name (e.g. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) — edit that field on the General tab to change it.

Texting is one permission, not a list

Texting isn’t a column in the grid. There is one text permission per customer, recorded with the “Customer agrees to receive text updates” box on this tab — and it belongs to their phone number, not to their record.

That matters in two everyday situations:

• Two people, one phone. A husband and wife both on file with the same mobile share one permission. Tick it once and it covers both; if either replies STOP, texts stop for both. The box tells you when a number is on more than one record.
• A customer changes their number. The new number needs its own yes — the old permission was about the old phone, and whoever holds that number now never agreed to anything.

Why a single permission rather than a list per topic: the phone carriers approve your shop to send one kind of text (order and repair status). Permission to text isn’t divisible into “yes to pickups, no to promotions” — it’s permission to message that handset. Text marketing would be a separate registration entirely.

See Text Messaging for how to ask, and what happens when someone hasn’t agreed.

Subscriptions — the lists they’re on

On the right is a grid of lists (rows) by channel (Email · Mail). Tick a box to put the customer on that list for that channel; a dash (—) means that list doesn’t use that channel.

• Order & repair updates and Appointment reminders are marked email always on — these are the transactional messages every customer expects (your repair is ready, your receipt, an appointment reminder).
• The rest are marketing lists — Birthday, Anniversary, Promotions & sales, New arrivals, Events / trunk shows, Holiday / seasonal, Newsletter. Email marketing is on by default — your customers are on your email lists unless they opt out (standard for an existing customer base; they can unsubscribe anytime). Mail marketing is opt-in (off until you tick it) — physical mail (like the “Holiday / seasonal · Mail” holiday-card list) stays a list you curate.

This is what gets sent

The grid isn’t just a note — it decides who actually receives what:

• Birthday and anniversary greetings go to customers on those email lists — which, since email marketing is on by default, is everyone with a birthday/anniversary on file who hasn’t opted out.
• The mailing-labels report’s “holiday list” pulls everyone on Holiday / seasonal · Mail.

Transactional messages (order/repair updates, receipts) still go out by default — turning a marketing list off never blocks the messages a customer needs.

The customer’s own preference page

Customers don’t have to call you to change any of this. Every contact has a private, no-login preference page where they can tick individual lists on and off across channels, or unsubscribe from all marketing email in one click.

• They reach it automatically from any marketing email — a Manage preferences link and a one-click Unsubscribe are on every one (required by email rules, and Gmail/Apple Mail show a native Unsubscribe button too).
• You can hand it to them — open the Communication tab and click Copy preference-page link in the Customer opt-outs area, then text or email it to the customer. The link is theirs alone and doesn’t expire.

Whatever the customer changes there flows straight back into the grid above — it’s the same data.

Customer opt-outs — read-only

Below the reach settings you’ll see anything the customer has switched off. Staff can see these but can’t flip them back — only the customer can:

• Texts: opted out — the customer replied STOP. Texts to that number are blocked until they text START. You can’t turn it back on for them, and it isn’t stubbornness on JewelTrak’s part: the phone carriers keep their own opt-out list for that number and will refuse the message anyway.
• Marketing email: unsubscribed — the customer used an unsubscribe link. Marketing email stops; receipts and order updates still send.
• Email bouncing — emails keep failing, usually a changed address. Check and update it.

A texted STOP stops all texts to that number; an email unsubscribe stops only marketing email — so you honor what the customer asked for without cutting off the messages they still need.

Mailchimp stays in sync

If you run campaigns through Mailchimp, consent stays consistent both ways: a customer who unsubscribes in Mailchimp is marked unsubscribed in JewelTrak, and a customer who unsubscribes in JewelTrak is unsubscribed in Mailchimp. Nobody gets an email they opted out of, from either side.