Reminder
Berhoz
Member Posts: 2
Is it possible to change the wording of your payment reminders?
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Berhoz
Member Posts: 2
Is it possible to change the wording of your payment reminders?
Comments
Hi, @Berhoz.
It isn't currently possible to change the wording on reminders, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about the reminders as they are now.
Do you have any specific comments or complaints? What would you change? Do you want to be able to fine-tune them for each of your client? Is there specific information you'd like to be able to add to that message?
I own a private piano studio. My clients are adult students and parents of young students. They all know me personally and we interact in person on a weekly basis. I am reluctant to use Wave's current payment reminder because the language seems less friendly than my usual messages and features a big stamp that says "UNPAID", which conveys a tone I'd never use. It's important for me to cultivate a positive ongoing relationship with my clients.
I would like to be able to edit the template, or at least remove the "UNPAID" stamp. The wording "Just a friendly reminder" followed by a period and "you have not yet completed payment" sounds harsh. Perhaps instead: "Just a friendly reminder that Invoice #xxx is now due. My records show that I haven't yet received payment. I would appreciate if you could check this out on your end. Please reach out if you have any questions."
I also would like a record of reminders I have sent manually, since I don't use automatic reminders. It is difficult to follow up on questions from clients and to remember whether I have already sent a reminder.
I notice there have been at least nine other Wave users commenting about these questions:
https://community.waveapps.com/discussion/comment/9687#Comment_9687
https://community.waveapps.com/discussion/comment/8847#Comment_8847
Thanks for your time!
Thanks for the feedback here @pianoteacher ! I have followed the other threads as well on reminders. When crafting your message, we want to help business owners with a basic message (to help those that find payment followups hard/awkward) and we want to help increase the seriousness in tone based on how days overdue the reminder is. This is an area we will look to bring more control over and customizability to as we make improvements to communications with your customer. Control over messaging and history are two areas we are looking at across the product.
Can you outline some of the reasons you don't use automatic reminders? Is it the interval, or something else?
Sure! I don't use automatic reminders because (1) the default language is too strong, and (2) it wouldn't be appropriate for all my clients. Some clients let me know the reason if their payment will be late, so they don't need a reminder, and others might receive a reminder in person from me. Automatic reminders are a little too formal for my business.
Thanks for your prompt follow-up and great service!
I would agree that the current verbiage for the Reminder is too harsh.
I also cultivate personal relationships with my clients, and the current wording is cold and a bit unfriendly. That stamp looks almost amateurish. I would never use it as it is, even if I need to send a reminder. I find I have to do it manually.
My question to Wave is Why not give us the ability to change the wording and look of the reminder. It's our business how we interact with our clients, not Wave's. I'm curious about this decision to withhold this ability?
Please let me know your reasoning.
Thanks
Peter
Supplying a basic template for wording is fine, but you users should definitely have the ability to alter and customize how we interact with our own clients.
I also think that your question to Piano Teacher about why she's not using Automatic Reminders when she already stated that the wording is too harsh, suggests you aren't reading the comments carefully or just don't care.
I would use Automatic Reminders if I could change the wording myself.
I also would like to edit the wording of payment reminders. I offer a service my customers need to know that if the invoice is not paid, they risk their service being suspended.
@kovalnyc Thanks for the catch. It seems I missed a word in my sentence to @pianoteacher. I was trying to understand if that was the only reason or were there other factors as well that were preventing the use of automatic reminders. Thank you for the feedback so far. We're making some changes under the hood to bring more control to invoice reminders in the new year. If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
Thanks,
Rahim
I also would like to have customised payment reminders. I know some of my clients just need a little nudge now and then so the current reminder is great, but some need a swift push and to know in no other words that if they don't pay, services will be suspended and the matter will escalate to debt collectors. Also would be useful if it could be copied to another email (for instance client and accountant). Thanks!
Customized payment reminders would be great. Or even just more options like to send monthly or quarterly.
really need this feature. I have had to stop using reminders because I noticed the wording and big OVERDUE stamp was way over-the-top/harsh for communication with my clients. I need to be able to customize this for each client. It shouldn't be a generic change on the backend by Wave, it should be a blank form that can be customized. and in the meantime - at the very least.... please remove (or give us the option to remove) the big OVERDUE stamp.
@ByDesign @Yelena thanks for adding to the conversation! As @Rahim mentioned above, customization of communications is definitely something we're looking at improving across Wave. We'll be sure to include your feedback in our discussions as we plan and build new ways to help you manage your customer relationships effectively
Adding another vote to adding this feature in Wave and in fact the ability to customize all email notifications for:
New Invoice
Payment notifications
Late payment reminders
Recurring invoice
New estimates
New Credit
New Clients
This list will look familiar if you have used Freshbooks. Crafting your own message allows you to give your unique voice to each piece of communication which in turn supports your individual company's brand.
Thanks!
I am not sure the status of this thread but I also agree on the ability for customizing. Can someone please provide an update on this functionality.
Thank you
Any progress with this customisation yet. I agree with the comments here, customisation is important for reminders. After all if we can customise the invoice then it has to be possible with the reminder as well.
No one wants to annoy and loose their customers in the process
Hi everyone. No updates as of yet, but we'll be building out our invoicing product a little bit later on in the year. Although all of the details on this are still not 100% clear, we're hoping we can address some of your overall concerns around invoicing reminders. Keep commenting with your workflows and use cases so we can get a better understanding of how this would help your business.
Count me as another vote for the ability to edit the wording of the reminder emails. And/or, there should be mention in the 'reminder' that it is an 'automated reminder'.
We had a customer (that we have on ongoing relationship with) complain today, about the tone of our 'Reminder'!
Basically, I can echo pretty-much all of the same comments from others (above).
Any feedback on this feature? For the sake of collection tracking, would also like to know if they have viewed their reminders or not.
I love wave, but am extremely frustrated that loyal fans have been requesting this since 2018
Thank you for considering the above
Id like to note as well that the current Reminder template preview doesn’t reflect the actual reminder being sent to and received by my clients.
The current wording is abrupt and strong and really doesn’t align with the customary language my clients would expect to hear.
I’ve already had to follow up with an apology message to clarify with a client that the reminder wording is preset and if they were upset I don’t imagine those I haven’t heard from think very highly about the harsh wording.
I know I’m echoing previous posters requests here, but the option to customise the reminder text is quite necessary for those of us who have forged a respectful rapport with our clientele. It would be of benefit in short term if the preset template version could at least be toned down to friendlier, gentler wording.
Many thanks for your consideration and for developing such a fantastic free invoicing app! I’m not complaining here, it’s just a friendly nudge since this initial feature request appears to be 2 years overdue... a friendly reminder, if you will!
Thank you all for continuing to express your interest in the reminder customization feature idea. Currently, there is no clear timeline as to when or if this feature will be implemented or where it sits on our current product roadmap. I'm sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear. However, it doesn't mean it will never be implemented in the future!
Hi Wave. New user (but seasoned online accounting/billing user) in the UK. I'm working through various queries but have to say Wave is incredibly good. Well done. This tone of voice issue though, this thread, is important to get right but right now I would like to see what the wording actually is as users might simply be able to suggest something softer/more appropriate - if we can't actually edit the reminders ourselves. Is that possible?
Either way, I would like to know what the wording actually is for each interval before I start sending invoices out. I would also prefer to send a reminder 7 days before the due-date "Your invoice will be due for payment in 7 days" as well 7 days afterwards, 14 days and 28 days where the last reminder has to be more serious - but ideally both the interval and the messages need to be updateable.
Keep up the great work on though!
Q.
Hello @Quantos !
The automatic payment reminder notification/email language is the same for all 3 reminders sent and can't be edited. Below is a screenshot of a reminder for reference:
When it comes to the reminder frequency, you will only have the following options for automatic reminders:
Please note, you can still send invoice payment reminders manually as well. When sending a manual reminder, you have the ability to edit the reminder message. To send a reminder manually, please head over to Sales > Invoices and press "Send Reminder" beside the overdue invoice or select the down arrow beside a sent invoice and press "Send Reminder".
Adding another vote for editing the reminder wording. I'd like to be able to say that this is an AUTOGENERATED reminder and that its just the system reminding them to pay in case they've forgotten to.
Please just remove the ridiculous OVERDUE STAMP in the interim -
It would be the equivalent of me saying - THIS IS THE REASON WHY WE NEED THIS FUNCTIONALITY!!!
Does that finally register with your sensibilities?