Extend The Functionality Of Lesson Reminder Emails With Merge Tags

Teachworks makes it easy to send automatic Lesson Reminder Emails ahead of lessons. Lesson reminders are effective for reminding students and teachers of their upcoming lessons and to cut down on no-shows.

Teachworks Lesson Reminder Emails are fully customizable for teachers, families and students. You can use the available merge tags for each template to personalize the emails you send. Merge tags are unique for each type of template and you can find a full list of the supported merge tags on the right when editing a specific template. For example, for the Student Reminders, you can include lesson information such as the date, time and location of their lesson. You can also include teacher information such as an email address or contact number. 

As you enable more integrations and add-ons, the list of available merge tags grows, allowing for increased functionality in your emails. In this article, we’ll explore how you can add the ability to cancel lessons, launch online lessons, and display time-zone information in reminder emails using merge tags.

1. Cancelling Lessons from Lesson Reminders

If you’ve enabled the Customer Cancellation Add-on, a {CANCEL-LINK} merge tag will be available for Family and Student templates. When a reminder email is sent, the merge tag will be replaced with a cancellation link that customers can click to cancel the lesson.

The Customer Cancellation Add-on offers some additional settings, including the ability to customize the “Cancel Link Text” (the anchor text for the link that will appear in reminder emails).

For more information about giving your customers the ability to cancel their own lessons, visit our knowledge base: Customer Cancellation Add-on

2. Launching Online Lessons From Lesson Reminders 

The location assigned to a lesson can be included in Lesson Reminder Emails as a clickable link, making it ideal for managing online lessons. To use this functionality, you’ll need to enable the Lessonspace Integration, Location Links Add-on, Teacher Location Links Add-on or a combination of these.

• Lessonspace Integration: If you’ve enabled the Lessonspace Integration, an “Online Lesson Space” location will be added to your list of locations automatically. If you’ve included the {LOCATION} merge tag or {EVENTS} merge tag for teacher reminders, users will be able to click the link to launch their online lesson space.

• Location Links Add-on: If you’ve enabled the Location Links add-on, you’ll be able to assign URLs to your various locations. These can be links to online whiteboards or meeting rooms such as Zoom, Skype or Google Meet. If you’ve included the {LOCATION} or {EVENTS} merge tag in your reminders, they will be replaced by a link that students and teachers can click to access the relevant online space. 

• Teacher Location Links Add-on: The Teacher Location Links Add-on allows you to create a single location that uses a link to a web address entered on a teacher’s profile. For example, you can create a general “Zoom Room” location and this link will be updated based on the teacher assigned to a lesson and the link on their profile. If you’ve included the {LOCATION} or {EVENTS} merge tag in your reminders, these will be replaced accordingly.

3. View Time-Zone Information in Lesson Reminders

If you’ve enabled the User Time Zones Add-On, the time displayed in lesson reminder emails will appear in the user’s timezone to ensure there is no confusion. As an additional step to keep things as clear as possible, you can include a {TIME-ZONE} merge tag in your reminder emails. Including this information allows customers to follow up about any scheduling issues prior to their lesson.

For more information and detailed steps on how to enable and automate Lesson Reminder Emails, visit our knowledge base: Lesson Reminders

SMS Lesson Reminders

In addition to Lesson Reminder Emails, Teachworks also offers an SMS Lesson Reminders Add-on. This add-on makes it possible to send text messages to teachers, customers and students to remind them of their upcoming lessons. SMS Lesson Reminders support {LOCATION-LINK} and {TIME-ZONE} merge tags.

More information: SMS Lesson Reminders Add-on

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