Email an insurer or customer about a damage claim

Introduction

Every damage claim has its own email tools. Open a claim and you land on the screen headed CoC followed by the vehicle's registration and unit number, for example CoC VX-123-B 214. Under the booking and customer details sits a row of tabs. Two of them are for correspondence: Email, where you write and send a message, and Email log, where every message sent from this claim is listed. The Documents tab next to them holds the files you can attach.

The app calls a damage claim a CoC, short for "change of condition". This page uses "claim" and keeps the app's word only where it is on screen.

You would be here because:

• The insurer needs the damage report and the photos before they will look at the claim.
• You are sending the customer a note that the damage will be charged, with the pickup and return inspection reports attached.
• The other party's insurer has asked for the police report.
• A colleague asks whether the customer was ever told about the charge, and you want to check what went out and when.
• You send the same kind of message every week and want it ready with one click.

Words this screen uses

Use this page once a claim exists. To open or fill in the claim itself, see Handle a damage claim.

How to use

Configuration

Claim emails are built from templates. Without at least one template, the Email tab has no buttons and you cannot start an email. A company administrator sets them up once.

1. From the main menu, open Admin, then Assets, and click the Damage mgt tile. The screen headed Damage management opens.
2. Click the Communicator tile. The list headed Damage communicator opens, with the columns Reply to, CC, BCC, Name, Subject and Body.
3. Click New, or the pencil icon at the end of a row to change a template.
4. Fill in the template form and press Save. Cancel closes the form without keeping anything. Skim the fields below once; come back to a row when you need it:

The Variables column on the right lists the placeholders you can type into Subject and Body, such as ${bookingNumber}, ${invoiceName}, ${assetRegistration}, ${pickupDate} and ${returnDate}. When a colleague uses the template, each placeholder is replaced with that claim's booking details. The placeholders come from the booking; there are none for the claim's own details, such as the damage category or the coverage answers.

The attachment choices are your claim document categories. Each one is of type Checkout / pickup, Checkin / dropoff or Other, which decides where the file comes from (see Key details). Creating and naming those categories is covered in Set up claim categories and document types.

A template change applies to every email started after it is saved. Emails already sent do not change. To remove a template, click the bin icon at the end of its row.

Before you start: only a company administrator can open the Damage communicator list and its templates. Any staff account that can open claims can send claim emails from the templates that exist. The emails go out through the app's own email service; if none arrive at all, ask RentVisie support.

Using the claim email

From the main menu, open Assets and click the Damage mgt tile. Click New CoCs, Pending CoCs, Completed CoCs or Archived CoCs, depending on where the claim is, and click the pencil icon at the end of its row. The claim screen opens.

1. If you want to send your own file, such as a repair quote or the police report, first open the Documents tab. It has one box for each document category of type Other. Upload the file in the box for its category. The box turns green when it holds a file. Upload a PDF; see Key details.
2. Open the Email tab. Along the top is one button per template, each showing the template's name.
3. Click the template you want. The form below it fills in: To with the customer's email address, Reply to, CC and BCC from the template, Category with the claim's name, and Subject and Body with the booking's details already filled in.
4. Change To if the email is for someone else, such as the insurer. To takes one address; put any extra addresses in CC, separated by a semicolon.
5. Edit Subject and Body as needed.
6. Check Attachments. It shows the template's document categories. Add or remove categories for this email only.
7. Press Send email. You see Email sent! and the form empties.
8. Open the Email log tab to see the message listed with its Send date, To, Category and Subject. Click a row to read the full email.

Sending an email does not change the claim's status and is not affected by Save or Save and next. You can send from a claim in any status, including Archived.

Key details

What each attachment category sends.

A category with no file is skipped without a warning, and the email still goes. Every attachment is named after its category with .pdf at the end, whatever you uploaded. A photo uploaded as a JPG still arrives named, for example, Damage photos.pdf, and many email programs will not open it. Combine photos into one PDF before uploading.

Worked example. Booking 1042, Jansen Transport BV, came back with a damaged rear bumper on van VX-123-B. The repair is estimated at €1,250.00. Your template Insurer - new claim has Reply to schade@verhuur-example.nl, Subject Claim booking ${bookingNumber} and the attachment categories Pickup report (Checkout / pickup), Return report (Checkin / dropoff) and Repair quote (Other).

Had no return inspection been done for booking 1042, Return report.pdf would simply be missing from the email, with no warning.

Who the email appears to come from. The sender address is the template's Reply to address, and the sender name is the name of the booking's pickup branch. Replies go to that same address. The recipient's name is always shown as the customer's name, even when you send to the insurer.

Which templates appear. When the customer on the claim has a language on their record, the Email tab shows all your templates, whatever their Language. When the customer has no language, it shows the templates in your company's language; failing that, those in your own language; failing that, those with no language. The help text on the template form describes this order more simply than it works.

What the email log keeps. Each entry stores the send date and time, To, Category, Subject and the body text. It does not keep the CC and BCC addresses or the attachments, so those fields are empty when you open an entry. The log belongs to the claim: it does not appear on the booking or on the customer record.

What to do next: once the insurer or customer has what they need, record their answer on the claim's Coverage tab and move the claim on with Save and next, as described in Handle a damage claim.

Q&A

Why does the email log show an email the recipient says never arrived? The entry is written even when sending fails. If you saw Something went wrong. Please try again..! instead of Email sent!, the email did not leave, but it is still listed. The form is also emptied, so click the template again, redo your changes and press Send email. See When an email does not arrive for other causes.

Why do I get "Something went wrong" every time I send from one template? The most common cause is an empty Reply to on the template: the email then has no sender address and is refused. Ask your company administrator to fill in Reply to on the template under Admin → Assets → Damage mgt → Communicator.

Why did the text I typed disappear when I clicked a template? Clicking a template button overwrites every field of the form, including your edits. Choose the template first, then edit.

Why is my half-written email gone after I left the claim? An unsent email is not kept. Each time a claim is opened, the Email form starts empty. Write and send the email in one visit.

Why does the insurer say an attachment is missing or will not open? A category with no file is skipped without warning, and every attachment is named .pdf. Check that the box on Documents is green, that the booking has the pickup or return inspection report you expected, and that the uploaded file is a PDF.

Why is the Email tab empty, with no buttons? No templates exist for your company yet. Ask your company administrator to create one, as described under Configuration.

Can I send to two insurers at once in the To box? No. To takes one address. Put the second address in CC, separated from any others by a semicolon.

Where do the insurer's replies end up? In the mailbox of the template's Reply to address, not in the app. Nothing on the claim records a reply. If the answer affects the claim, record it on the Coverage tab.

Can I send an email about a claim without using a template? No. The form only fills in after you click a template. A company administrator can create a general template with a short body that you then rewrite each time.

Can I change or delete an email in the log? The email itself has already been sent and cannot be recalled. The log entry opens with Save and Cancel buttons; press Cancel to leave it unchanged.

Related pages:

• Handle a damage claim, for opening and filling in the claim.
• Set up claim categories and document types, for the document categories that become attachments.
• Record damage during an inspection, for the inspection reports sent as pickup and return reports.
• When an email does not arrive, for delivery problems.