How to Create Automated Templates in LeadLocate

Set the first text, email and voicemail that go out the moment a lead arrives, once per feed, from the Billing and Admin menu.

1. Open the Automated Templates page

   Sign in to LeadLocate CRM on the desktop, open the Billing & Admin menu and click Automated Templates. The page opens on the Inbound Lead Automated Templates section with a row per lead feed.

2. Start with the Company Default row

   Open Company Default (used to set up new feeds) first. The header changes to Editing templates for: followed by the feed name so you always know which set you are changing. Everything you write here becomes the starting set for every feed you create later.

3. Write the automated text

   Type the text message the customer receives on lead receipt. Use the merge fields for the customer name, the vehicle of interest, the salesperson name and the dealership name so the message reads like a person wrote it. Click Save Automated Text.

4. Write the automated email

   Fill in the subject and the body of the email that follows the text. If your card is designed, turn on the business card attachment so the email arrives from a person rather than a store. Click Save Automated Email.

5. Record the first voicemail

   Under My Recording, record the short voicemail in your own voice that lands on the customer phone without ringing it. Keep it under twenty seconds and say your name, the store and the vehicle.

6. Turn on the follow up call task

   Switch on BDC Follow-Up Call so the assigned user gets a call task on the Workspace the moment the lead lands. Each item on the page has its own switch, so leave off anything your store does not want to send.

7. Override the feeds that need their own wording

   Open any feed row under Inbound Lead Automated Templates or Acquisitions Lead Automated Templates, change only what that source needs, and save. Feeds you do not touch keep inheriting the Company Default. Set the Unassigned Lead Templates so a lead nobody has claimed still hears from the store.

You need a Manager or Master Administrator role in LeadLocate CRM; a User cannot edit the company set. Have at least one lead feed in place in the Lead Feeds Manager, because templates are stored per feed and the page shows a row for each one. A new account starts with a standard set already switched on, so you are editing wording rather than building from nothing.

Decide the three things before you open the page: what the first text says, whether an email should follow it, and whether a person should be handed a call task. Write the text on paper first. It is the message every lead from that feed will read, and a manager should sign off on it once rather than each salesperson improvising it in a parking lot. If your business card is not designed yet, that is fine; you can come back and turn on the attachment later.

When the set is saved, the Automated Templates page shows the feed rows with your wording in place and the switches on for the text, the email, the voicemail and the call task you enabled. The Automation switch in the header should be on; if it is off the whole page is greyed out and nothing sends for the account.

Send yourself a test lead through the feed. Within a minute your phone gets the text, your inbox gets the email with the card attached if you turned that on, a voicemail arrives without a ring, and a BDC Follow-Up Call task appears on the assigned user's Workspace. Open the test lead in the CRM and the communications log lists the text, the email and the voicemail in order with a delivery status on each. That log is what you will use to answer any later question about what a customer was sent.

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Nothing went out. Check the Automation switch in the page header. When it is off, every send path in the account is off, including the appointment confirmations, and the page is greyed to show it. Turn it on and resend the test lead.

The text went out but the email did not, or the other way around. Each item has its own switch on the feed row. Open the feed you tested, confirm the email switch is on, and check that you clicked Save Automated Email after editing; the page saves the text and the email separately.

The lead got the Company Default wording instead of the feed wording. The lead came in through a different feed than you edited. Open the lead, read the feed name on the record, and edit that row. A lead with no feed, or one that landed as unassigned, uses the Unassigned Lead Templates set.

The message did not reach a number on the DNC list. That is correct behavior. A number on the blacklist is never texted by a template.

Automated Templates cover the first touch only. For everything after it, build a multi step drip on the Follow Up Processes page, which starts when a status changes or an appointment event happens. Templates are stored per feed, so if you add a source, create the feed in Lead Feeds Manager first and it inherits the Company Default set on its own.

The Automated Templates feature page explains what each template does and how the account wide switch behaves. Every other walkthrough is in the help center, and if you would rather have someone build the set with you, the contact page reaches a person who does it every week.

Keep the first text short enough to read on a lock screen and put the salesperson's name in it. A customer who submitted three forms remembers the name that answered first. Record the voicemail standing up; it sounds like a person, not a system. Write one Company Default that would be acceptable for any source, then override only the feeds where the source really changes the conversation, such as a seller feed where the customer wants a number on their car rather than a test drive. Fewer overrides means fewer places to update when the store's phone number or hours change.

Do I have to create templates for every feed?

No. Edit the Company Default set once and every feed inherits it. Override a feed only when that source needs different wording, such as a seller feed or a walk in feed typed by hand.

Can I turn everything off while we reorganize?

Yes. The Automation switch in the Automated Templates header turns the whole set off for the account in one move and greys the page. Turning it back on restores the set as you left it.

What happens to a lead that has no salesperson yet?

It uses the Unassigned Lead Templates, which speak for the store rather than a person until someone claims the lead. Set those the same way as any feed row.

Where do I see what was actually sent?

On the lead record. The communications log lists every automated text, email and voicemail in order with a delivery status on each, next to the calls the salesperson made.

A new LeadLocate CRM account starts with a standard template set switched on. Plans are month to month; ask us and we will walk your feeds with you.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.