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Understanding the Terms - Leads and Tenants Reservation Settings How to add a Lead How to Reactivate a Retired Lead Ways to Reserve a Space Converting a Lead or Reservation to a New Tenant Moving in a Lead Documents and Digital Signatures Transferring an Existing Tenant to a New Space Rent a Space as a Business! Access Control Updating and Cancelling a ReservationAuctions Overview Scheduling an Auction Viewing and Adding Auction Information Modifying a Scheduled Auction How to Cancel a Scheduled Auction? Taking Auction Payments Moving Out the Tenant and Closing Lease After Auction Handling and Refunding Cleaning Deposits Scheduling an Auction from the Auction Manager Configuring the Tenant Mobile ManagerTenant Profile Overview How to Take a Payment from a Tenant Updating Tenant Information Understanding the Delinquency Timeline Communications Overview Understanding Space Settings and Information from a Tenant's Profile Promotion and Discount Management Saving a Payment Method/Autopay Selling Merchandise Generating a Document for your Tenant Accepting an Inter-property Payment Updating Gate Access Creating an Invoice from a Tenant's Profile Linking Contacts in Hummingbird Adding a New City for Your Tenants Generating and Sending Documents via Multiple Delivery Methods Generating and Saving Documents Without Selecting a Delivery Method Archiving and Unarchiving of Document Denying Online Payments Understanding Space Types Configuring Email and SMS Templates Adding Contacts to the Do Not Rent (DNR) List in Hummingbird
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Configuring Website CMS Settings City Content Settings Company Blogs Settings Website Coupon Settings FMS Initial Setup Local Blogs Settings Location and Street View Settings Name and Address Info Settings Property Coverage Settings Property Email Notes Settings Property Media Settings State Content Settings Website General Settings Website Promotion Settings Website Social Media Settings Introduction to Alt Tags Clear Cache Company Pages Settings Hours and Amenities Settings Legal Pages Settings Storage Tips Settings Website General Pages Settings Website Themes Files Settings Tracking Script Settings Website API Keys Mariposa H1 Tags Website Storage Types Settings (Corporate Feature Pages)
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Get to Know Hummingbird - Our Property Management Software Hummingbird Customer Journey How to Use Hummingbird Creating Customized Views for Hummingbird Modules Hummingbird Glossary Adding a New User in Hummingbird Creating a User Role in Hummingbird Adding Spaces within Hummingbird Adding an Additional Space for an Existing Tenant Hummingbird Application Launcher Configure Do not Disturb Settings for Communications
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If an Auction has already been processed, can you add an additional fee for your previous tenant? Can you schedule an auction without a prompt from Hummingbird's Delinquency Automation? If a tenant's Space goes into auction, do they have to be notified when Space is sold and the winning bid amount? If a tenant's space goes to auction, are they notified of the winning bid amount and if the space is sold? What is the minimum amount required for a scheduled auction to close?Are taxes on a rental payment applied prior to applying a promotion? Are taxes applied on late fees? If a property is on anniversary billing and a transfer occurs, what would be the new billing date? If there are two open invoices and a tenant makes a partial payment, which invoice will the payment get applied? While catching up with an account that is past-due for a few months, in what order is a payment applied? If a tenant is on a quarterly or yearly billing cycle and misses a payment, will they still be billed quarterly or yearly? How many days before the due date is an invoice generated? How often are invoices sent to tenants? What happens to an invoice amount when a tenant vacates a Space mid-month? How is tax applied to an invoice? What happens to the excess amount if a tenant overpays an invoice? Is there a difference in tax rates for different types of storage Spaces? How are taxes handled if a tenant rents a Space in a different state? What happens if there is a change in tax rates for a state? how do they reflect on invoices? Can you add additional discounts or promotions for tenants on a multi-month billing cycle? How are these applied? If you change the billing day for a lease with a quarterly or annual payment cycle, when does it come into effect? If invoices are not paid on time, in what order does a subsequent payment get applied? Also, in what order does a payment apply across invoice lines - Rent, Coverage, Taxes, Late fees, etc.? Is a tenant eligible to receive certain discounts on rental rates if they pay for multiple months in advance? Does Close of Day support petty cash? Do you need to Close the Day every day to ensure there are no financial or accounting errors? Are the Available Payment Types on invoices configurable? For anniversary billing sites, does the billing cycle need to match when an existing tenant adds a new space?Are leads automatically created for incoming calls? How can a district manager listen to past calls? What is expected behaviour if no agents answer the call? What is the expected behaviour for a signed-in agent if another agent answers a call before they do? What is the behaviour if multiple tabs are open for a signed-in Charm agent and a call comes in? Can agents manually enter credit card numbers when they are on a charm call? How long does the user have to enter their card number before entry times out? What happens if the user enters invalid data for card number, CVV, or expiration date? What happens if the user enters card data that passes field validation but results in a payment processing error? (Issuer rejection or payment gateway error) Can a Hummingbird user present a card payment using a payment terminal if they are on a charm call? Does the caller have to re-enter all card information if a card payment is rejected by the payment processor? As an agent, I briefly hear a phone ringing sound (as if I’m phoning someone) when I pick up the call. Why and what does this mean? What is the caller’s experience if they are placed on hold? I moved the Toast to the bottom of the page, but it disappeared. How can I make it reappear? Is the agent availability status retained when an agent logs out and logs back in? Is it possible to delete a call recording or voicemail from Charm? Why does Charm immediately hang up on the caller when pressing the green answer button to take a call? Can we take calls directly on cell phones? How does call forwarding work, and how many people can be included? Does my browser need to stay active to hear Charm call notifications? Will calls be missed if the browser goes to sleep? Why does the “Retired” lead status not change to “Active” if a retired lead calls the property? Why does the call length value in Charm Phone Call Log Report not match the length of the call recording?What does an Overlock do in the Delinquency Process? Can you create a manual task outside of the Delinquency Automation and have that task be reoccurring? How much does a delinquent tenant have to pay in order to become current again? What are the supported delivery methods for generating documents during delinquency? If a tenant changes their delinquency structure (for example, the lien fee days from 35 to 30), does this impact all tenants or only new ones that go into lien? Can you send delinquency notices to the business representative? If there are two alternate contacts for a Space, will both of them receive delinquency notices?Can a gate access code have alphanumeric characters? What is the maximum allowed length for a gate access code? Can you modify a gate access code length? If a tenant rents more than one Space in the same property, can the same access code be set for all rented spaces? Can a family member or contact of a tenant be assigned their own gate access code? Does Hummingbird allow excluding certain values for use as gate access codes for security purposes? When linking contacts in Hummingbird, does the Access Code need to match for both contacts? Are DaVinci lock codes sent to all online rental customers despite their ID Verification status? Can you disable gate codes from being included in the automated rental emails if your property uses gate fobs instead?What is the difference between Hummingbird properties and Non-Hummingbird properties? Can you search for tenants using their phone numbers? How to make new feature requests? Why does Hummingbird ask permission to use my microphone when logging in? What services does Hummingbird Integrate with? How can you subscribe to new applications? What is the Base Rent, and how is it calculated? How does lead retirement work, and can you customize it?Is there a way to add YouTube videos on the website, within a company page? Can tenants update their email and contact information via the online portal? If a tenant updates their address on the website, will the address in Hummingbird also be updated? Where can you modify Soft Reservation Notification emails? How do you set up a discount to be applied at online checkout? Do you have to use a discount code? How do you publish content for a date in the past? Can you change the unit illustration image displayed on the self-storage website? Is there an option to mandate Autopay for all tenants when they pay online? Can you modify the reservation days on the self-storage website? What are advance reservations and how do you enable them? How do I add a marketing banner at the top of the self-storage website? How can you change the email address from which messages are sent to tenants? Where can you modify the "Size Disclaimer" text on the website? If the 15-minute hold timer expires while the customer is still on the Rent Now Mariposa screen, will they have to restart or will a new unit be assigned? If different Rate Variance settings are specified in the FMS Initial Setup and Website General Settings, which one takes precedence? Does Mariposa/Incode accept passports as a valid ID during the online rental process? If No, then which IDs are accepted? What is the significance of "Enable Account Edit" in the FMS Initial Setup section of Website CMS settings? Can you integrate XPS live chat with Mariposa? What is the difference between Enable Cart Abandonment" and "Email Abandoned Rental Notification" in the FMS Initial Setup section of Website Settings? What is GDS ID?How do I ensure that Automatic payments (Autopay) is enabled for all the upcoming rentals at my property? What is the difference between Refunds, Offline Reversals, and Chargebacks? Which Terminal is Recommended for Tenant Payments for Accepting Card payments by Swiping/Tapping/and Typing Pin? A tenant has a prepaid balance and Autopay enabled. How is the payment deducted, from the prepaid balance or their card since Autopay is enabled? Why is there a Void option for Cash payments in addition to Refund? What does each signify? How can you know if a payment was made from a One Time Payment Link? Does Autopay provide additional discounts on rentals? Does a tenant incur any additional fees for making rental payments with a credit card? How long does it take to deposit an ACH payment? While catching up with an account that is past-due for a few months, in what order is a payment applied? While taking a payment from a tenant via Check, how do I record the amount associated with the check in Hummingbird? What is a Paid through date? How do you know when there is a payment failure? Can you find details about a failed transaction? When autopay fails (for reasons like NSF), when is the NSF fee applied, at the first failure or after all the attempts run? Is there a way to perform a merchandise return/refund that is sold to a walk-in customer who is not a tenant? Can I refund credit card transactions anytime in Hummingbird, or is there a limit on the number of days? Can you re-issue the same invoice after its voided? Which payment methods are supported for one-time payment links? If an Autopayment was made today, can a user void it the same day? If a tenant is on a quarterly or yearly billing cycle and misses a payment, will they still be billed quarterly or yearly? Why is there an ability to set Autopay to re-run for 'X' days after the billing date? What is the difference between a Variable Fee and a Fixed Fee? How to Issue a Refund to a Tenant Why must customers manually link each unit to their online account, even if they are already linked in Hummingbird? Why can't all units associated with their info or the first linked unit be automatically pulled in? Is there a log of changes when a tenant updates their account information? Are tenants required to sign an Autopay addendum when enrolling or is this only a requirement in certain states/a preference for certain operators? How can you waive a month’s rent, late fees, advertising fees, etc. for a tenant? Does the CC Chargeback option refund a payment to a tenant or just removes it from the ledger?How to set up recurring reporting within Hummingbird? What do you do if the Lease does not get generated or is incorrect? Is there a Report that shows all the transactions that occurred through Tenant Payments? Is there a report that shows how much is collected in late fees? Is there a report that shows past tenants? Can you set up Hummingbird to generate activity logs for tasks performed by Property Managers? How do I know the origin of a Payment (i.e. via payment terminal, autopay, on file/manual, etc.) in a Financial Report? Is there a report that can provide information regarding Chargebacks? Is there a report that shows which user retired a lead? What do you do if you get a timeout error while downloading a report for all your properties? Is there a report that shows the Tenants’ Credit Card Expiration Dates? Why does the Rent Change Summary in MSR not match with the Rent Change information in the Rent Management Module?If a Tenant reserves a Space and they don't move in, will the Space go back into inventory automatically or will the manager have to manually take action? Does Hummingbird allow screening for blacklists in the rental flow? When a rental/reservation is initiated, there is an option to choose “how did you find us”. Is there a report to find how many times a source was selected? Can you see who Moved in and Moved out every month on the Dashboard? Where can you update a tenant's vehicle information after a move-in? How can you add the vehicle details after the tenant has signed the lease and moved in? When renting as a business, is the lease agreement generated with the business representative's name? Can you change a business profile to an individual profile? How can you view the Rental Abandonments in Hummingbird? Where can you find a record of the Lead Source information captured while moving in leads? Is there an option to restrict online reservations when only one unit remains available? When you make a reservation, is the price listed at that time saved even if rates change later?If you have a Prorize integration, can you make rent changes for your tenants? A tenant has a scheduled rent change for February and an existing invoice with a prepaid amount. Will the invoice be updated to the new rent amount on the Rent Change's effective date? Can a rental rate increase be applied in the middle of a payment cycle? While uploading a file in the Rent Change Queue, can I add new tenants or only the existing tenants whose rent is due for adjustment? What is the preferred file format? Are the rent plan defaults only available for value pricing or can you assign an automated rent plan to a space with no value tiers? Is the "Last Rent Change (Days)" column in the Rent Change Queue based on the current date or the effective date of the scheduled rent change? If an automated rent change is delayed due to an issue, and the system would normally approve it automatically, why would it then require manual approval? Is there an extra background check for these rent changes?How do I enable a user to Write off a past-due amount for a tenant as a loss to the property? If you’re unable to change a user’s role or permission, what could be the reason? Which permission controls whether a user can edit the autopay bill date? What can a user with No Permissions do and see within Hummingbird?How do I disable the functionality of sending monthly invoices to tenants via email? Let’s say, you have sent out an SMS in bulk to your tenants but some of them cannot see it in their Communications in Hummingbird. What could be the reason for this? Are property specific Email/SMS do not disturb settings based on the time zone where the property is located? Can you make alternate contacts mandatory? Can notes be deleted from a tenant profile? Can we resend failed documents via SimpleCertified in Hummingbird, or can we only download the failed documents and manually mail them out?What is Value Pricing? How Does Value Pricing Work? What needs to be configured for Value Pricing to work? Which views need to be enabled for Value Pricing to work? Can I change the name of the Value Pricing Tiers? What is Space Scoring? Does Space Scoring impact whether a unit is categorized as Good, Better, or Best? What does Custom Value Pricing do? Can I assign Rent Plans to my Value Pricing Tiers? Why don’t some units appear in Grid and List view?Why is my payment getting rejected? Possible Duplicate Request Invalid Service Expired Card Inactive Terminal (Backend) Cannot Complete Because of Violation Do Not Honor Invalid From Account Suspected Card Insufficient Funds Withdrawal Limit Exceeded Invalid Card Suspected Fraud Customer Requested Stop of All Recurring Payments from Specific Merchant PIN Attempts Exceeded Invalid Amount General CardAuth Decline
Configuring Email and SMS Templates
Table of Contents
Template Categories
Permissions
Customizing a System Communications Template
Customizing a Rental Confirmation Template
Customizing a Reservation Confirmation Template
Creating a Template
Creating a New User-Defined Communications Template
Editing or Duplicating a User-Defined Communications Template
Template Status
Sending a Message Using a Template
Using Bulk Action
Using Tenant Profile
Using Delinquency Automation
Using Rent Change Management
Email and SMS Templates is a centralized platform for managing corporate communication templates, ensuring consistent branding and messaging across all properties.
As a feature within Hummingbird, the Email and SMS Templates empowers managers to create, manage, and customize templates for various communications, including messages sent from the Communication Center, bulk actions, or a tenant’s profile.
With Email and SMS Templates, you can:
- Standardize Email and SMS communication across multiple properties.
- Modify System Communications templates to be accurate and relevant.
Template Categories
System Communications - These are the system emails and SMS, sent from Hummingbird, that can be customized.
User-Defined Communications - These are communication templates created by users. These can be used when messaging tenants. They can also be used for communications sent from the delinquency automation.
Permissions
You must grant the appropriate permissions to create, manage, or customize the templates. You can set these permissions by navigating to Hummingbird Settings and then to Users and Roles.
Note: Permissions are enabled by default for Super Admins. To enable these permissions for any other role, a Super Admin must grant them
To configure permissions:
- Navigate to the Roles and Permissions tab and locate the role assigned to the user.
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Click the role name directly or select Edit from the corresponding vertical ellipsis.
- In the Edit Role screen, expand the Communication category.
- Check the create/duplicate and the Manage boxes under Communications.
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Click Update to save the changes.
Note: Any permission changes for a logged-in user will only take effect after they log out and log back in.
Customizing a System Communications Template
The following templates are available for customization:
- Rental Confirmation - Online - Sent on completion of rental by the tenant online.
- Rental Confirmation - Instore - Sent when the manager or call center agent completes the rental in Hummingbird or integrated software.
- Reservation Successful - Instore - Sent after the lead completes the reservation online.
- Reservation Successful - Online - Sent after the reservation is completed by a manager or a call center agent in Hummingbird or integrated software.
You can customize a template at:
- Corporate settings: Allows modifications at the company level, which then apply to all assigned properties. Any template modified at the property level will not be overridden.
- Property settings: Enables properties to adjust corporate templates for localized needs.
Note: System Communications includes predefined templates that can be modified to meet business requirements. However, only the templates that are visible can be edited.
Customizing a Rental Confirmation Template
To customize a Rental Confirmation template:
- Click the vertical ellipsis corresponding to a template.
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Click Edit.
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On the Edit Template screen, Template Settings cannot be modified.
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The Access Code and Important Steps for Move-In sections can be configured within the Customizable Blocks section.
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Access Code: The content can be modified per the company branding.
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Important Steps For Move-In: You can define the important steps for each move-in scenario.
Note: The ID Verification Settings and the Gatecode Settings configured in the FMS Initial Setup under Website Settings determine the conditions for displaying the access code and Important Steps for Move-In scenarios.
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Access Code: The content can be modified per the company branding.
The Preview Template serves as a visual guide and may not exactly reflect the email your tenants will receive. The content highlighted in the green box indicates where your customized text will appear. Your branding, such as images, logo, and colors, will be included in the final email.
Note: The preview does not currently support real-time content updates.
Customizing a Reservation Confirmation Template
To customize a Reservation Confirmation template:
- Click the vertical ellipsis corresponding to a template.
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Click Edit.
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On the Edit Template screen, Template Settings cannot be modified.
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The Reservation Code and Important Steps for Move-In sections can be configured within the Customizable Blocks section.
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Reservation Code: The content can be modified per the company branding.
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Important Steps for Move-In: You can define the important steps for the reservation.
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Reservation Code: The content can be modified per the company branding.
The Preview Template serves as a visual guide and may not exactly reflect the email your tenants will receive. The content highlighted in the green box indicates where your customized text will appear. Your branding, such as images, logo, and colors, will be included in the final email.
Note: The preview does not currently support real-time content updates.
Creating a Template
You can only create templates under User-Defined Communications. The System Communications templates are predefined and cannot be created by users.
Creating a New User-Defined Communications Template
To create a new communication template:
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Navigate to Hummingbird Settings and then Email and SMS Templates from the left navigation menu.
You will see existing templates here. -
Click Create New Template.
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Provide a name for the template and select the template category you want to associate it with, e.g., general (basic), delinquency, rent change, welcome email, etc. Also, select the delivery type for the template, e.g., email or SMS.
Note: Only one delivery type can be selected per template.
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Create the content of the template. You can view and use the available tokens to personalize communication for your tenants by clicking Add Merge Fields.
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Click Preview to see how your template will appear to tenants on their Desktops and Mobile devices. Then, click Save Template.
Editing or Duplicating a User-Defined Communications Template
You can edit a template at:
- Corporate settings: Allows modifications at the company level, which then apply to all assigned properties. Any template modified at the property level will not be overridden.
- Property settings: Enables properties to adjust corporate templates for localized needs.
- Duplicate: Duplicate user-defined templates as required from Corporate Settings, retaining the details.
To edit or duplicate a User-Defined Communications template:
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Click the vertical ellipsis corresponding to a template.
- Edit or duplicate the template.
- Click Save.
Template Status
Each template has a status that indicates its modification level:
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Tenant Template - The default template created by the system or property manager.
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Corporate Modified: A template updated at the corporate level and implemented across all properties. When a corporate template is updated, the changes apply to all properties unless a property has a customized version. In such cases, the property will retain its modified template.
At the corporate level, templates can either be a Tenant Template or a Corporate Modified template.
If a Corporate Modified Template needs to be reverted to the Tenant Template version, select Reset to Default.
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Property Modified: A template that has been customized by an individual property. While corporate templates are applied universally across all properties, each property can adjust them to meet its specific requirements. These changes are categorized under the Property Modified status. Any template modified at the property level will not be overridden with the corporate level modifications.
At the property level, templates can be a Tenant Template, Corporate Modified, or Property Modified. When a template is altered in the property settings, the modified version will be used when sending communications for that particular property. If a property-level template needs to revert to the corporate version, select Reset to Corporate.
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User-Generated Default: The original template created by the property manager. User-generated templates can be created at the corporate level and applied to multiple properties simultaneously.
Note: In the corporate settings, the total count of properties will adjust to exclude those modified at the property level.
Sending a Message Using a Template
To send a message using a User-Defined Communications template:
Using Bulk Action
- Navigate to the Tenant tab in your platform.
- Use the property selector at the top of the screen to choose a specific property.
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Click on the Bulk Action button located in the top-right corner.
- Choose the tenants to whom you want to send documents.
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Select the option Send Email or SMS Communications.
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Select one of the options: Send Email or Send SMS and click Next.
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Choose a Template.
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Verify the recipients, and click Confirm & Send.
Using Tenant Profile
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Click the Tenants module from the left navigation menu.
You will see a list of tenants at the selected property. Alternatively, you can get directly into their profile by clicking the Global Search icon available in the leftmost navigation menu and searching for the tenant.
- Select the required tenant from the list. In the tenant's profile, click the + icon for a tenant to send a templated communication.
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Select Send Email or Send Text from the drop-down menu based on the type of communication you want to send.
- Select the newly created template from the Select Templates drop-down list. The email subject and content will be pre-filled based on those defined while creating the template. If necessary, modify the content.
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Click Send.
Using Delinquency Automation
- Click the settings icon from the leftmost navigation menu and then click Automations.
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Click on Delinquency Automation.
Note: You can only modify or create a new delinquency automation workflow from your Corporate account. - Click the state and the space type for which you need to add a new stage.
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Click +Add New Stage to include a stage in the delinquency automation workflow.
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Click Add Action.
- Choose Send Message from the Select Action drop-down list.
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Choose to send the document to your tenant through your preferred mode by clicking +Add Delivery Method.
Note: Only Registered email, Standard email, and SMS are supported. - Select an existing template from the template manager library to email your tenant.
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Click Save Stage.
Using Rent Change Management
- Navigate to Settings from the leftmost navigation menu and click Revenue Management.
- Click the Property Settings tab.
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Select the desired property from the drop-down list to view its associated settings.
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Under Notifications, configure settings for sending the notice to the tenants.
- Notification Period - A timeframe to provide tenants with advance notice of upcoming rent adjustments.
- Document Name - Select the type of rent change notice to send to the tenant(s).
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+Add Delivery Method - You can send the document to your tenant using their preferred mode by clicking +Add Delivery Method.
Note: Only Registered email and Standard email are supported.
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Choose a Template.
Note: To view the merge fields, click Show Available Merge Fields. You can use a merge field by copying and pasting the text in brackets and adding it to your message. When you send the message, these placeholders will be filled with the tenant’s details. -
Click Save to apply your changes.
The communication sent out is displayed in the tenant’s profile.
