Automated customer messages

Customers want to hear from you at certain moments — when their deposit is received, when their car arrives at the PD centre, when delivery is booked. Autopilot can fire those emails automatically based on the state of the deal.

Open the messages hub

Messages in the sidebar, or /messages.

Three tabs: Overview (deliverability stats), Automations (the templates), Email config (sending domain).

The six built-in automations

• Deposit received — when a deposit field is filled in.
• Vehicle ordered — when deal progress moves to "on boat" or "arriving next month".
• Vehicle in transit — when deal progress moves to "in country" or "at PD centre".
• Finance approved — when finance status moves to "approved".
• Vehicle ready — when the vehicle is profiled and ready for handover.
• Post-delivery follow-up — sent X days after delivery (configurable).

Install any of them with one click from Messages → Automations. Each comes with a pre-written template you can edit, and merge fields for the customer's name, vehicle, dates, etc.

Custom automations

You can build your own automation triggered by any deal state change. Pick:

• Trigger — what state change fires it (e.g. "Finance status changes to 'declined'").
• Audience — who gets the email (the customer, the salesperson, your manager, an external email).
• Template — subject and body, with merge fields.
• Delay — fire immediately, or wait X hours / days before sending.

Merge fields

Anywhere in the subject or body you can drop a merge field:

• {{customer_name}}, {{customer_first_name}}
• {{vehicle_make}}, {{vehicle_model}}, {{vehicle_year}}, {{vehicle_colour}}
• {{deal_number}}, {{deal_total}}, {{deposit}}
• {{delivery_date}}, {{invoice_date}}
• {{salesperson_name}}, {{salesperson_email}}
• {{dealership_name}}, {{dealership_phone}}

If a merge field doesn't have a value (e.g. delivery date isn't set yet), the line gets gracefully omitted rather than sending "Your delivery date is {{delivery_date}}".

Sending from your domain

By default, automations send from noreply@aplt.ai. Most dealerships want their own domain so emails look like service@your-dealership.co.nz and don't trip customer spam filters.

Messages → Email config → Sending domain.

Add your domain. Autopilot generates DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Add them to your DNS, click verify, done. Once verified, all your automated emails send from your domain.

Customer unsubscribes

Every email Autopilot sends has a one-click unsubscribe link. Customers can pick which categories they want (transactional updates, marketing, follow-ups) or unsubscribe from everything.

Unsubscribed customers automatically stop receiving messages — Autopilot suppresses sends to them silently.

Deliverability stats

The Overview tab shows:

• Sent — total emails sent in the date range.
• Opened — % opened (rough — Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates this).
• Clicked — % clicked through to your link.
• Bounced — % returned undeliverable.
• Complained — % marked as spam.

Watch the bounce + complaint rates. If complaints climb above 0.1%, your sender reputation suffers and emails start landing in spam. Usually means a stale customer list — clean it up.

Pausing automations

If a campaign is sending more than you expected (you imported 5,000 historic deals and 5,000 "thanks for your purchase" emails almost went out), pause the automation immediately from the Messages page. Pausing doesn't delete the automation — resume any time.