Notification channels
Parcel Notifications by SMS and Slack
Reach people on the channel they actually read. Text messages for those without a work inbox, and Slack for the teams already living in it.
Mailroom problems that look like storage problems are usually notification problems. Items pile up because people do not know they have arrived, and email is very easy to ignore.
- SMS across the USA and Europe
- Slack, live today
- Reminders and quiet hours
Email is the default, and that is the problem
Almost every building notifies by email, because almost every building has everybody's email address. Neither of those facts means anyone reads it.
Think about who actually receives parcels in your building. Some are office staff sitting at a desk with a mail client open. Many are not. Residents, students, contractors, engineers, kitchen staff and anyone working a shift either never check a work email address or do not have one. A notification sent there has not really been sent at all.
The shelf fills up, and the mailroom gets blamed for a storage problem it did not cause.
- No work inbox at allResidents, students and contractors are not on your mail system. The only channel you have for them is the mobile number they gave you.
- Read tomorrow, if at allAn email about a parcel competes with everything else that arrived that day, and usually loses.
- Filtered into a folderAutomated messages from the same sender every day are exactly what people write mail rules for.
- Desk teams have moved off emailWhole departments now work in Slack, and treat their inbox as somewhere to deal with things eventually.
- One channel for everybodyA single choice imposed on a building that contains several very different kinds of recipient.
- Nothing chasesThe first notification is also the last, so anything missed stays missed.
- Alerts at unreasonable hoursA late scan texts somebody at home in the evening, and they switch notifications off for good.
- Sent in the wrong languageA notification the recipient cannot read is not a notification, and international sites have plenty of them.
Looking at notifications as a whole rather than these two channels? Parcel notification software covers the wider picture, including what notifications do to collection times.
The channels
Two channels for two very different recipients
These are not alternatives to each other. Most buildings need both, because most buildings contain both kinds of person.
SMS, for people you cannot email
A text arrives on the device in their hand and gets read within minutes. For residents, students, contractors and site staff it is often the only channel you genuinely have, and it clears a shelf faster than anything else.
Coverage across the USA and Europe
Both are covered as standard. For anywhere else, a provider can be added for the region you operate in, so an international estate does not have to run two different processes.
Slack, for teams already in it
Slack is live and has its own section in the Traizr admin. Once connected, the notification appears in the tool your office staff already have open rather than in a mail client they check twice a day.
Email and push, still there
Neither goes away. Email remains sensible for office staff who use it, and mobile push reaches anyone with the app installed.
Chosen per recipient
The channel is stored on the recipient record, so the choice is made once per person rather than once per building. That is what lets a mixed site stop compromising.
The sequence
What gets sent, and when
A notification is not one message but a short sequence, and most of the value sits in the messages after the first.
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It has arrived
Sent the moment the item is scanned in and matched to a recipient. It is not batched overnight, because the point is that they find out while they are still in the building.
Sent onThe recipient's chosen channel: SMS, Slack, email or push. -
It is ready to collect
Where an item needs handling before it can be picked up, this second message is the one that matters. The first only said the item exists.
IncludesWhere to collect it and, where relevant, the hours the collection point is open. -
A reminder, then another
Automatic reminders chase anything left uncollected, on a schedule you set. This is the part that empties the shelf, and the part a manual process never does consistently.
ConfigurableHow long to wait, how often to chase, and when to stop chasing and escalate instead. -
Held until a reasonable hour
Quiet hours stop an evening scan from texting somebody at home. A channel this direct only keeps working if it is not abused.
Applies toAny channel, though it matters most for SMS. -
Confirmation it was collected
The closing message, which also prevents a follow-up question. The recipient has a record of collection, and so do you.
RecordedWho collected it and when, alongside the proof captured at handover.
Notifications and proof are two halves of the same thing. One gets the item collected, the other records that it was. See internal proof of delivery for the second half.
What you can control
All of it included as standard, with no per-message pricing to work around.
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SMS
Text notifications across the USA and Europe as standard, with a provider addable for any other region you operate in.
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Slack
A live channel with its own section in the admin. Notifications land in the workspace your team already has open.
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Email
Still the right choice for desk-based staff who use it, and still included rather than traded away.
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Mobile push
The fastest channel for anyone with the app, and the one that carries the QR collection code.
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Channel per recipient
Set on the person rather than the building, so a mixed site never has to pick one channel for everybody.
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Automatic reminders
Chase uncollected items on your own schedule. This is the single behaviour that keeps a shelf clear.
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Quiet hours
Hold messages outside reasonable hours, so a late scan does not wake somebody up and cost you the channel.
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Configurable content
Say what your building needs said. A residence needs the collection point and hours; an office usually needs neither.
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Thirteen languages
Each recipient is notified in their own language, which changes response rates on international and student sites.
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Opt-out respected
A recipient who opts out is opted out across the system, not just on the channel they used to tell you.
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Collection built in
Notifications carry what the recipient needs to collect, including the QR code where that is how your handover works.
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Visible in reporting
The time somebody was notified and the time they collected both sit on the record, so you can see which channels work.
Which channel suits which building
A rough guide rather than a rule. Most sites end up running more than one, and that is the right outcome.
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Student accommodation
SMS, almost always. Students rarely read the accommodation email account, and September volumes make chasing by hand impossible.
Student accommodation parcels -
Residential buildings
SMS for residents, who have no work inbox with you at all, plus quiet hours so evening deliveries stay civil.
Apartment package management -
Corporate offices
Slack for the teams that have moved into it, email for those that have not. Often both in the same building.
Office mailroom software -
Coworking spaces
Members run their own systems entirely, so SMS is the common denominator and Slack suits the larger member companies.
Coworking mailroom software -
Universities
SMS for students and email for staff, in thirteen languages, across a campus where many recipients are international.
University mailroom software -
Hospitals and shift sites
Anywhere staff work shifts away from a desk. The notification has to find them mid-round or it finds them too late.
Hospital parcel tracking
Email only against every channel
The mailroom process is identical in both columns. Only the way people find out has changed.
| Email only | With Traizr |
|---|---|
| One channel for every recipient | Channel chosen per person |
| Nothing for people without a work inbox | SMS to the number they gave you |
| Desk teams miss it in a busy inbox | Slack, where they already are |
| One message and no follow-up | Automatic reminders on your schedule |
| Alerts at any hour | Quiet hours, so the channel survives |
| Everybody notified in one language | Thirteen languages, per recipient |
| Opt-outs tracked by hand | Respected across the whole system |
| No idea what is working | Notified and collected times on every record |
Consent, opt-outs and doing this properly
Texting someone is a bigger step than emailing them, and it deserves more care. If your recipients are employees, the position is fairly simple. You already hold their details for work purposes, and a parcel notification is a work message. If they are residents, students, members or contractors, it is less simple, and the answer depends on what they agreed to when they gave you the number.
Traizr handles the mechanics. Recipients can opt out, and an opt-out applies across the system rather than only on the channel they used to tell you. Quiet hours stop messages going out at antisocial times. Our SMS terms set out how the messaging works, and they are worth reading before you switch SMS on for a group who are not your own staff.
What Traizr cannot do is decide your lawful basis for you. That is a conversation for whoever handles data protection at your organisation. It is usually a short one, but it is better had before the first message goes out than after. The Trust Centre holds the data processing agreement and the rest of the documentation your team will ask for.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the notification channel matter so much?
Because uncollected items are the expensive part of a mailroom, and nobody collects an item they do not know about. Email is the default in most buildings and it is also the channel most likely to be missed, especially by anyone who does not sit at a desk. Changing the channel is the cheapest fix available: nothing about the mailroom process changes, and the shelf empties faster.
Which countries does SMS cover?
The USA and Europe are covered as standard. For anywhere else, a provider can be added for the region you operate in, so coverage is rarely the constraint people expect it to be. If you have sites somewhere specific, tell us where and we will confirm rather than guess.
How does the Slack integration work?
Slack is a live channel with its own section in the Traizr admin. Once it is connected, recipients are notified in Slack in the same way they would be by email or SMS. For a desk-based team, that means the alert appears in the tool they already have open.
Can different people get different channels?
Yes, and that is usually the right answer rather than picking one channel for everybody. A building often contains both office staff who live in Slack and residents or contractors who have no work account at all. The channel is set on the recipient record, so each person is reached the way that works for them.
What happens if somebody does not collect?
Reminders chase automatically on a schedule you set, so an item that goes uncollected keeps prompting instead of quietly joining the pile. That one behaviour is the difference between a shelf that clears and a shelf that grows.
Can we stop notifications going out overnight?
Yes. Quiet hours hold messages, so a delivery scanned at seven in the evening does not text a resident at seven in the evening. This matters more for SMS than for any other channel, because a text is intrusive by design.
Are notifications sent in the recipient's language?
Yes. Traizr runs in thirteen languages, and each recipient's own setting decides what they receive. In student accommodation and international offices this makes a real difference to whether a notification gets acted on. See multilingual mailroom software.
How is SMS consent handled?
Recipients can opt out, and an opt-out is respected across the whole system rather than only on the channel they used to tell you. Our SMS terms set out how the messaging works. It is worth reading if you are notifying residents or students rather than employees, because the consent position is different.
Do we still get email and push?
Yes. Email and mobile push are both standard. SMS and Slack are additions to them rather than replacements, and most buildings end up using three of the four, split by who the recipient is.
What does a notification actually say?
What arrived, where it is, and how to collect it. The content is configurable, which matters because the useful detail differs by building. A residence needs the collection point and the opening hours, and an office usually needs neither.
Want the wider view? Parcel notification software covers notifications as a whole, and the integrations list shows how recipient details stay current so the right person gets the message.
Other things the platform does
Same system, different capability. Notifications are one part of a longer journey.
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Virtual office software
Run a virtual office or business centre address: photograph every item, act on client instructions, and bill for what you handled.
Read the page -
Multi-tenant mailroom software
Many tenants on one platform, each seeing only their own mail, with a superadmin that creates and configures all of them.
Read the page -
On-premise mailroom software
Install on your own infrastructure or in a container inside your network, and run the mailroom with no outbound connection at all.
Read the page -
Multi-hop mail routing
Send an item onward through postrooms, buildings, campuses and countries, with one person accountable for each leg.
Read the page -
In-app support from real people
Ask a question from inside the product and get an answer from someone who knows it, not a ticket number and a queue.
Read the page
Ready to Simplify Secure Speed Up Optimise Your Building?
Tell us who receives parcels in your building and we will show you which channel reaches each group, and what that does to your uncollected pile. About 20 minutes.