Email Notifications v1 (Deprecated)
Information
Users who signed up for Chargebee after September 25, 2017 will have Email Notifications enabled by default.
Chargebee can automatically send email notifications to your customers for various events, such as credit card expiration or payment failure. You can configure email notification settings under Settings > Configure Chargebee > Email Notifications in your Chargebee site.
Information
Gmail implemented its DMARC policy in June 2016. This means emails sent from any server other than Gmail's will be ignored, and your customers will not receive emails sent via non-Gmail servers. Learn more.
Settings
You can configure the sender's name, email address, subject prefix (if any), and BCC.
The sender's name and address can be configured globally under Settings > Configure Chargebee > Email Notifications > Settings or separately for specific email notifications.
If you have customized any email notifications, you must update the "From" details for those notifications individually by editing those templates.
Updating the configuration only under Settings > Configure Chargebee > Email Notifications > Settings will not update the sender's details for notifications that have been customized.
Notify new revenue to – Configuring an email address here will send the recipient the first invoice generated for each subscription. The subject line of this email will have the prefix "[First Invoice]." This receipt will be sent even if the Invoice Receipt email notification is turned off.
Enable Email Notifications
Configure the header and footer, and enable the events that should automatically notify your customers.
By default, all notification events are disabled. You can enable the ones you need and customize the templates.
Customer Portal Notifications
If you've enabled the customer portal, these email notifications are automatically sent to your customers. These notifications cannot be turned off because they are required, but you can customize the templates.
Email notifications are automatically sent to your customers when they:
- Request for the sign up email
- Use the Forgot Password option
- Change their customer portal account password
- Get locked out of their account due to numerous failed login attempts
An email with a verification link is also sent to your customer when you change their email address from your end.
Customizing Email Templates
You can easily customize email templates by adding your content and using the mail merge fields available at the bottom. Simply copy and paste the fields, and the data will be automatically populated when the email is sent.
Templates can be in plain text or HTML format. To enable HTML, click the HTML tab and then Enable. Images can be uploaded and saved to your account, and used in any email template you compose. You can disable HTML at any time.
Note
- The HTML mode needs to be enabled for each email template individually. Enabling/Disabling an email template only affects the template that you currently have open.
- Chargebee supports only inline CSS styles.
Update Template saves the current changes you've made to the template.
Reset Template undoes the changes you just made and reverts to the last saved version of the template.
Restore Default restores the default system template.
Preview shows you how your email will look.
Disable HTML disables HTML format for the template you are currently working on.
Chargebee's reminder emails (such as the Subscription Ending and Trial Ending reminders) include two additional Send Reminder fields:
-
Send Reminder (days): The first allows you to customize how many days prior to the renewal you would like to send the email.
-
Send Reminder (billing period): The second allows you to choose the billing period(s) (such as annual, quarterly, and so on) for which you want to send reminders. Once a billing period is set, only customers with subscriptions that fit into it will receive the email reminder. This setting provides flexibility for reminders; for example, a monthly billing period might not require a reminder email, while a yearly billing period might.
Mail Merge Fields
There are several fields you can use to customize your email template. Adding these fields will automatically fill in the corresponding data.
Example
If you want to automatically fill in the customer's first name (for example, Johnny) in the subject line of a template, simply copy the corresponding field from the list of mail merge fields and paste it in the subject line as follows:
Welcome, customer.first_name!
The subject line of the email sent to the customer would read:
"Welcome, Johnny!"
Note
Only fields relevant to the particular event will be displayed. If you copy a field from another event's template and use it for an event that does not include that field, it will not display any data.
See also
Mail Merge Usage for more information.
Notifying 3DS Payment Failures
If your business is based in Europe or has a significant customer base in the EEA, it is recommended that you authenticate payments via 3D Secure. This ensures you are SCA compliant and in line with the PSD2 regulation. To be compliant, complete Chargebee's setup.
Since 3DS failures are hard card declines and require customer intervention, it is necessary to inform customers of the failure so they can take action. You can configure the email templates under Settings > Configure Chargebee > Email Notifications > Dunning for Online Payments.
Make sure you embed the following mail merge fields to notify the customer of a 3DS failure, along with the "Pay Now" option.
customer.collect_unpaid_invoices_url - Pay Now for unpaid invoices
transaction.payment_failure_reason - Failure reason
SMTP Settings
Email notifications can be sent to your customers using either Chargebee's SMTP server or your own SMTP server.
To learn more, visit Chargebee's SMTP Configuration page.
Email Logs
When email notifications are sent to your customers, they are archived in Chargebee for future reference. You can view all emails sent to your customers by going to Logs > Email Logs.
You can search for emails using keywords and filters, and also view and resend these emails.
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