Message Center

From FloristWiki

Revision as of 07:37, 8 May 2008

The Mercury Message Center is an integrated hub through which you can review all incoming and outgoing Mercury Messages, as well as access all related Mercury Messages in the conversation. You can search for Mercury Messages in your system using a variety of criteria.

How-to Procedures

Opening the Message Center

You can open the message center from the FTD Mercury Main Menu or from the Order Entry and Point of Sale windows.

Steps for Opening the Message Center from the Order Entry and Point of Sale Windows

Steps for Opening the Message Center from the FTD Mercury Main Menu

Searching for Messages

Message searches are performed in Message Center. Once you open Message Center (either from the FTD Mercury Main Menu or via Order Entry or Point of Sale), you can search for any Mercury messages in your system by one or more parameters. Messages that match all parameters are displayed in the results list.If you specify too broad of a search, you may get too many results; if your search is too narrow (too many parameters), you may not get any matches. You may want to try a broad search first, and if you have too many results, add additional search parameters to narrow the results.

Steps for Searching for Mercury Messages

Attaching Incoming Orders

Attaching incoming messages, in essence, allows you to convert an incoming message from another florist, from Florists Online (FOL), from Flowers All Hours (FAH), or from your Web site into an order in Order Entry. Once in Order Entry, you can then make any additional modifications to the order (product changes, set the delivery zone, etc.), and then complete the order.

NOTE: In previous versions of FTD Mercury, this was done via Order Entry. Now, you handle it through Message Center.

Messages that still need to be attached appear in green text in Message Center.

Steps for Attaching Incoming Orders

Handling Messages that Require Attention

Message Center includes a filter that displays messages that require your attention. By default, when you open Message Center from Order Entry or Point of Sale, Message Center performs a search for these messages.

You should always ensure you are handling these messages that require attention to keep your business running smoothly when it comes to wire orders.

The following criteria are used in determining whether a message requires attention:

• Any incoming or outgoing order message that has not been attached (except for phoned in orders)
• Any incomplete order
• Any outgoing order with errors
• Any order where you have received a message that needs a response (for example, an Ask message you need to answer or a Reject message where the order needs to be resent)
• Any order message where the Hold box has been checked

The Requires Attention list also sets the Delivery Date parameter to 30 days back from the current date.

Steps for Handling Messages that Require Attention

Dealing with Incoming Reject Messages

When you receive an incoming reject message and you double-click on it in Message Center, the original order that was rejected opens in Order Entry. The order itself is marked as an incomplete wire out order (that can be located via Ticket Search if necessary), and will show up in Dashboard as Incomplete.

Once you open the order in Order Entry, you can then select a new filling florist and complete the order as you would normally. A new Mercury Order message will be sent to the new filling florist.

NOTE: If you use Auto Select to find a new filling florist, it will automatically disregard any florist who previously rejected the message (so there is no danger of sending it to the same florist again).

Opening Orders Related to Messages

For any message that already has an associated order in your system, when you double-click the message in the results list, Order Entry opens the order associated with the message, allowing you to view the order or make appropriate changes (prior to responding to a message, for example).

If you reject or forward a message from Message Center, you are not required to open the message in Order Entry (by double-clicking the order). Once you send the Reject or Forward message, the original message you received will be removed from the results list.

Likewise, if you receive a Cancel message on an incoming order and send a Confirm message, the order will be removed from the results list without you having to open the message in Order Entry.

Creating New Mercury Messages

There are several different Mercury Messages you may need to create (as opposed to responding to an incoming message):

• Adjustment message
  • Steps for Sending an ADJustment Report Message
• General message
  • Steps for Sending a GENeral Message
• REC Message list
  • Steps for Sending a REC Message
• Retrieval message
  • Steps for Sending a RETrieval Message
• Resume message
  • Steps for SUSpend and RESume Messages
• Suspend message.
  • Steps for SUSpend and RESume Messages

You can create all of these messages from Message Center by clicking the New Message button. When the New Message Window opens, select the message type you want to create and another window will open, allowing you to craft and send your message.

Requesting a Price Change

A possible response to a message is to request a price change. You can do this as the filling florist (the more common scenario), or as the sending florist wanting to update a price after the initial order was sent.

Steps for Requesting a Price Change

Acknowledging Messages

Acknowledging messages allows you to remove messages from the requires attention list without having to send a message in reply. Essentially, it allows you to mark that you have read the message.

You can acknowledge the following Mercury Message types:

• Incoming Ask (ASK) messages
• Incoming Answer (ANS) messages
• Incoming Deny (DEN) messages
• Incoming Reject (REJ) messages (although you can acknowledge this message, you must still either cancel the order or resend it to remove the message from the Requires Attention list)
• Incoming Confirmation (CON) messages
• Incoming Forward (FOR) messages
• Incoming General (GEN) messages

Steps for Acknowledging Messages

Rejecting Incoming Orders

You may need to reject an incoming order. Some reasons for doing so include it is past your delivery cutoff time, the order is outside of your delivery area, or you do not have the product requested.

IMPORTANT: You should forward the order to another florist instead of rejecting it if another florist can fill the order instead. Only reject an order if you feel that no other florist can fill it. For more information, see Sending a FORward Message

Steps for Rejecting an Incoming Order

Deleting Messages

Certain messages can be deleted from Message Center entirely:

• General (GEN) messages
• Unattached, non-FTD orders

In the case of General messages, this allows you to keep the Message Center organized. For users who also send with non-FTD wire services, this allows you to remove order messages that would otherwise appear in the Requires Attention list.

Steps for Deleting Messages

Printing Messages

When you print a message, a single copy of the selected Mercury Message prints to the Mercury Message printer. If no printer is configured as the Mercury Message printer, the message prints to the default Windows printer.

Steps for Printing Messages

Window Descriptions

Message Center Window

The Mercury Message Center is an integrated hub through which you can review all incoming and outgoing Mercury Messages, as well as access all related Mercury Messages in the conversation. You can search for Mercury Messages in your system using a variety of criteria.

Message Center Window Areas

New Message Window

The New Message window opens when you click New Message in the Message Center.

You can select from the following new message types:

• Adjustment—Opens the Adjustment Message (ADJ) window
• General—Opens the General Message Detail window
• REC Message List—Opens the REC Message List window
• Retrieval—Opens the Retrieval Message (RET) window
• Resume—Opens the Create Resume Message (RES) window
• Suspend—Opens the Create Suspend Message (SUS) window

Once you select the message you are creating, click OK to open the appropriate message window and craft your message.

Acknowledgement Window

The Acknowledgement window opens when you respond to a message and select Acknowledge as the response.