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It’s ideal for field-service teams such as lawn care, pest control, roofing, and other businesses where technicians travel from one customer location to another. With Virtual Door Knock, technicians can:
  • See nearby customers based on their current location
  • Quickly send predefined service updates
  • Personalize messages with contact information
  • Include their photo so customers know who to expect
  • Share their current location with the customer
  • Move through stops as they complete their route
Virtual Door Knock is available on select Captivated plans and must be enabled for your account. Contact Captivated Support if you’d like to add this feature.

Step 1: Import Contacts With Addresses

Virtual Door Knock uses customer addresses to determine which contacts are closest to the technician. Before using the feature, import your contacts with:
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Mobile Number
  • Street Address
  • City
  • State
  • ZIP Code
When mapping your import, map:
  • Street Address → Address Line One
  • City → City
  • State → State
  • ZIP → ZIP Code
If your file contains latitude and longitude, you can map those fields as well. If you don’t have latitude and longitude, that’s okay — Captivated can determine the location using the address you provide.
Contacts without an address will not appear as nearby customers in Virtual Door Knock.

Step 2: Give Your Team Access

Once your contacts have been imported, go to the gear icon → Virtual Door Knock. Then, add the users/teams using the “add user or team” button you would like to have access to this feature. Likely only the users that are on the road traveling to customer’s locations, such as technicians. If a user is not added here, they will not see the Virtual Door Knock tab on their mobile device. Next, add your templates by hitting “create template”. Keep in mind, the templates in this section are only used for Virtual Door Knock. Select Add User or Team to choose who should have access to the feature. Depending on your organization, you can provide access to:
  • Individual Users
  • An entire Team
  • Everyone in the account
For most organizations, access will primarily be given to technicians or other employees who travel to customer locations.
If a User hasn’t been given access to Virtual Door Knock, they will not see the Virtual Door Knock option on their mobile device.

Step 3: Create Virtual Door Knock Templates

Next, create the messages your technicians can send while they’re in the field. Select Create Template. You can start with an available base Template or create your own message.
Virtual Door Knock Templates are separate from your regular Captivated Templates. Virtual Door Knock Templates will not appear in the standard Templates section, and standard Templates will not appear in Virtual Door Knock.

Personalize Your Messages

You can use merge fields to automatically personalize Virtual Door Knock messages using standard or custom contact information. For example, a merge field such as {{salutation}} can personalize the greeting for each customer.

Include the Technician’s Photo

Turn on Include the sender’s photo to include the technician’s profile picture with the message. This can help customers know who to expect at their property. Make sure each technician has a profile photo configured in Captivated. See Adding a Profile Photo for instructions.

Include the Technician’s Location

Turn on Include sender’s location to share the technician’s location at the time the message is sent. This can be useful for confirming that the technician was at the customer’s location when completing the service.

Add Attachments

You can also include attachments with a Virtual Door Knock Template, such as:
  • Contact cards
  • Documents
  • Other applicable files
Use the preview on the right side of the Template editor to review how the message will appear. When you’re finished, select Save in the upper-right corner.

Use Virtual Door Knock on Mobile

Virtual Door Knock is available on mobile devices and tablets. In the Captivated mobile app, select the target icon directly to the right of the Messages button. Captivated will display the five customers closest to your current location that fall within your organization’s configured search radius. The search radius can be configured between 0.1 and 5 miles. Contact Captivated Support if your organization needs the radius adjusted.

Send a Message to a Nearby Customer

From the nearby customer list:
  1. Find the customer you want to contact.
  2. Select the right-facing arrow next to the customer.
  3. Select the blue button to view the available Virtual Door Knock Templates.
  4. Choose the Template you want to send.
Captivated will send the selected message to the customer using the information and options configured in that Template.

Complete a Customer Stop

Once you’re finished communicating with a customer, select the red button to remove them from your nearby customer list. Virtual Door Knock displays five customers at a time. Removing a completed customer allows another nearby customer to appear so you can continue through your route.

Don’t See Any Nearby Customers?

If your Virtual Door Knock list is empty, check these two things first:
  1. Do your contacts have addresses? Contacts without address information won’t appear in the nearby customer list.
  2. Do you have access to Virtual Door Knock? A User must be shared with the feature before the Virtual Door Knock option appears on their mobile device.
If both are configured correctly and you’re still having trouble, contact Captivated Support.

Need Help?

If you’d like to enable Virtual Door Knock, adjust your organization’s search radius, or need help configuring the feature, contact Captivated Support using the Support option in the left-hand menu. Virtual Door Knock displays five customers at a time. Removing a completed customer allows another nearby customer to appear so you can continue through your route.

Don’t See Any Nearby Customers?

If your Virtual Door Knock list is empty, check these two things first:
  1. Do your contacts have addresses? Contacts without address information won’t appear in the nearby customer list.
  2. Do you have access to Virtual Door Knock? A User must be shared with the feature before the Virtual Door Knock option appears on their mobile device.
If both are configured correctly and you’re still having trouble, contact Captivated Support.

Need Help?

If you’d like to enable Virtual Door Knock, adjust your organization’s search radius, or need help configuring the feature, contact Captivated Support using the Support option in the left-hand menu.