New feature: email notifications
We've rolled out a new feature to make things easier for users in the waiting room: email notifications.
When users enter the waiting room, it can be disheartening for them to see a large position number and a long estimated wait. So, rather than sitting glued to the screen, they can now enter an email address and receive an email the moment they are put through.
Receive an email and relax
Although CrowdHandler holds people’s positions in the queue indefinitely – even if the browser tab is closed – needing to go back and check their status every few minutes can be frustrating for users.
The default email wording includes a warning of how long their session will be held for, and a link for them to get back onto the site.
This link includes their session token, meaning that their session will work even if they open the link using a different browser (for example, their email's default browser, or a browser on a different device).
Privacy and data storage
Email notifications are something we've been asked for a lot over the years, but we wanted to spend a little extra time making sure we'd gotten all of the personal data considerations right.
We care a lot about privacy and data security at CrowdHandler. To date, we have worked very hard to make sure that we never store any personally identifiable information at all . . . and that has not changed with the introduction of this new feature.
Not only do we not want –or need!– to deal with users' personal information, to do so would make things a lot more complicated for our clients. Many territories around the world have complex rules around data protection, and how personal information is stored and managed (and rightly so). But we strive to make things easy for our clients and we don't want them to have to think about any legal implications before setting up our product. Particularly when they need to onboard a waiting room product in an emergency!
So, here's how it works.
Only CrowdHandler uses the email, and only briefly
When an email is entered into the box, the user will see a pop-up informing them that they are giving CrowdHandler their email for one purpose only: to be notified when they have gone through the queue.
Because the end user is giving CrowdHandler permission to use their email address for this specific purpose, and CrowdHandler only uses it for this specific purpose, the process fully complies with data laws around the world. And, because this brief agreement is between the user and CrowdHandler, the client is not handling the data at all.
For compliance reasons, the email we send is a simple plain text email, from CrowdHandler, with a link, but clients can modify the text to ensure a smoother user experience.
Once the email has been sent, the user's information is deleted and no longer stored.
Set up email notifications now
Email notifications are available on Plus plan and up, and can be enabled on a room by room basis.
If you’re in a CrowdHandler waiting room with this feature enabled, look for the email box underneath the queue position.