Email - integration with Cognito Forms


Cognito Forms integration is an Advanced Module

Odyssey clients using the " Cognito Forms advanced module" are able to send emails to their clients and providers, which contain links to a form that the recipient can complete online. This information is gathered and then seamlessly updates the relevant Odyssey booking or client record, without any need for staff intervention, reducing time and ensuring data accuracy. 

Here's how it works:

Booking information in Odyssey, and personalised email content, gets pushed through to a third party, cloud based email product called MailJet, to send emails to customers and providers.

Clients manage their own MailJet email designs, which can be customised to local trails, with associated images and text.  For Odyssey users with the " Advanced Email module", when an email has been sent, the booking in Odyssey is automatically updated to show that an email has been opened, bounced, or marked as SPAM.  This means your staff always know when communications have reached and been read by the recipient, or if there are any email delivery issues.

Email designs can also include buttons, which connect to a second third-party product called Cognito Forms.  Once again, our clients manage their own form designs and content, and these forms are used to gather data from the email recipient, such as Bike Rental Agreements, Client Details, Provider Booking status', etc.  

The client or provider who receives the email can then click on the button in the email which connects them to the online form for completion.  When the client or provider clicks the submit button, all of that data flows seamlessly back into Odyssey, using processes that Creative Technology manage.

In Cognito Forms

Each new Odyssey client using the Advanced Cognito Forms module receives a Cognito forms account with 3 draft form templates; 

  • Equipment Rental Agreement

  • Personal Details

  • Provider

    This Provider form is designed to be at the VERY beginning of the Booking process after a phone call to the provider to confirm they have some rooms, you can then send the form to get confirmation, and for the Provider to add their internal booking reference which goes in Odyssey, along with the Provider's selected Booking status.  At the time of wringing we are also developing a solution so that it can also be used later in the process, to gather the individual client level room details .... 

In MailJet

a)  In MailJet, each of those Cognito forms is linked, via a record in  Contact Properties  (MailJet/Contacts/Contact Properties).  

Note that these Contact Properties are not editable, purely having it listed means it is a field that can store data.  And it’s available for ANY template that our clients make. The Contact Properties are global. They exist just for this customer, but are used everywhere.

EACH of our Customers must have their own forms Contact Properties [fields] created, when we set up their MailJet account for them.

  • urlformagree
  • urlformpersonal
  • urlformprovider


b)  Once the Contact Properties are set up in MailJet, any MailJet email template can now provide a link to a Cognito form via the creation of a  button which links to the “  Contact Property” of a specific  form, as in this example {{data:urlformprovider}} below, which links to the Provider form:

When the recipient receives the email, they can click on the button link to the form, complete the online form, and submit it back.  The data contained in the completed form then gets pushed back into Odyssey, to update its record.  So, if a Provider says the booking is CONFIRMED in the form, the status of that provider booking will be updated to CONFIRMED.

Learn more about Contact Properties Here

Updating Odyssey

Equipment Rental

If the client completes and submits an online Equipment Rental Agreement, Odyssey will be automatically updated to include a copy of the form.  This completed form is viewable on the Departure's Booking tab, and the Booking record's Details tab, at both Reservations and Depot team levels. 

Provider Booking Form

After every Provider form has been submitted by the Provider, there is the option to have a confirmation email sent to the Odyssey user who sent the email/form originally.

Below is an example which shows the Odyssey user that the Provider has changed the Booking request Status to 'Waitlisted', and added some comments.

This means that not only is the Odyssey status and note field updated, but you are kept fully informed via this confirmation email, without the need to go searching for the information.