Set up automated customer notifications
Set up automated customer notifications in Upper from Settings > Notifications. Turn on email and SMS channels, enable per-event messages, and pick stop types.
Upper can keep your customers informed automatically as drivers work through a route — no manual messaging from your team. Setup is a one-time job: turn on the channels you want, enable a message for each delivery event, and pick which stop types each message covers. After that, every route you run sends the updates on its own.
You do all of this from Settings > Notifications.
Labels can vary by workspace. This article uses the default delivery labels. A workspace set up for service businesses may show "Service" wording instead — for example, Out For Service, After Service, and Missed Service — but the setup works the same way.
Before you start
- Where it lives — Go to Manage > Settings, then open Notifications in the NOTIFICATIONS group.
- Customer contact details on each stop — Email messages need a customer email address; SMS messages need a phone number. Add these when you import stops or build routes. Upper skips a stop it can't reach on the channel you've enabled.
- SMS prerequisites — SMS is not available on the Starter plan. Sending SMS also requires a depot address on the account and an available SMS balance. See SMS pricing and how to top up your balance.
The messages you can turn on
Each channel — Email and SMS — offers the same set of event messages. Each one has its own on/off toggle, so you can use one, several, or all of them.
| Message | When it sends |
|---|---|
| Out For Delivery | When the stop is out for delivery |
| After Delivery | After the stop is completed successfully |
| Missed Delivery | When the stop could not be completed |
| Notify to Next Customer | A heads-up to the upcoming customer that the driver is approaching |
Notify to Next Customer only appears if your account has it enabled, so you may not see it. The other three messages are available on every account that has notifications turned on.
Set up automated notifications
Open the Notifications page
Go to Manage > Settings, then open Notifications in the NOTIFICATIONS group.
Set your company name and date format
At the top of the page, set your Company Name (click the pencil icon to edit it). This value fills the [Company Name] tag used in your messages. Use Choose Date Format to pick how dates appear in messages — the dropdown previews each format using the current date.
Switch on a channel
Turn on Email delivery updates, Text Message (SMS), or both. When a channel is on, its message cards appear below it. When a channel is off, its cards are hidden.
Enable the messages you want
For each event you want to cover — Out For Delivery, After Delivery, Missed Delivery, and Notify to Next Customer if it's available — turn on its toggle.
Choose which stop types each message covers
Each message card has a Select stop types picker with Delivery, Pickup, and Stop. Leave all three selected, or narrow it to the stop types you want that message to fire on. By default all three are selected.
(Optional) Edit the wording
The default templates work out of the box, so this step is optional. To change a message's text, subject, or tags, open its editor. See Customize notification message templates.
What's in each message
Each message uses a template with merge tags written in [Square Brackets] — for example [Company Name], [Tracking Link], [Earliest Time], and [Latest Time]. Upper fills these in with each customer's real data before sending. Email messages also include a subject line.
Email is sent from do-not-reply@upperinc.com.
To rewrite the wording, change the subject, or add tags, see Customize notification message templates.
Want to message a single customer ahead of the driver rather than the whole route? See Notify one customer at a time.
Hold messages during quiet hours (optional)
If you don't want messages going out overnight, use Settings > Smart Scheduling to queue notifications during quiet hours and release them afterward. You can set the quiet-hours window, choose which channels it applies to, and mark specific messages to always send immediately.
Troubleshooting
Related
Send SMS text notifications
Turn on SMS in Upper to text customers automatic delivery updates with a live tracking link. Enable the channel, pick your events, and customize each message.
Set up custom notification triggers
Upper fires customer notifications on four built-in events. You control the message, channel, and stop types per event; new trigger events go through support.