Proactive cancellation and refund notifications

Purpose

1.1. Automate real-time sending of personalized notifications to customers when a flight is canceled or refunded.
1.2. Reduce inbound support by informing customers preemptively, providing instructions on next steps, and maintaining regulatory compliance.
1.3. Seamlessly update backend reservations and payment systems, coordinate with multiple channels (email, SMS, chat), and log every event for audit.
1.4. Facilitate follow-up actions like voucher issuance, rebooking links, and surveys for experience feedback.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Scheduled flight cancellation status detected in booking system.
2.2. Automated refund initiation event in payment processor or CRM.
2.3. Manual trigger by agent for exceptions.
2.4. Regulatory or policy-based cancellation/refund batch operations.

Platform variants

3.1. Twilio SMS
• Feature: Messaging API — Configure flow to send SMS via POST /Messages; set From, To, Body with customer details.

3.2. SendGrid
• Feature: Mail Send API — Use dynamic templates on v3/mail/send for customized cancel/refund emails.

3.3. AWS Lambda
• Feature: Event-based Function — Trigger functions on reservation update events; use Python/Node.js for custom logic.

3.4. Salesforce Service Cloud
• Feature: Flows & Process Builder — Create workflow for status change to “Cancelled” or “Refunded” that triggers email/SMS tasks.

3.5. Zendesk
• Feature: Triggers/Automations — Auto-create support tickets and send notifications via Zendesk API.

3.6. Slack
• Feature: Incoming Webhooks — Notify internal teams of cancellations/refunds via configurable webhook.

3.7. Microsoft Teams
• Feature: Bots/Connectors — Set up adaptive card for internal alert, set webhook URL.

3.8. HubSpot
• Feature: Workflow Automation — Trigger marketing emails and CRM contact updates when ticket is tagged ‘Canceled/Refunded’.

3.9. Shopify
• Feature: Order API Webhooks — Listen to ‘order_cancelled’ or ‘refund_created’ webhook, trigger email/SMS.

3.10. Google Cloud Pub/Sub
• Feature: Topic Publishing — Push event (“flight_canceled”, “refund_issued”) to data pipeline for downstream consumers.

3.11. Azure Logic Apps
• Feature: Event-Driven Workflow — Design logic to react on changes in SQL data or REST events and trigger multi-channel notifications.

3.12. Freshdesk
• Feature: Automations — Auto-reply to customers upon ticket update to “Flight Canceled” with next steps.

3.13. Mailgun
• Feature: Messages API — Auto-send transactional refund/cancel notifications programmatically.

3.14. Intercom
• Feature: Automated Messages — Configure auto-messages when ticket/data tags match cancel/refund.

3.15. WhatsApp Business API
• Feature: Message Templates — Approve templates for flight cancel/refund and send through business endpoint.

3.16. Facebook Messenger
• Feature: Messenger Platform Send API — Program capped notifications as soon as cancellation/refund is detected.

3.17. ServiceNow
• Feature: Workflow Automation — Configure business rules for incident triggering and notification workflow.

3.18. Oracle CX Service
• Feature: Process Automation — Script process automations on status fields, integrate with comms APIs.

3.19. SAP Customer Experience
• Feature: Intelligent Service Center — Set up trigger points at case or ticket changes for outbound comms.

3.20. Stripe
• Feature: Webhooks — Listen for “charge.refunded,” “payment_intent.canceled”; automate outbound refund notifications.

3.21. Zendesk Sunshine
• Feature: Sunshine Events API — Log custom cancel/refund event and trigger customer comms.

3.22. Google Workspace
• Feature: Apps Script — Schedule and trigger auto-generated cancel/refund emails or docs from Sheets/Gmail.

3.23. Microsoft Power Automate
• Feature: Automated Cloud Flows — Watch for CRM changes to automate cross-channel notifications.

3.24. Kustomer
• Feature: Custom Workflow — Automatic messaging set up on status field event triggers.

3.25. Braze
• Feature: Campaign Triggers — Set up campaigns for refund/cancel events via REST API.

Benefits

4.1. Reduction in manual workload for agents.
4.2. Instant, accurate communication to passengers across all preferred channels.
4.3. Enhanced customer trust, regulatory compliance, and operational transparency.
4.4. Increased speed-to-resolution, improved data quality for post-event analytics, and positive customer experience cycle.