Want to message all your checked-in employees about an event being held in the office? What about sending a message to visitors in the event of an emergency? With Broadcast Notifications, you can do all that and more!
Who Can I Send Messages To?
Broadcast Notifications enable your team to broadcast a message to different groups in your organization. These groups are:
Checked-in visitors
All Contacts (if you are not using an employee button)
Checked-in Contacts (if you are using an employee button)
Checked-out Contacts (if you are using an employee button)
Broadcast Notifications are sent to visitors and contacts on a per-location basis. Account Owners can broadcast a notification to any location belonging to their account, and Location Owners can broadcast a notification only to their own location. The message will be delivered via SMS from the same number that Contacts receive visitor notifications.
How To Broadcast Notifications
To send a message, start on the Visit Log, click the "Actions" button, and then select "New Broadcast" in the dropdown menu.
Then, you can enter your message and select who you want to receive it from. Hit Create Broadcast" to share it with the team!
Message Content and Deliverability
Because the SMS will come without a subject line, we suggest that you clarify who the message is coming from in the body of the message. Additionally, let your visitors or Contacts know to refrain from responding to the notification SMS; replies will send, but will not go anywhere.
Only unique numbers will receive SMS messages (meaning that if two visitors or two Contacts are saved under the same phone number, only one message will be sent). If you host a number of visitors from different countries, please be aware that the system may fail to send messages to country codes different from the company's (for example, a US company with a phone beginning with +1 will not be able to message a UK number beginning with +44).
It's impossible to opt out of these texts short of blocking the number entirely; please make sure that your employees do not block it, as that will prevent them from receiving visitor notifications via SMS. Additionally, carriers are likely to block any messages, including any form of profanity.
Please note that for these notifications to work as intended, the sender's country code must match the recipient's.
Have questions or want to chat through options? Click on that orange chat button in the lower right corner to livechat with a member of The Receptionist team!