The Text Message Center is an excellent resource for viewing sent text messages, unsent text messages (i.e., schedule and draft), creating texts or templates, and updating automated text messages that can be used to communicate with your members and guest (as shown below).
When visiting the Text Message Center, you can:
Create Text Messages: Send a text message to all or some of your members.
Create Template: Create a text message template to be used later.
Further, you will see the following section within the Text Message Center:
Sent Text Messages: This section lists recent text messages sent by composing a message, message from a template, or by sending invitations to surveys or online order forms.
Unsent Text Messages: This section shows a list of scheduled and draft text messages.
Text Message Templates: This section list system templates in the "Template Library" and customized templated created by you in "My Templates."
Automated Text Messages: Automated text messages are generated when specific scenarios are met, and Golf Shop can send an alert to members, guests, managers, technicians, and vendors with certain information. For more details about Automated Text Messages, Click Here.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of the text message composer, sending text messages, unsent (i.e., Draft and Scheduled) text messages, and creating templates.
Text Message Composer Overview:
When composing any text message, you can:
Include all or a subset of members in the recipient list.
Add custom fields from member profiles.
Preview messages before sending.
Save messages as drafts.
Schedule messages to be sent at a future date/time.
Sending Text Messages:
To send custom text messages to some or all of your members, follow these instructions:
Go to Communication > Text Messages > Create Text Message.
Select the recipients. You can send it to:
All members: Send to your entire member roster
Specific members: Search and select specific members
Select by: Optionally filter the recipient list using the available custom fields. For instance, you can filter the recipient list by gender. After selecting the filtering settings, click "Apply Filter."
Edit the "Body" of the message. Enter content into the body of the text messages using the available basic text editor. You can insert data fields (available to the right) anywhere in the message.
Click "Refresh Preview" to preview the message before sending it.
Review the Recipient list to ensure the proper members are receiving the text message. Note: Click on the member count to see a recipient list.
Click one of the following options:
Cancel: Cancel the text message. Note: all changes will be lost.
Save as Draft: Save the message as a draft to be updated and scheduled or sent later. All drafts will be saved to the Text Message Center in the Unsent tile where they can be updated.
Schedule: Schedule the text message to be sent at a specific date and time. All scheduled text messages will be saved to the Text Messages Center in the Unsent tile where they can be updated.
Send: Immediately send the text message to the selected members.
Below is an example text message being sent to a member. As you can see, custom fields were included in the message.
Unsent Text Messages (Drafts and Scheduled Text Messages):
The "Unsent Text Message" section in the Text Message Center contains all your scheduled and draft text messages (as shown below).
The communications include:
Create Text Message: When creating a text using "Create Text Message" from the Text Message Center, you will have the option to save the text as a draft or schedule the text to be sent at a later date/time.
Survey Invitations: When Sending a Survey you have the action option to "Send by Text Message." When sending a survey using this option, you can save it as a draft or schedule it to be sent at a later date/time.
Online Order Form Invitation: When Sharing the Online Order Form you have the action option to "Send by Text Message." When sending an online order form using this option, you can save it as a draft or schedule it to be sent at a later date/time.
You can take the following actions on Unsent text messages:
Preview: Displays a popup preview of the text message to get a quick look at what is being sent and to whom the text will be sent.
Edit: Allows you to edit the scheduled or draft message and save it. When editing a text, you can also update the scheduled date/time by clicking "Edit" (as shown below).
Pause/Resume: Allows you to pause/resume scheduled text messages.
Unschedule: Allows you to delete a scheduled message. Note: Deleted messages cannot be recovered.
Creating Text Message Templates:
If you send text messages frequently with the same content, you can create templates for future messages, thus removing the need to create a new message from scratch every time.
To create text message templates, go to Communication > Text Messages > Create Text Message. Use the instructions in the previous sections, "Sending Text Messages," to compose the message, and click "Save as Template" to create a new custom template (as shown below). All templates will be saved in the Text Message Center in the "Text Message Templates" section, where they can be used to send new messages or update the existing one if needed.
Managing Text Message Templates:
All your text message templates can be found in the Text Message Center by going to Communication > Text Messages > Text Message Templates (as shown below).
The Text Message Templates tile has two sections:
My Templates: Any templates that you have created or added from the Template Library will be displayed here.
Template Library: In addition to the templates that you have created, you can also discover templates from our template library. Note: You must add a template from the library to your templates before you can use it. To add a template from the library to your templates, hover your mouse over the template and click "Add to my template."
To send an email using a template, hover your mouse over the templates and click "Create Text Message" to send the email to members (as shown below).
The following actions can also be taken on your templates:
Edit: To update any existing template, hover your mouse over the template and click "Edit." Make your update to the template and click "Save" and all changes will be saved to the existing template. Note: To change the name of a template, edit the template, and you will have the option to change the name.
Copy: Hover over an existing template and click "Copy" to make a copy of an existing template.
Delete: Click the trash can icon to delete a template. Note: Deleted templates cannot be recovered.
Text Messaging Words To Avoid:
With all text messaging service providers, certain keywords get blocked. With all text messaging service providers, specific keywords get blocked. Because of this, some messages will not be delivered by our text message service provider.
For your reference, text messages that contain words that fall in the "S.H.A.F.T." category can be red-flagged and not sent:
Sex: Businesses are prohibited from sending text messages that contain sexually explicit or suggestive content.
Hate: Businesses are prohibited from sending text messages that promote or incite hate or discrimination towards any group of people.
Alcohol: Businesses are prohibited from sending text messages that promote or advertise alcohol products to people under the age of 21.
Firearms: Businesses are prohibited from sending text messages that promote or advertise firearms or other weapons.
Tobacco: Businesses are prohibited from sending text messages that promote or advertise tobacco products.