Here we will show you how to send an automated text message to your customers within crowdEngage.
From the main page of your dashboard, you can begin to create a text by going to the the “Flows” section within the "Messaging" drop down menu
When you first begin on this page, you will only see a default flow. You can add flows by clicking the button on the right hand side and then they will all show on this page going forward.
The default flow will automatically add to all performances. So only use this if you have a message you'd like to send to everyone. This is handy if you want to set up a message and leave it to run itself. You can, alternatively, leave it blank.
After you hit "Add Flow" you would create the name of your new flow.
A flow is essentially the conversation that you are having with your customer. So every step within this, whether a pre-show message or a post show email is all related to this.
You can only add one flow per performance, so make sure you put all of the steps you may need within this flow
After you’ve named your flow, you would hit “Add step” to create your text that relates to the subject of your flow.
From this next page you can choose which customers you would like to send the message to. There is the flexibility to include/exclude customers with certain ticket types or other criteria. The default is to send the message to all customers.
You can also choose when you would like to send out your text, in relation to the start time of your performance. You might want to send this the day before to maximise drinks orders or a few hours before, if you think it would be a more helpful reminder to your customers.
Creating a pre-show text for your customers is then very easy. Hit “New text message template” and then you would simply write your message in the box as seen below.
The formatting of the text may seem daunting at first but we are here to help on support@crowdengage.com and there is a handy template guide to give you some ideas or starting points.
Don’t forget to add {{ your_visit_url }} which will bring up mobile ticketing for the customer when clicked.
Adding the Flow to an Instance
Once you have saved your message you can add your flow by going to the "Events" page (from the dropdown menu at the top of the screen), selecting the event you want to amend and hitting the edit button.
This takes you to a page where you can add a flow to an instance. So the chosen flow and chosen menus can be added and sent to everyone booked in for that particular event.
You can filter the events by start-time if, for example, you only wanted to select the matinee performances. All the instances selected with a tick will be included. You can click on the boxes to untick if you want to change this.
After you have completed this step and selected "update instances" you are all set up to send the message to your customers!
Instant Send
If you want to write a message and send it straight away to customers, you can do so by using "instant send". This is not always recommended but maybe there’s a last minute emergency and you want to send a message quickly to everyone booked into the performance.
Please note this will send to all customers booked into the instance and you can’t stop the message once it has been sent.
Checking sent messages
In sent messages you can see all the texts that have been sent in the last 30 days and if you click on the arrow tool you can check to see the message that has been sent. You can also search by phone number. So if a customer says that they haven’t received the message you can check to see if it has been sent.
If you have any queries at all, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on support@crowdengage.com and we can help you out.