What are Automated Follow-ups?

1. Schedule multiple follow-up activities for a help-seeker in just a few clicks
   
2. Meet and exceed your satisfaction survey and quality assurance commitments
3. Get more outcome data directly from your help-seekers and clients when it's convenient for them to respond
4. Have ongoing communication with more clients in more ways
5. Reassure clients with ongoing warm reach outs, and outbound contacts

Note: Automated Follow-ups is available for any Contact Form using the ReportVersion5 (RV5). If you are uncertain which version you are using, or if you have any questions, please have a designated Support Contact go to 'Help' in the left side menu and submit a case to request more information.

How to create and manage Automated Follow-up Templates

1. Log into iCarol as an Admin or user with access to Admin Tools
   
2. Click on "Admin Tools" from the left menu
   
3. Click on the "Contacts & Profiles" tab
4. Scroll or navigate to the "Follow-up Activities settings" section
5. Then to the "Automated Follow-up Templates" panel 
   

1. Navigate to the "Automated Follow-up Templates" panel (See "To view/access Automated Follow-up Templates" for steps.)
   
2. Click on “+ Add Template” 
3. Enter a "Template Name"
4. Choose a "Follow up method" 
5. Choose if future surveys should be cancelled if the help-seeker does not respond
6. Click "Create"
   

Note: Once created, the follow-up method cannot be changed. If you make an error, create a new template.

1. Navigate to the "Automated Follow-up Templates" panel (See "To view/access Automated Follow-up Templates" for steps.)
   
2. Click on the "Open row" icon 
   

1. Navigate to the "Automated Follow-up Templates" panel (See "To view/access Automated Follow-up Templates" for steps.)
   
2. Click on the "trash" icon 
   

NOTE: Deleting Automated Follow-up Templates or activities is permanent. Deleted records cannot be restored.

Add/edit Automated Follow-up Activities within templates

1. Navigate to the "Automated Follow-up Templates" panel (See "To view/access Automated Follow-up Templates" for steps.)
   
2. Add a new Template or Open an existing template
   
3. Within the "Automated Follow-up Activities" panel
   
4. Click on “+ Add Activity” 
   
5. Enter an "Activity Subject" (This text will display on the scheduled follow-up activity.)
   
6. Choose a "Delay (days)" (This is the number of days to wait after the Contact Record is created to send the activity. Your selection here determines what day the scheduled follow-up activity is scheduled.)
   
7. Choose the "Activity Purpose" (This choice will be selected on the scheduled follow-up activity.)
   
8. Click on the "arrow" icon next to the Activity Subject to open the activity details 
   
9. Enter "Activity Instructions and Notes" (This text will display on the scheduled follow-up activity)
   
10. For Email type activities:
    
1. Enter a "CC Email" address (if desired, see below note for tips/details)
   
2. Enter a "BCC Email" address (if desired, see below note for tips/details) 
3. Enter a "Reply to Email" address (if desired, see below note for tips/details)
4. Enter a "Message Subject" which will be used for the Email Subject
5. Enter an "Email Message Body" which is the text that will be sent in the Email
   
6. You can add "String Replacement Tags" to the email body to add more personalization. To add the tag, click on the link in the right menu.
   
7. For activities with surveys, you must include the Survey URL tag in the Message Body, and make a selection in the "Survey to Send" field. 
   
11. For SMS type activities:
1. Enter an "SMS Message Body" which is the text that will be sent in the SMS message. (Note: While there is no character limit, a single SMS message has a character limit of 160 for SMS messages. This means longer messages may have additional costs.)
2. You can add "String Replacement Tags" to the email body to add more personalization. To add the tag, click on the link in the right menu.
   
3. For activities with surveys, you must include the Survey URL tag in the Message Body, and make a selection in the "Survey to Send" field. 
   
12. For Email or SMS activities with Surveys, reminders can be configured. To add reminders:
1. Click on “+ Add Reminder” 
   
2. Enter the reminder text to prepend to the Email Subject (Emails only) (Example: If the reminder subject is "1st Reminder:" and the activity subject is "How did we do?" when the Reminder is sent the email subject will be "1st Reminder: How did we do?")
3. Enter the reminder text to prepend to the Body of the Email or SMS messages (Note: The prepended text will be added to the configured message body and will increase the approx. character count for SMS messages.)
4. Choose the "Delay (days)" to wait before sending the Reminder. (This is the number of days to wait after the follow-up survey was sent before sending the Reminder.) 

Tips & Ideas:

1. The CC/BCC fields are intended to assist with follow-up program delivery and could aid in troubleshooting or responding to help-seekers who respond to the Email. The use of these fields is purely optional. You may want to consider configuring one or either of these fields if you intend to have ongoing communication with the help-seeker by email.
   
2. If the "Reply to Email" is not configured, the help-seeker will receive an undelivered response if they try to reply by email. To allow the help-seeker to respond to automated Email messages, it is important to configure a real email address which is monitored by your volunteer-staff users in the "Reply to Email” field.
   
3. If you also want to update the "From Email" that appears in the help-seekers email inbox as who the email was sent from, you must update the "Default from email address for automated follow-up activities:" setting on the Contact Form Version Overall Settings page.  
   
4. The "Surveys to Send" functionality works with iCarol's Public Web Form feature. Any configured Web Form within your iCarol system will be available to send with your Automated Follow-up Activities. If your organization wishes to subscribe to Public Web Forms to use Surveys with your Automated Follow-ups, please have a designated Support Contact go to 'Help' in the left side menu and submit a case to request more information.
   
5. Automated Follow-up Activities sent by SMS, including reminders, will count towards your SMS usage. There is a character limit of 160 for SMS messages meaning longer messages may have additional costs. The "approx.:" counter estimates the number of characters in the message to help you manage these costs. For more information about pricing for SMS usage, please have a designated Support Contact go to 'Help' in the left side menu and submit a case to request more information.
   

How to assign Automated Follow-up Templates to Contact Forms

To use created Automated Follow-up Templates on Contact Forms, ensure that sending Follow-ups is enabled on the Contact Form version, then choose which templates are available to that form version. 

NOTE: For activities to be automatically sent, the Email and/or SMS number must also be configured.

1. For SMS type Automated Follow-ups to be sent, the "From SMS phone number" must be configured. By default, the toll-free iCarol number is selected.
2. For Email type Automated Follow-ups to be sent, the "Default from email address" must be configured. By default, the NoReply@iCarol.com email is selected.
   

By configuring your SPF record, emails sent by iCarol can look like they are coming from your department or agency email.

To view the existing Contact Forms assigned to the template:

1. Navigate to the "Automated Follow-up Templates" panel (See "To view/access Automated Follow-up Templates" for steps.)
   
2. Add a new Template or Open an existing template
3. Navigate to the "Active Contact Forms" panel to view a list of assigned forms. Where you can:
   
1. Click on the "Open row" icon quickly navigate to the overall settings for that form version
2. Click on "Open Contact Form Settings" to choose from your existing Contact Form Versions where this template should be available 

1. Navigate to the "Overall settings for this call report (contact form)"
   
2. Under "Automated Follow-up Templates"
3. Check the box next to each template that should be available on the Contact Form Version
4. To quickly view the Template details click the "Open row" icon 
   

How to use Automated Follow-up Templates to schedule Follow-up Activities on Contact Records

1. When editing a new or existing Contact Record
   
2. Click on the "Finish" tab (may be named differently in your system) when entering or editing a Contact Record 
3. From the "Follow-up Templates" list, choose the template name to use
   

1. Enter the Follow-up Activity details to be used for scheduling. The information entered will be used for all scheduled Activities from the Automated Follow-up Template, including:
1. Auto-populated fields, which will populate from the "People" tab when the template is selected. These values can be copied again by clicking "Copy", or manually modified.
1. Phone Number: 
2. Mobile Phone (SMS type activities)
3. Email Address (Em