Created, Edit, Delete Standard Messages

Created, Edit, Delete Standard Messages

What are Standard Messages?

Standard Messages can be setup by Admin level users for all vols-staff to use during Messaging conversations, and they:
  1. become available to users within their messaging conversation from a drop-down list, and can be edited by users before they’re sent
  2. can be set to appear across all portals, or can be set to appear in one specific named portal
  3. are most helpful when you find your counselors typing the same messages frequently, or you have verbiage you'd like your vols-staff to use in certain situations, while still giving them the ability to edit the messages before sending them to your help seekers
Before you begin creating Standard Messages, it is important to understand the difference between the fields ‘Message Type’ and ‘Portal’, and what the ‘Default Portal’ is used for, which are as follows:
  1. Message Type refers to SMS/Text conversations or Live Chat (IM) conversations, think about this as being the “method” your help seeker contacts you through.
    1. Standard Messages can be created to be used in conversations for just one Message Type, or to be used in conversations for both Message Types; see below for more details
  2. Named Portal refers to the named portals that have been setup in your system; your named portals appear in your Portal Legend on your main Messaging page, and in your Portal drop-down list on your IM and SMS Settings page.
    1. Standard Messages can be created to be used in conversations for just one Portal, or to be used in conversations for all Portals
    2. Note, there is only one Message Type configured in each Named Portal. In other words, if your organization has a Live Chat and SMS/Text service, each of these will have their own Named Portal. The same is true if your organization has two Live Chat services; each will have their own Named Portal.
  3. Default Portal refers to the portal that is initially selected when you go to the main IM and SMS Settings page; you will see in the Portal drop-down list at the top of the page, ‘default portal’ appears before you select a named portal
    1. When you create or edit messages that are ‘applied across all portals’, you need to do so from the Default Portal

How to send a Standard Message in a Messaging Conversation

If an Admin at your organization has created Standard Messages, they’ll be available for use within messaging conversations.

To select, edit, and send a Standard Message, complete the following steps:
  1. From within a messaging conversation click the drop-down list below the textbox where you type messages in the conversation, and all Standard Messages set to appear for the portal which the conversation is occurring in appear
  2. From the drop-down list of available Standard Messages, select the one you wish to use
  3. After you select the Standard Message, the pre-set text is populated into your conversation textbox. If you wish to edit the message before sending it to the help seeker, you can do so now
  4. Once you are ready to send the message, hit enter on your keyboard or click the arrow in your conversation window

Sample Standard Messages

The following are some samples of Standard Messages to help you begin to build your own, and the following text should be edited to meet your organization’s needs:
  1. Greeting (without pre-chat survey answers):
    1. Welcome to X chat. How can I help you today?
  2. Greeting (with pre-chat survey answers):
    1. Welcome to X chat. I see you noted in the pre-chat survey that you’re [insert details from pre-chat survey]. I’m glad you reached out today.
  3. Ask About Location:
    1. I can search our database to see if we have any resources that might meet that need. Before I can do that, can you please provide your [location (zip/postal, city, county)]? This just helps me search for the resources that will be meet your needs.
  4. Abusive Language Warning:
    1. I understand that you’re frustrated/upset, but if you continue to use that kind of abusive language, I am going to have to end our conversation.
  5. Goodbye (no post-chat survey):
    1. Thank you for coming to chat today, I hope you received the help you were looking for. Please come back to chat if you need further assistance anytime from [insert hours of operation], or text or call us at xxx-xxx-xxxxx [insert hours or operation].
  6. Goodbye (with post-chat survey):
    1. Thank you for reaching out today, I hope you received the assistance you were looking for. If you need anything else, please come back to chat anytime from [insert hours of operation], or text or call us at xxx-xxx-xxxxx [insert hours or operation]. And if you don’t mind, please take a few minutes to fill out the post-chat survey that you'll be redirected to after this chat is ended.
Note, when creating Standard Messages for SMS/Text Portals, the recommended maximum number of characters you should include in a message is 160. This makes it so the message is likely to fit into one text message when received by the help seeker. 

How to create, edit, and delete Standard Messages applied across all portals

You may wish to create Standard Messages that are applied across all portals accessible from a specific named portal. For example, you may want to create a Standard Message applied across all portals if you have two Live Chat Portals and two SMS/Text Portals, and in every portal, you want your users to send the same opening line.

Or, let’s say for example you have two Live Chat Portals and two SMS/Text Portals, you may want to create one Standard Message applied across all your Live Chat Portals so the same opening line is sent in every Live Chat conversation, and another Standard Message applied across all your SMS/Text Portals so the same opening line is sent in every SMS/Text conversation.
 
To learn how to create, edit, and delete Standard Messages applied across all portals, complete the following:

To create Standard Messages applied across all portals

  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, make sure the ‘default portal’ is selected
  4. With the ‘default portal’ selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, fill out the fields in the ‘Add New Standard Message’ area using the following instructions:
    1. Choose the appropriate ‘Message Type’ for the standard message you’re creating
      1. Note, this field will work in collaboration with the field to ‘Make visible across all portals’; see the details below for that field for more information
    2. Enter a ‘Title’ that will help your users quickly identify the purpose of the standard message you’re creating
    3. Enter the ‘Message’ to be used as the standard message in conversations
    4. Select the checkbox to ‘Make visible across all portals’
      1. As noted above, this field will work in collaboration with the ‘Message Type’ field. Even though you’ve just selected to ‘Make [this standard message] visible across all portals’, it will actually only be visible in all of the portals also matching the selected ‘Message Type’. For example, if you select the ‘Message Type: SMS’, and also select this field to ‘Make visible across all portals’, the message will only be visible in all your SMS/Text Portals; it won’t be visible in any of your Live Chat (IM) Portals.
      2. Also note, all Standard Messages in the ‘default portal’ should have this checkbox to ‘Make visible across all portals’ selected, otherwise the message will never be visible to your users during messaging conversations
    5. Enter the ‘Order in List’ depending on where you want the standard message to appear in the list that is visible by your users during a conversation; the lower the number, the higher in the list it will appear. For example, assigning lower order (number) to a Main Greeting and higher order (number) to a Goodbye Message will allow the Main Greeting to appear first in the drop-down menu.
  6. Click the 'Save Settings' button

To edit Standard Messages applied across all portals

  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, make sure the ‘default portal’ is selected
  4. With the ‘default portal’ selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Select the checkbox next to the filter 'Click to edit messages that are visible across all portals.'
  6. Click the ‘Select’ link next to the Standard Message you wish to edit
  7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, edit the fields in the ‘Update Standard Message’ area
  8. Click the ‘Save Settings’ button

To delete Standard Messages applied across all portals

  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, make sure the ‘default portal’ is selected
  4. With the ‘default portal’ selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Select the checkbox next to the filter 'Click to edit messages that are visible across all portals.'
  6. Click the red X link next to the Standard Message you wish to delete; click OK when prompted to in the pop-up window to confirm you wish to delete the message
Note, when creating Standard Messages for SMS/Text Portals, the recommended maximum number of characters you should include in a message is 160. This makes it so the message is likely to fit into one text message when received by the help seeker. 

How to create, edit, and delete Standard Messages for a specific named portal

You may wish to create Standard Messages that are only accessible from a specific named portal. For example, if you have two Live Chat Portals configured that serve different populations of help seekers, it might be useful to have separate Standard Messages configured for each portal.
 
To learn how to create, edit, and delete Standard Messages for a specific named portal, complete the following:

To create Standard Messages for a specific named portal

  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, select the name portal you wish to add the standard message to
  4. Once the desired named portal is selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, in the ‘Add New Standard Message’ area, fill out the fields using the following instructions:
    1. Choose the appropriate ‘Message Type’ for the portal you’ve selected
      1. Note, since you are adding this standard message to a named portal, you aren’t going to choose ‘(IM and SMS) Shared’, instead you will choose ‘IM’ or ‘SMS’
    2. Enter a ‘Title’ that will help your users quickly identify the purpose of the standard message you’re creating
    3. Enter the ‘Message’ to be used as the standard message in conversations
    4. Enter the ‘Order in List’ depending on where you want the standard message to appear in the list that is visible by your users during a conversation; the lower the number, the higher in the list it will appear. For example, assigning lower order (number) to a Main Greeting and higher order (number) to a Goodbye Message will allow the Main Greeting to appear first in the drop-down menu.
  6. Click the ‘Save’ button

To edit Standard Messages for a specific named portal

  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, select the name portal you wish to add the standard message to
  4. Once the desired named portal is selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Click the ‘Select’ link next to the Standard Message you wish to edit
  6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, edit the fields in the ‘Update Standard Message’ area
  7. Click the ‘Save Settings’ button
Note, you can’t edit a Standard Message to ‘Make visible across all portals’. Instead, you must create a new Standard Message in the default portal (see instructions below) and delete it from the named portal.

To delete Standard Messages for a specific named portal

  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, select the name portal you wish to add the standard message to
  4. Once the desired named portal is selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Click the red X link next to the Standard Message you wish to delete; click OK when prompted to in the pop-up window to confirm you wish to delete the message
Note, when creating Standard Messages for SMS/Text Portals, the recommended maximum number of characters you should include in a message is 160. This makes it so the message is likely to fit into one text message when received by the help seeker.

How to move a Standard Message from a specific named portal, to be applied across all portals

You may have previously created Standard Messages applied to one specific portal, but now you want to apply the message across all portals. To do so, complete the following steps:
  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, select the named portal where the Standard Message is that you wish to apply across all portals
  4. With the named portal selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Click the ‘Select’ link next to the Standard Message you wish to apply across all portals
  6. Scroll up to the top of the page and from the portal drop-down list, select the default portal
  7. When the page reloads with the default portal, scroll down to the bottom of the page and deselect the checkbox next to the setting 'Make visible across all portals', make any necessary adjustments to the Standard Message, and click the 'Save' button

How to move a Standard Message applied across all portals, to a specific named portal

You may have previously created Standard Messages applied across all portals, but now you want to apply the message to just one specific portal. To do so, complete the following steps:
  1. Click ‘Messaging’ from your left side menu
  2. Click the ‘IM and SMS Settings’ link
  3. From the ‘Portal’ drop-down list, make sure the ‘default portal’ is selected
  4. With the ‘default portal’ selected, click the ‘Standard Messages’ tab
  5. Select the checkbox next to the filter 'Click to edit messages that are visible across all portals.'
  6. Click the ‘Select’ link next to the Standard Message you wish to move to a specified portal
  7. After you've chosen the Standard Message, scroll down to the bottom of the page and deselect the checkbox next to the setting 'Make visible across all portals'
  8. Scroll up to the top of the page and from the portal drop-down list, select the named portal you wish to move this Standard Message to
  9. When the page reloads with the named portal you selected, scroll down to the bottom of the page, make any necessary adjustments to the Standard Message, and click the 'Save' button


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