Auto responder for vacations or after hours texts

Our PastorsLine digital communication strategy recommends 2-way communication: from you to your people and from your people to you. One important aspect of that is digital ‘politeness’. Your organization does its best not to send communications outside of ‘respectful’ hours. Your people do the same. To help you guide them, we have added our auto responder.

 

More about digital privacy and politeness

There are no set rules. Your church will decide what suits your community.

Example 1: A Bible teacher’s group allows texting from 7 am to 9 pm (or even 10 pm in an emergency).

Example 2: A church volunteer group prefers that texts do not arrive before 8:30 am and not after 6 pm, unless there are last-minute changes to the next day’s volunteering.

Once you decide on what your limits are, you can use the auto responder to help your people comply.

How it works

This feature does not require a keyword. After you have set it up, It ‘kicks in’ when your people text the number.

Basically…

• Setting up the auto responder is done on your My Numbers page.
• Click on the detail line of the number for which you wish to set the auto responder.
• The edit box will pop up on the right-hand side of the screen.
  Scroll down to Auto Responder (beta) and toggle it on.
  

  Toggle on the button

• Choose either vacation or after hours and complete the form.

 

REMEMBER: Incoming texts are free; outgoing are not. So we recommend sending your auto response to once a day.

Which to choose and when

VACATION AUTO RESPONDER

Besides vacations, this is the perfect choice for people who do not want to receive texts. Perhaps they do not want to receive any communication at all. Maybe they want to receive only calls and/or emails. The message you type will guide your people in what they need to do.

 

AFTER HOURS AUTO RESPONDER

As its name states, the after hours auto responder helps you receive texts only during ‘office hours’ – whatever these may be for you. Again, the message you type will guide your people as to when you would prefer to receive SMS.

 

Using with Keywords, Links, etc.

These options work with both types of auto responder.

Keywords

As we mentioned above, the auto responder does not require a keyword. However, in your message, you could tell people to text a keyword. This will trigger additional automations (which you set up earlier). So, it is as if you are answering them even though you have not seen their message.

For example: If you are new, text WELCOME. If you require prayer, text PRAYER.

Links

Your message can include a link or links. The links can be to wherever you would like to send them: a specific church website page, a document, a file, etc. Again, continuing the conversation even though you are not physically there.

For example: 

 

Read more about our auto responder here.