Answer keywords and track requests

A keyword is a word a family texts to your team's number as their whole message, such as REFILL. They get the reply you wrote right away. A keyword that flags the chat also puts it under Requests for everyone on the team, until someone marks it handled.

Before you start

• BloomText turns keywords on for your organization. Ask us if you don't see a Keywords tab.
• Keywords belong to one team's phone number. Teams without a number have no Keywords tab.
• Organization admins add and change keywords. Everyone else on the team can see them and copy the prompts.

Add a keyword

1. In the left bar, click Directory.
2. Click the Teams tab, then your team.
3. Open the Keywords tab.
4. Click + Add keyword.
5. Type the word, for example REFILL. Use one word of letters and numbers.
6. Finish the sentence "Reply REFILL …", for example to request a refill.
7. Write the reply families get.
8. Leave Flags the chat on if staff need to act on the text. Turn it off for words that only need the reply, like HOURS.
9. Click Save.

As you type, the What families see card on the right shows the family's phone: the welcome line, the family texting the word, and your reply. Outside the form, pick Welcome or a keyword at the top of that card to see it. In the list, click a keyword's Flags the chat or Reply only pill to switch it, or Edit to change it.

A text matches when it is only the keyword, in any case, with or without punctuation at the end ("refill?" and "Refill!" match). "Can you send the refill?" is an ordinary text.

Keywords work in secure chats too. A family who sends REFILL as a secure message gets your reply in that chat, with the usual new-message notice, and a keyword that flags the chat opens a request the same way.

Work a request

When a family texts a keyword that flags the chat:

• the chat shows the keyword, such as ↰ REFILL, on its inbox row and next to the family's name;
• the Requests pill, after Unread, counts the chats waiting;
• inside the chat, a card under the reply says who texted what.

Replying doesn't clear a request. Click ✓ Mark handled on the card when it's done; the chat records who handled it, and it leaves Requests for everyone on the team.

Tell families about your keywords

• Copy prompts on the Keywords tab gives ready lines for a text, an after-hours reply and a flyer.
• Mention keywords in the welcome text is on for every team unless an admin turns it off. It adds a line such as "Reply REFILL to request a refill." to the first text your staff send a family, right before your organization's "Reply STOP to stop" line. It names only keywords that flag the chat. It goes only where that STOP line goes: not at all if your organization turned the STOP line off, not to a family your organization has texted before, and not on a text that would run past 1,600 characters with it.

Good to know

• Carrier words such as STOP, END, CANCEL, YES, START, HELP and INFO are built in for every number and can't be keywords, and neither can the Spanish opt-out words (PARAR, DETENER, CANCELAR, BAJA, ALTO). The Keywords tab lists them all.
• A family gets at most one keyword, after-hours, no-reply or HELP reply a minute, and five in 24 hours, in a chat. A keyword that flags the chat still opens its request when its reply can't go out, and the chat says no auto-reply was sent.
• A keyword reply beats the out-of-office, busy and no-reply messages: a family who texts REFILL after hours gets only the REFILL reply.

Related

• Set business hours and auto-replies
• Create, edit and delete teams
• SMS messaging with patients