Keeping parents informed about their child's day is super important - that's where Famly's handy SMS notification feature comes in. With this feature, you can send SMS alerts for important newsfeed posts and messages, ensuring they stand out from regular push notifications. This way, parents can easily stay updated on urgent news and messages while still keeping up with the usual updates from their childcare center.
Setting up SMS Notifications
☝️ Note: The first step in setting up SMS notifications is having this enabled by your customer support team. You can reach them to request this be switched on via the in-app chat or at helpdesk@famly.co.
💡 This feature is a paid add-on, and your dedicated customer success team will be able to give you more information on current pricing and subscriptions.
Activating SMS as a Manager
Once the feature has been enabled, the site's manager can activate SMS notifications for newsfeed posts and messages by going to Settings → Communication → SMS:
You will also need to create a Preferred short name that will appear in SMS messages sent to parents.
💡 Keep it short! (For example, use NCC instead of Northshore Children's Center) as it will be counted in the 160-character limit of your message.
Enabling SMS Permissions for Staff
Once the feature has been enabled, it's time to set it up for staff members to use. For roles that can send out SMS notifications, you'll want to make sure they have the following permissions enabled in Settings → Staff → Roles and permissions → Compare roles → Communication & Events:
Can send SMS notifications
Send news feed posts to parents and staff
Send private messages to parents
View all news feed posts
Sending SMS via Newsfeed and Messaging
To send an SMS notification from a newsfeed post:
Make sure you have the required permissions enabled for your role
Home → Newsfeed → Start a new post
Write out your post as you normally would
Once you're ready, check the Send as SMS box at the bottom
Next up, click on Confirm. This pop-up is just a reminder that the SMS is about to be sent out and will cost per recipient.
Your post will appear on your newsfeed just like a regular newsfeed post. Only this time, you'll see SMS sent in the recipient line to indicate that an SMS was sent out with this post
If you click on the recipient line, you'll be able to see who has received the SMS and the status for each SMS sent. Statuses include:
SMS pending → An SMS is in the process of being sent
SMS delivered → The SMS was successfully delivered
SMS unknown → The status of the SMS is unclear (this could be due to an unknown error or the carrier marking the sender as spam. Reach out to helpdesk@famly.co if you'd like to investigate further)
SMS failed → This is if an SMS was unable to go through to the recipient
SMS invalid number → The recipient's phone number is incorrect
SMS no number → This recipient has no phone number entered in their child's Family tab
Please note, SMS notifications for newsfeed posts only get sent to parents listed as contacts on a child's profile. If you add an employee to the post it will still not be sent to them as an SMS (only the parents in the post) but they will still be able to see it as normal in their newsfeed. If you only have employees as post recipients, the Send as SMS checkbox will not appear.
To send an SMS notification from a message:
You can send SMS notifications for messages, too. We recommend that you add information in your Privacy Policy ensuring that parents understand they are opting into message SMSs by default. If you need help with the wording for this document, feel free to reach out to our support team.
To send an SMS notification for a message:
Make sure you have the required permissions enabled for your role
Click on the message icon at the top of your screen
Write a new message and check the Send as SMS box at the bottom once you're ready
Next up, click on Send and then Confirm. This pop-up is just a reminder that the SMS is about to be sent out and will cost per recipient
Your message will be sent to the parent(s) as normal. Only this time, you'll see SMS sent underneath to indicate that an SMS was sent out with this message
By clicking on SMS sent, you can see the status of the SMS. Statuses include:
SMS pending → An SMS is in the process of being sent
SMS delivered → The SMS was successfully delivered
SMS unknown → The status of the SMS is unclear (this could be due to an unknown error or the carrier marking the sender as spam. Reach out to helpdesk@famly.co if you'd like to investigate further)
SMS failed → This is if an SMS was unable to go through to the recipient
SMS invalid number → The recipient's phone number is incorrect
SMS no number → This recipient has no phone number entered in their child's Family tab
☝️Note: If you are part of an organization and have organization-level access to multiple centers, you will not be able to send SMS notifications for messages to multiple centers at once. You can still send the message and it will appear as normal in the recipients' inboxes, but they will not receive an SMS notification. Staff that do not have organizational access will be able to send SMS notifications for messages without issue.
☝️Note: SMS notifications for messages only get sent to parents listed as contacts on a child's profile. If you add an employee to the message it will still not be sent to them as an SMS (only the parents in the message), but they will still be able to see the message as normal in their inbox. If you only have employees as message recipients, the Send as SMS checkbox will not appear.
SMS Management
To get an overview of how many SMS the center has sent out and the total costs of these each month, managers can see this by going to Settings → Communication → SMS. Costs associated with SMSs will be added to next month's bill from Famly.
