SMS Absentee Notifications

SMS Absentee Notifications 

What’s New?

Leverage your ability to make proactive decisions by receiving an internal SMS absentee notification alerting you when there is no clock-in for a work ticket visit after a grace period that you set after the visit start time. This allows you to make any pivots necessary to complete the job if the clock time on a work ticket does not start when expected. 

Requirements

Permissions

• You will need the Manage Notifications Settings   permission enabled under your user role at the system and branch level to create notification templates. 

• You will need the Edit All Contacts permission enabled under your user role to opt-in employee contacts in bulk from the contacts advanced search list. 

Prerequisites 

• You must have time-based scheduling enabled under the branches and routes you will use this functionality.
• The designated employees who will receive the absentee notification(s) must enable SMS Notifications before opting into SMS message notifications.  

Configuration

To set up, you must compose the internal absentee message(s) by creating a notification template and ensure that the employee contacts needing access to the absentee messages opt-in to internal notifications. 

Creating an Absentee Notification Template 

You can customize the absentee notifications you send out by using the following steps to create an absentee notification template. 

1. Navigate to the Administration menu. 
2. Select Notifications. 
3. Click on Manage Notifications. 
4. Click on New. 
5. Select Add SMS Notification.
6. Complete the required fields.  
   1. Notification Name - choose a naming convention that best suits your company's needs. 
   2. Recipients - designate which employees will receive the absentee notification. You are required to elect one or more of the following recipient types.
   3. Notification Type - select Absentee Notification (Internal). 
   4. Branch - The only branches in this drop-down will enable time-based scheduling and SMS notifications. 
   5. Route - The dropdown will only show routes that have time-based scheduling enabled. 
   6. Grace period - The amount of time that must transpire after the visit start time with no clock-in before a recipient receives an absentee notification.
   7. Trigger Type - This is a read-only field. The only option is Job Not Started in Mobile.  
   8. Delivery Time - This is a read-only field. The only option is Immediately. 
   9. Message Body - You can manually type out the message you want recipients to see or click on the search icon to choose from tokens.
      1. Manually typed text and tokens will go against the maximum 320-character count.                                                                                            
   10. Additional Recipient(s) - This optional field allows you to add active employees assigned to selected branches as additional recipients. 
7. Click the Save button in the upper right corner, and your successfully completed template will populate the Manage Notifications search list.
8. Click the Test button in the upper right corner to preview your message before sending it out.

Keep in Mind 

• You must complete the required fields and ensure your message does not exceed the 320-character limit to Save or Test your notification. 
• When editing your notification message, if the Branch, Route, and Grace Period match that of another template, you will see an error message that states Duplicate Notifications cannot be created. You must change the information in one of those fields before you can save or test the modified message. 
• Click the More Actions button and select Copy to copy an absentee notification to build a new message. 

Internal Notifications Opt-In

You must enable absentee notifications under a contact by taking the following steps. 

1. Navigate to the Contacts module.
2. Click on a contact entry on the search list screen to get to the contact details screen. 
3. Enable the Opt-In Internal Notifications box located below the Mobile Phone field. 
4. Click Save.  

Keep in Mind 

• Any ten-digit number will allow you to enable internal notifications. If a caution symbol appears after enabling and saving Opt-In Internal Notifications you will need to rectify one of the following issues before you can receive internal notifications:
  • You must have SMS notifications enabled under your contact so you can be sent the SMS Opt-In message. 
  • If you have been sent the SMS Opt-In message and have not responded, you must reply with a message stating START. 
  • If you opted in previously and opted out by replying with a STOP message, you will need to opt back into SMS messages. 

• After successfully enabling the opt-in internal notifications option, the contact will receive an internal notification opt-in SMS message that states Aspire would like to send you SMS Notifications related to your company. Please Reply START to opt into these messages. 

Receiving an Absentee Notification 

• Once all requirements have been met, you will receive the absentee SMS notification under the templates for which you were designated a recipient. 
• Only one message will be sent per message template. 
  • If an employee is designated as a recipient for message templates containing the same Branch and Route but a different Grace Period, a separate message will be sent for each differing Grace Period.  
• A message can only be received when the device to be delivered is online. 

Administrative Notification Log 

As a system administrator, you can view and filter the sent notifications by taking the following steps:: 

1. Navigate to the Administration menu. 
2. Select Notification. 
3. Click on Notification Log. 
4. You can create and save your notification log search lists using the advanced search (filter, display, sort, and group) options. 

Keep in Mind 

• The name of the Crew Leader that triggered an internal absentee notification will be displayed as a hyperlink on the Notifications Log screen in the Administration section of Aspire so that you can easily navigate to that specific Contact.  

  
  

Individual Contact Notification Log 

To view the notification log for a specific employee, take the following steps:  

1. Navigate to the Contacts module. 
2. Select a Contact entry from the search list to view the contact details screen. 
3. Scroll down to the Notification Log heading.
4. Use the advanced search tools to initiate, save, and document your search lists for the contact. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

• Can I designate more than one employee at one time for the Opt-In Internal SMS Notifications? 
  • Yes. To designate more than one employee for internal opt-in at one time, go to Bulk Actions on the Contacts advanced search list.