Communications Center

Communications can be sent to your clients in 3 ways with Recess

Communication Center (more on that below)
- Best for ad hoc messages sent immediately to a group or individual. These messages can be sent as emails, text messages, or in-app push notifications.
  - Note: please email [email protected] to add the "Messages" tab to your app
Marketing Campaigns
- Best for email blasts like newsletters. Can be sent to any audience immediately, or scheduled to send later.
Sequence Automations
- These are emails, SMS text messages, or push notifications that are sent automatically based on a trigger being hit. For example, someone books a class, and a confirmation email is sent automatically.
- Be sure to add in-app notifications to your sequences (members must have app installed)

Using the Communications Center you are able to:

Chat with a class from the class page
Make a custom audience inside the Comm Center
Message an existing audience
Send private messages to a member/client
Send text, pictures, and more
- Note: only appears with in-app messages for now (we are working on sending via text and email)
When sending a messaging you can alert members via email, SMS, or in-app notification

You can create audiences under the Growth Suite > Audiences
1. Once created, search for it in the search bar
You can go to any class/event and click the "Chat" icon and it will create a group for anyone in that class (and anyone that books the class after you start the channel)
Create a custom Channel right in the comm center
1. To start a new group message, hit the + sign to the right of the channels list
2. Name the thread
3. You can select a pre-built audience or create a new one
4. Click the yellow + to create a new one
5. Either use a tag or manually add people to the group
Click the group you just made and start writing your message
Choose if this Channel is "Public" meaning anyone can reply and everyone will see all replies or "Announcement Only", only staff can send messages and members will have "View Only" access
1. To make it "Announcement Only" click the "I" in the top right corner and then the "Announcements Only" icon
Finally, decide how you want your message to be delivered. You can send a Comm Center message via email, text message, in-app notification, or all three.
- Note: members must have enabled notifications on their devices to receive in-app notifications

Setup: How do you want Staff to send DMs?
1. Option 1: Each staff can create a unique DM with clients. This means you might have 5 DMs with the same client but different staff
2. Option 2: There is only 1 DM per client. Any staff (based on permissions) can view and message the client, but it won't create multiple DMs
3. Adjust this setting by going to Tools > Profile > Settings
4. If you turn that off, you need to decide if you want clients to see the names of each staff member messaging them in the thread. If you do not, then all the client will see is the name of your Studio/School/Gym
Sending: To send a DM, click "DMs" on the left then the yellow "New Message" icon
Search the name of the client/member
1. Note: You can add multiple clients to a DM

Based on your permissions, you may see every channel and DM, even if you are not part of them
If you click on DM or Channel for which you are not a member, you will see a "Subscribe" button.
Subscribing adds you to the thread and now you will be notified of future messages

All notifications from sequences and automations will appear in the DM thread with your members/clients
- SMS automations will have a robot icon
- In-app notifications will have a note icon
All replies to SMS messages will appear in the DM thread

All channels and DMs have a setting tab, which you access by clicking the "I" in the top right hand corner

You can use the communication center in both the client app and staff dashboard app.

Reminder: you can download your dashboard as a web app to your phone, just like the client app

To turn on the messages tab in the client/member app please email [email protected] to enable

In both the client and staff app, push notifications must be allowed on the users phone.
You will see a banner on your phone that says "Enable"
You can also do this under settings on your phone, wherever notifications are managed

Clients are able to see their messages in the Messages tab and receive push notifications
Clients will see 4 options on the left hand nav:
- Notifications: this is for any in-app notification you send, either from the Comm Center or a Sequence (e.g., class reminder)
- Favorites
- Groups
- DMs: as of today, they cannot start a new DM, but this is coming soon!