“How can we easily get volunteers to bring items for the party?” Ms. Shelton, the new kindergarten teacher asked at the staff meeting.
“You can use our alert system – just make sure you send it to your grade and not to the whole school!” Her principal responded, smiling when the other teachers lightly laughed. The previous year, one of the junior high teachers had wanted to do a homeroom party and sent it to the whole junior high – and not just his class.
“Thanks!” She made a note before pulling out her phone and opening their messaging app. She quickly sent out the message, hoping that she would have the items taken off her list before their faculty meeting ended. Seeing her email notification pop up, she scrunched her face in confusion. “What in the world?” Mumbling, not listening to the meeting, she opened her phone to see a string of messages. She mentally facepalmed, not having realized that their only way to respond was through email. Sighing, she started matching the students to the items.
She noticed an email from a parent:
“Is there any way that we could simply reply on the text message instead of opening up the email to respond? I feel like this would save time for both us (the parents) and you (the teacher)! On that note, Logan will bring the crackers. Thanks!”
Tapping her finger to her mouth, she thought about the suggestion. She sent a reply email to the parent, letting them know she would share the recommendation and confirming that Logan would bring crackers. Once the meeting was over, she hopped up to quickly grab the principal.
“Principal Manning, I had a parent who sent in a wonderful suggestion. Is there a way that we can enable responses on our messaging platform? So that if I send out a text message, they can respond directly from the text message? She mentioned how easily it would be for her to reply via the text instead of the email.”
He stopped, raising his eyebrow. “I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll check it out and let you know.” He patted the new teacher’s shoulder, liking her enthusiasm. When she handed over the email, he held in his laugh and then read the email. It would be easier, he thought as she walked back towards his office.
2-Way SMS and Receiving Responses
Planning out a party and the items needed is just one instance for using the 2-Way SMS button on your MyCast system. Enabling 2-Way SMS allows you to easily communicate with your members and receive responses to your messages. You can use it for finding volunteers, to cover a shift, to confirm an appointment – and more. The replies are sent directly to your dashboard and you can run a report or have it emailed to you.
How it Works
This 2 Minute Tip video with Carrie provides tips on how to use the 2-Way SMS.
As you can see from Carrie, it’s a simple “click” of the button to add in a response request. Not every message has to have a response (for example, you may not want a response to a notification about a power outage) but, it does make it easier to find volunteers when they can simply message back! The report is easy to run, and you can export into an excel file to make it even easier. If you aren’t able to find it in your account, don’t worry – email or chat with our support staff and we’d be happy to help!
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