You can utilise notifications to send important updates to your users in both the Volunteer Portal and via Push Notifications in the Rosterfy Mobile App.
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Overview
Notifications are an effective tool for administrators to communicate important information to their volunteers. They help ensure that volunteers stay informed about key updates on both the Volunteer Portal and the Rosterfy Mobile App through Push Notifications.
In this article, we will explore the various types of notifications available, guide you through the process of creating templates, and show you how to view your notification history and manage scheduled notifications.
Notification vs Push Notification
Rosterfy provides administrators with two distinct types of notifications for effective communication with volunteers.
The first type, Notifications, is accessible through the desktop Volunteer Portal. These notifications appear in the left menu of the platform, with a badge to advise the number of unread notifications available, or will also appear as pop-up alerts on login for priority notifications.
The second is, Push Notifications, these are configured to be delivered through the Rosterfy Mobile App. If users have enabled push notifications on their mobile devices, they will receive timely updates directly on their screens.
Notification Templates
Notification templates allow you to write content and save it for later use, they can be used in many ways, including:
- Sending out notifications in bulk, for example before an event or shift
- Scheduling notifications to be sent in the future
- When any automation is triggered, including:
- Registering for your account or a shift
- Checking in or out
- Completing a training module
- Reminders to complete a form or sign up to a shift
- And many more
Email templates can be found in the Communications module > Notification and selecting Templates from the top menu.
For more information, check out the Notification Templates article.
Sending a Notification
Notifications can be sent out either manually or via automation, you can trigger a notification to be sent anywhere in the Admin Console where you can send communications form.
Below are instructions for sending a notification from the Communications tab.
- Navigate to the Communications tab > Send Communication, you will have the option to select the type of communication, select Notification.
The same content screen will display anytime you send notifications in Rosterfy.
You can define the following option on all notifications sent from within Rosterfy:
Template: The content of the notification can be manually typed, be a pre saved template, or a combination of both.
Subject: This is the text that will appear as the subject line in the Notification.
Content: This section allows you to create the main body of the notification that will be sent to recipients. You have the flexibility to include text, links, and mail merge tags to make your notifications informative and engaging.
For more information, take a look at the mail merge tags article.
Link URL: You can add a URL here to be added to the notification to direct your users to a web page.Link Text: This is the text that will appear on the button in the notification for users to click to be redirected to the Link URL.
Send as Push Notification: When this option is enabled, the notification will be sent to the user on either their mobile device or desktop. If the user has the Rosterfy Mobile App with Push Notifications activated, they will receive the message on their mobile device. If not, the notification will be delivered as a priority alert on the desktop Volunteer Portal and will appear as a pop-up upon login.
- After you have completed crafting the notification content, proceed by clicking Next at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the Recipients page where you can select the users you wish to send the notification to.
- Select Add Recipients, a side bar will open with the User Search. You can search for the User/s, or filter your Users with the filters available.
Drag and drop the User/s you wish to notify into the Recipients list, you can then preview the notification for those Users.
- The Confirm page will outline the subject of the notification and the number of recipients you intend to send this communication to, you can either send it immediately or schedule for later.
If you would like to schedule it for later, select the checkbox and input the date and time you would like it to be sent. When ready, click Confirm and Send.
A notification will appear to confirm the communication has been successful.
For information about automated notifications, take a look at the Automations article.
Notifications - Frequently Asked Questions
1. How can I cancel a scheduled communication?
2. How can I view the notification history?
3. What is the character limit of notifications?
4. How do mail merge tags work?
5. How can I add a button to notifications?
1. How can I cancel a scheduled communication?
Once an notification has been scheduled you have the option to Cancel it. You can find your scheduled notifications by navigating to Send Communications > Notifications and clicking Scheduled from the top menu.
To cancel the scheduled notification, click on the More Actions button and select Cancel, you will be prompted to confirm your cancellation, select Yes.
Note: The scheduled communication will cancel immediately and cannot be recovered.
2. How can I view the notification history?
Rosterfy tracks all notification communications that are sent, and stores a 12 month history within the platform.
To access the history of notifications, navigate to Communications > Notification and select History from the top menu.
3. What is the character limit of notifications?
Notifications have a limit of 200 characters, to align with the space available when being sent as a push notification to mobile devices.
It is important to note that the use of merge tags incorporating information may put your notification over the character limit.
4. How do mail merge tags work?
Mail merge tags enable you to customise your communications for every recipient.
When you send out notifications, Rosterfy will merge your notification content with information from the mail merge tag, such as the User's First Name, ensuring that each user receives a personalised notification.
For more information on the mail merge tags that are available in Rosterfy and instructions on how to create new mail merge tags, check out the Mail Merge Tags article.
5. How can I add a button to notifications?
The Link URL and Link Text will be displayed in notifications as a button.
You can personalise this information to direct your users to any URL address you require.