Broadcasts - Overview

Broadcast messages enable the Multichannel users to send outbound messages via any valid channel to groups of customers. 

We are able to import customer data to create broadcast groups, customers or contacts to send messages out to.  Any new contacts in these broadcasts will also create a new CRM record.

Super Users and Admin Users can send broadcast messages by default. General Users can only send broadcast messages if the site setting is enabled to allow them to do so.

Broadcasts can be sent at either the site time or the customer’s time zone.  A site setting determines if an outbound sms message is to contain an expiry time. Once reached the sms message should not be sent to the receiver.

The Framework for displaying messages in differing time zones exists i.e. differences in time between server location and deployment site. This is available as a site wide setting and on an individual agent or team basis.

Time Zone settings allow for messages to be scheduled to be sent in the customer’s time zone or in the site time zone.

If the start date is based on the site time zone then once the start date / time is reached at the site then all customer’s will be broadcasted to regardless of the time at each customer’s time zone.

If the start date is based on the customer’s time zone then once the start date / time is reached at the site then the broadcast will start but only when the date / time is reached in the customer’s time zone that is in the group being broadcasted to will the message be sent to the customer.  Once a broadcast is started it will be in a status of ‘sending’ until all customers within the broadcast group have been sent their message.

When scheduling an outbound email, sms, or fax message the scheduled date / time can not have passed in the customer’s time zone.  That is if the site is in India Standard Time (GMT+5:30) and the customer is in Nepal Standard Time (GMT+5:45) then any message scheduled to be sent to this customer will have to be at least 15 minutes after the current time in the site.  Conversely if the site is in NZ Standard Time (GMT+12) and the customer is in AUS Eastern Standard Time (GMT+10) then any message scheduled to be sent to this customer is able to be 2 hours prior to the current time in the site.

The date format when scheduling a broadcast is either mm/dd/yyyy if in Tools – Internet Options – languages your preference is set to = English (United States) [en-us].  For any other language preference the format is dd/mm/yyyy.

Email Message Compression

Multichannel now supports a new rendering mode for email broadcast messages. Rather than storing the full contents of the email n times (n being the size of the broadcast), we store one version of it and link the messages to this template. If merge fields are used, we also store the field values that were used at that point in time.

Because the entire contents is not actually stored with each broadcast message, every time the message is displayed it is dynamically created using the link to the template and merge data if necessary. This also occurs when the message is being sent out by the Wame Client Service.

Note:

• The broadcast wizard automatically determines whether to use the default (i.e. complete) rendering mode or the new 'batch rendering mode'. This occurs for normal and express broadcasts.
• The default rendering mode is used if the broadcast uses nested templates.
• Only the email body (HTML + PlainText) is stored with the template. Everything else (including attachments) is still stored with each message
• As an example of the disk spaced difference testing where a broadcast to 10,000 customers was carried out using the two rendering modes. The default rendering mode used ~206MB of database space, the batch rendering mode only ~2.5MB.

Go into the broadcast send console by going to Home >> Broadcasts.  This view shows all broadcasts sent, sending, pending, in draft or cancelled. All columns can be sorted by clicking on the top column name.

Columns contain summary information including;

Click on the ‘New Broadcast’  to add a new broadcast message, or view an existing broadcast by clicking on the edit icon.  Clicking either of these icons will launch the Broadcast Wizard.

To change a pending or sending broadcast the broadcast must be paused, then click on the  icon.

Once in the Broadcast wizard navigate using the ‘Back’, ‘Next’ buttons. Changes are saved to draft as the wizard is navigated until Finish is selected to complete the process.

Selecting the ‘Close’ button will close the wizard without saving your changes. Once confirmed, the broadcast can only be edited if you pause the broadcast first.

The settings shown below determine the general and default behaviour of message broadcasts when all mode and channel options are available to a user.

The user manual below will guide you through the steps required to:

1. Define your broadcast in terms of naming, channel selection, who to broadcast to.
2. Define the detail that will be sent in your broadcast.
3. Define when you will be sending your broadcast.
4. Preview the messages that will be sent and confirm that you want the broadcast to be sent.