Send SMS Messages
Sometimes you need to get a message to your members or a member quickly and Member Wizard can help with this by allowing you to SMS a message to your members' mobile phones.
You can send to a single member, group of members, all members or if you are using Classes, a Class. All organisations are given 10 free SMS "units" when they sign up to Member Wizard but you can purchase more by selecting SMS - buy units from the Communications menu option after setting up Automatic Topup. SMS units are costed at 10 cents each. Note: It is no longer possible to make one off purchases of SMS units - you must set up Automatic topup if you wish to continue to use SMSing.
Automatic Top up of SMS units
Firstly you must provide a credit/debit card from which the top ups will be drawn. Settings/Paymet Cards. Click Add and provide the card details. (Note. Member Wizard do not hold or retain these details, the details are registerd with Stripe, the international credit card clearance site. You do not need to have a Stripe account in order do use this function). Once the card is registered you can purchase further SMS units. Your "bank" of units will be topped up each time it reaches 0 automatically when you attempt to send the next SMS.
How to Purchase additional SMS units
Click the Buy SMS units button at the top of the SMS Members page. On the next page click Setup automatic top up. On the following page click the box Enable automatic SMS credit top up and select firstly a Recharge Amount and then click the box Choose Payment Method and select the card you previously registered. You can allow your members to use SMS to receive the security code to set up their Member Portal if you wish by clicking the box Allow Members to use SMS's for Portal Registration.
To send an SMS select SMS Members from the left navigation Communication menu.
Member Wizard will display options to send to any phone field which holds a mobile number but will search any phone field you wish depending on the check boxes selected.
You will see how may SMS units you have in your SMS Account and by clicking the button Buy SMS units you can only purchase SMS units if you have set up a Payment Card in Settings. The payment card can be either a credit or debit card and you can select the top up amount of each SMS bulk purchase.
Once you have set up a Payment Card, to send an SMS, in the field Mobile Number for Replies you must enter the mobile number of a phone to which members can respond. You can not send messages without providing this information which must be a mobile number.
Check the box which represents the number in your member database that you wish to send the message to. If you have a couple of mobile number fields you can choose either or both (See Phone number fields above.
You can then select whether you want to send either to Members as a whole (or individually) or to a Group or to students of a Class. You will be able to select particular members (or exclude them) in the following screen. Click the Next button when ready.
Click the Next button when you have the members you wish to send to.
The next screen allows you to type your message. It will let you know how many mobile numbers you are going to be sending to and the equivalent number of SMS units required to send your message. When you have typed your message click SEND.
If you wish to review how many messages were sent, to whom they were sent and the content of the message you can find them in Communications Sent under Communication in the left hand navigation.
IMPORTANT
You can NOT include web addresses or other URL's in text messages. SMS providers will not send the message if it includes a URL link as it is frequently associated with scamming.