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. SMS units are costed at 10 cents each.
To send an SMS select SMS Members from the left navigation Communication menu.
Member Wizard will display options to send to any field which has the word Mobile in it. See Help File called Phone Number Fields under Setting up and Managing your Organisation in the Help Contents.
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.