Reminders and automations

Automations send messages for you, on time, every time.

1. 1Go to Reminders and choose New automation.
2. 2Under When, choose the trigger: Birthday, Anniversary, New visitor (welcome them a number of days after their visit), New member or Giving thanks (thank people who gave recently).
3. 3For a new visitor, set how many days after the visit, and optionally a time of day.
4. 4Choose who it goes to and the Channel (SMS or email), and write the Message.
5. 5Choose Create automation.

You can also create your own reminder with a Reminder name and Recurrence: one-time only, weekly, monthly or yearly.

• Edit message changes the wording.
• Run now sends it straight away to everyone it applies to today.
• Nobody gets the same automatic message twice.
• This week shows the birthdays and anniversaries coming up in the next 7 days.

We haven't seen you in a while

At the top of Reminders, this looks at check-ins. Anyone who has attended before but has not checked in for the weeks you choose is gently texted, your team is told, and you can have a follow-up opened so someone checks on them. People who have never attended are not counted, and children are left out. (It replaces the older "We miss you" reminder, which only looked at members marked inactive. That older one has been retired.)

1. 1Switch it On.
2. 2Under Count someone as away after, choose how many weeks: 1 week means they missed a Sunday, 3 weeks is a common choice.
3. 3Tick Text the member to send them a kind message. Choose how many times at most (once, 2 or 3 times) and, if more than once, how many weeks to wait between texts.
4. 4Tick Tell my team to send one text and email listing who has not been seen. Tick Open a follow-up for each person to create a task for each of them in Follow-ups.
5. 5Under Who receives this, tick the team members who should get the alert and the follow-ups, for example your evangelism head. Tick nobody to use every admin.
6. 6When you switch it on, WorshipHQ tells you how many people are already away and asks what to do: Look after them too (they are texted and followed up at the next check, between 8am and 8pm) or Leave them alone (only people who start missing church from now on are looked after). Leaving them alone is pre-selected, so switching it on never surprises anyone with a text.
7. 7Choose Save. The list on the right, Away right now, shows who is away, how long, and whether they have already been told.

• Nobody is texted more often than you allow. The default is once for each absence, so there is no repeat spam. After the last text they are left alone until they attend and then go away again.
• The team alert and the follow-up happen once for each absence. A person who already has an open follow-up does not get a second one.
• When they come back and attend, everything starts fresh for next time.
• People away for a very long time are listed as Away a long time but are not texted automatically.
• Choose Edit the messages to change the wording of both texts. The team message tells them to open Follow-ups and assign someone.