Bulk messages: one message to many customers

In short: With Bulk messages you tell a group of customers something in one go, for example that a product will be delivered later. You prepare a list of recipients (from a file, pasted from Excel or made from a connected system), write one message with the columns of the list as variables, and send it by email or with an approved WhatsApp template. Everyone gets their own message. Only when a customer replies is a normal ticket created, which already contains the message that was sent.

Where to find this

The Bulk messages menu in the left-hand navigation. A bulk message opens on its own page.

Who: from the Team lead role upwards. There is no separate right to only prepare: whoever may create a bulk message may also send it. If you do not have that right, the menu item is not there and the page shows You don’t have the right to send bulk messages. Ask a team lead or administrator.

A bulk message belongs to the organisation in which you create it.

The Bulk messages page with the New bulk message button and a list of bulk messages, each with the numbers of recipients, sent and replied and the status chip.

What a bulk message is meant for

A bulk message is service communication from your customer service: a delay, a recall, a reminder about missing documents. It is not a newsletter tool. That is why:

• Every recipient gets their own, personal message. One message with a list of addresses in bcc never goes out.
• No ticket is created per recipient when sending. A ticket only appears when someone replies. That keeps your ticket list and the counters clean.
• An unsubscribe link is added automatically at the bottom of every email. You cannot remove it.

Creating a bulk message

1. Open Bulk messages and click New bulk message.
2. Give the bulk message a Name (at most 200 characters), for example “Delivery later than expected”. Only your team sees that name.
3. Under Send by, choose E-mail or WhatsApp. If the organisation only has a WhatsApp number, WhatsApp is already selected.
4. Click Create. The bulk message opens as Draft.

Then you work through three blocks: Recipients, Message and Check and send. Everything you fill in is saved straight away; you can leave the page and continue later.

Preparing the recipients

In the Recipients block, you choose where the list comes from.

The Recipients block of a bulk message with the tabs File, Paste and From a connected system, and below it the list with the filters Included, Exceptions and All.

Limits of a list: at most 100,000 rows, at most 50 columns and a file of at most 20 MB.

Having a list made from a connected system

1. Open the From a connected system tab.
2. Under Describe who should receive it, describe in plain words who should get the message, for example “everyone with an open order for a product that arrives later”.
3. Click Set it up for me. aishaa searches your integrations for how to retrieve that group, does a trial run on the first page of results and shows what that gives: how many rows, how many are left after filtering and how many of those have an address.
4. If it is right, click Make list. The full list is built in the background. You can leave the page; you get a notification when the list is ready.

If aishaa cannot do it, you see aishaa could not make a list from this. Describe it differently, or upload a file.

A list from a connected system only reads data; nothing is changed in the connected system and nothing from the list ends up in the customer profile. If you want to see exactly how it works, open Edit it yourself: it shows the configuration aishaa made, with a Trial run button and an overview of the connections and reads you can use.

A list is only made in full. If something goes wrong along the way (for example an error from the integration, or more than 100,000 rows), the whole list fails with the reason, so that you never accidentally send to half a group.

A list from a connected system is a snapshot. If it is more than a day old, you see This list was made more than a day ago. Make it again to send to today’s situation. Then click Make again. An uploaded or pasted list cannot be made again; choose Use another list instead.

Checking the list

As soon as the list is there, aishaa chooses the Column with the e-mail address (for WhatsApp the Column with the phone number). That column is recognised by its contents, not by the column name. If the wrong column was chosen, change it.

Every row ends up in one of two groups. You view them with the filters Included, Exceptions and All; you look up a row with the search field.

In the Include column you switch a row off or back on by hand. That is possible for rows that are included and for rows that were left out by hand; you cannot switch on the other exceptions.

Writing the message

How you write the message depends on the channel you chose when creating it.

By email

1. Under Sender, choose the email address the bulk message comes from. Replies arrive at that address.
2. Fill in the Subject (at most 200 characters). Use {{column name}} for a column, for example {{Order number}}.
3. Write the message. Click a column name above the editor to put that column as a variable where your cursor is. That way everyone gets their own order number, name or date.
4. Add attachments that everyone gets, if needed.
5. Under When a value is empty, fill in what should appear if a recipient has nothing in a column that is used. If you leave it empty, nothing appears. For each column you see for how many recipients the value is empty.
6. Click Send test to me to send a test email to yourself, with the values of the first recipient.

Bulk messages by email go through aishaa’s own sending service, not through your own Outlook, Gmail or SMTP mailbox. That is why the domain of the sender address must be verified. If it is not yet, you see Bulk e-mail goes through aishaa’s own sending service, so the domain of this address must be verified first. An Organisation admin sees the Verify domain link there; others see Ask an administrator to verify the domain of this address. See Send from your own domain via aishaa.

Own attachment per recipient (email only)

With Own attachment per recipient you give every recipient a file of their own, such as a voucher, an invoice or a certificate. That file goes along with the attachments everyone gets.

Add the files with Add files or a zip (at most 10 MB per file). If not every recipient has a file yet, you see how many are missing; filter on Without attachment to see who. As long as an included recipient has no file of their own, you cannot send.

By WhatsApp

Outside the 24-hour window you may only send a customer an approved template on WhatsApp. A WhatsApp bulk message is therefore always a template; there is no free text.

1. Choose the WhatsApp number.
2. Choose the Template. If the number has no approved templates yet, you see This number has no approved templates yet. with the Manage templates link.
3. Under Fill the variables, fill each variable of the template with a column from the list or with a Fixed text.
4. Send a test: fill in a Test number and click Send test. A test cannot go to the WhatsApp number itself.

If Meta counts the template as marketing, you see Meta counts this template as marketing: it costs more per message, and customers can stop marketing messages from you. See WhatsApp templates.

Checking and sending

The Check and send block with the preview of the message, the Send later switch and the Send to (number) recipients button.

In the Check and send block:

• Under Before you can send: you see what is still missing, for example Choose a sender., Write a subject., Choose a template. or Fill every variable of the template. A column that is empty for some recipients and has no replacement text also blocks sending.
• Under Preview you see the message as the first recipient gets it. Refresh it with Refresh preview.
• If you want to send later, switch on Send later and choose a Date and Time in the future.

Click Send to (number) recipients or Schedule for (number) recipients. You confirm in the Send bulk message dialog, which shows the exact number of recipients. From that moment on, the message and the list are fixed and you can no longer change them.

How a bulk message is sent

While the bulk message is running, you can Pause, Resume or Stop sending it in the Progress block. When you stop, whatever has been sent stays sent; nobody else gets the bulk message.

Progress and results

The Progress block shows how many recipients have been handled, who started the bulk message and when, and the counters:

After sending, you filter the list on All, Sent, Replied, Undeliverable, Failed and Exceptions. An undeliverable message shows the reason, for example Address does not exist or Mailbox full.

Via the menu at the top of a bulk message, you choose Export list (CSV), New bulk message based on this one (a copy with the same message and the same settings, without own attachments per recipient) or, as long as nothing has been sent yet, Delete.

Replies become tickets

• Email: if a customer replies to the bulk message, aishaa creates a ticket in which the message that was sent is the first message, with the attachments. The customer’s reply comes below it and is handled like any other customer message.
• WhatsApp: a reply to the template, or a message from that number within seven days after the bulk message, gets the same: a ticket with first the template that was sent and then the customer’s message.
• The message that was sent appears in the ticket in the name of the colleague who started the bulk message.
• If a customer writes a new email instead of replying, it is not linked to the bulk message.

Good to know

• An unsubscribe applies per organisation. Someone who unsubscribes from the bulk messages of one organisation still gets bulk messages from another organisation in the same account.
• An unsubscribe is never lifted automatically and there is no link to subscribe again. If a customer wants to receive bulk messages again after all, contact the aishaa team via the aishaa support chat in aishaa (menu Chat, conversation aishaa support) or via support@aishaa.nl.
• A hard bounce or a spam report on a bulk message also puts the address on that organisation’s unsubscribe list.
• If two colleagues change the same bulk message at the same time, you see Someone else changed this bulk message at the same time. The page shows the latest version.
• You can no longer change or delete a bulk message that has been sent. If you want to send something similar again, use New bulk message based on this one.

Related

• WhatsApp templates
• Send from your own domain via aishaa
• Email setup: the options at a glance
• Set up an integration
• The ticket overview: filtering, searching and sorting