Choosing whether you use the Assigned vs. Anyone message type is an important step in creating any goal. While the differences may not be obvious at first, this decision will shape a lot about how your goal actually functions when it comes time to send.
Making this decision is an important one as it cannot be changed after the goal has been created. If you accidentally create a goal with the wrong option then you will need to backdate the goal and start over again.
What does Assigned messaging mean?
The Assigned Contacts messaging style all of your contacts will have to be assigned to an agent before they can be messaged. You can learn more about how to assign contacts in this article: How do I assign contacts to agents?
In general, this option is best used when your agents already have a relationship with the contacts they are assigned. Examples of this would be the contacts’ union representative, an account executive, or someone’s assigned agent.
Pros:
- Allows your contacts to build a relationship with a specific agent
- Locks conversations so one agent cannot interrupt the conversation of another
- You have control over which agent works with a given contact
Cons:
- Reassigning the contact to a new agent will break the previous agents thread. This means that the new agent will not have access to the history of that contact’s conversations -- even if the conversation is reassigned, they cannot see what they need to reply to
- If an agent doesn’t respond to a reply but reads it, then that contact will never be re-served to be replied to
- There are few options if the assigned agent never completes messaging their assigned contacts, even admins cannot jump in on a conversation that wasn’t assigned to them originally
- This messaging style requires the most hands-on management from the admin for a smooth workflow
What does Anyone messaging mean?
The Anyone messaging style, also known as First Come, First Served (FCFS), is the recommended option for most of the goals you will create as it is the most flexible.
Instead of the contacts being assigned to a specific agent, agents are instead allocated blocks of 50 contacts whenever they start texting. This makes the Anyone messaging strategy a more dynamic option, especially when working with a large number of agents. When a contact replies to a message it will go back to the agent who sent it to give them an opportunity to reply. If they don’t reply within 20 minutes (by default; this response window can be adjusted in Organization General settings) then it will be returned to the original pool for other agents to be able to respond.
Pros:
- Replies are less likely to get lost as they will be automatically made available for other agents
- Initial messages are made available again after the agent has stopped texting for 20 minutes
- No matter what, as long as agents are texting, all of your messages will be sent out
Cons:
- Agents do not build a consistent relationship with contacts over the course of multiple goals
NOTE: We've also found that using FCFS goal types increases reply rates significantly, you can read more about it in our blog post: Respond Faster with First Come First Serve