How do I use Hustle goals?

This article provides details about important features and expected behavior when agents message contacts (also known as leads).

Skip to:

• Goals
• Workflows
• Goal status
• How can agents message contacts?
  • How do I use Shared groups?
  • How do I use Anyone & Assigned groups?
• Conversations
• Goal stats
• Common issues
  • How do I give instructions to agents?
  • How do I stop a goal?
  • Workflows aren’t appearing
  • Scripts and lead actions aren’t available
  • Goal can’t be edited
    
    

Goals

Goals are outbound campaigns, created by admins, where agents use pre-written scripts to start conversations with contacts in a Group. Agents in the Group send messages for Goals using the web app at web.hustle.com or the mobile app.

Examples of Goals include efforts to recruit volunteers, remind people to vote, or raise donations for a cause. When creating a Goal, Admins select from several Goal types that come with various form fields and best practices built in to improve performance for those types of campaigns.

For more information, see What are the types of Goals?

Goal form

This is the form that is filled to launch a goal:

The different fields in the goal form include:

• Type: This will decide the template of your goal. For more information, see What are the types of Goals?
• Name: This is the name of your goal.
• Description: A description of the goal only for other admins.
• Event Start Time / Shift Start Time / Target Date: The date and time that populates variables that you can use in scripts. This can change based on the type of your goal.
• Agents Can Message: The assignment strategy of the goal. For more information, see Assignment strategies.
• Agent Instructions: Instructions your agents will see next to their workflows while messaging contacts. Agent Instructions are limited to 300 characters.
• Targeting: This filters which contacts your agents can message for this goal. For more information, see How do I target contacts in my goals?
  
  

Workflows

Goals create workflows. In these workflows agents can use pre-written scripts or personalized messages to start and reply to conversations with contacts.

After a goal is launched, workflows become available depending on a contact’s conversation history with agents and the goal’s:

• Status
• Assignment strategy
• Targeting

There are three types of workflows:

• Initial: Initial workflows are available for agents to start conversations with contacts targeted in goals. Agents use scripts, written by admins, to reach out to contacts which include merge fields to personalize the conversations with contact-specific data. Contacts targeted in the goal are segmented in batches of 100 so agents can pace their outreach and manage replies in a timely manner. Agents tap/click Start to begin initial workflows.
  • To help ensure deliverability, initial scripts have a 500 character limit.
    
  • Initial scripts include language that lets the contact know how to opt out of messages. For more information, see How do I write scripts?
    
    
• Unread: Unread workflows compile the most recent unread replies from contacts and empowers agents to manage multiple conversations efficiently in real-time. Contacts with unread messages are grouped into batches of 10 and their conversations are ordered chronologically by response time. Agents tap/click Reply to begin unread workflows
  
  
• Reminders: Reminder workflows target contacts who get marked with the Yes lead action response or commit to take action in an unread or reply workflow. Reminders must be enabled by an admin before the Goal gets launched and are subject to the same rules as initial workflows. Agents tap/click Start to begin sending Reminders. 
  • To help ensure deliverability, Reminder scripts have a 500 character limit.
    
  • Reminder scripts include language that lets the contact know how to opt out of messages. For more information, see How do I write scripts?
    
    

Goal status

Depending on what goal type you choose, you’ll enter an Event Start Time / Shift Start Time / Target date. This is the date or time you can include in the body of your messages.

You can also set when workflows are available by editing the Workflows available at and Workflows close at. Think of this as the date you want to to start and stop messaging contacts.

 

Refer to the Goal Calendar to see:

• Step 1: Reach Out: When initial workflows will be available for agents to begin sending messages with contacts.
• Step 2: Send Reminders: When reminders will be available for agents.
• Event date / Shift date / Target date: The date entered in Event Start Time / Shift Start Time / Target date.

 

A Goal can be in one of these three statuses:

• Scheduled: The Workflows available at date is more than 31 days in the future
  • Initial Workflows aren’t available.
  • Unread Workflows don’t exist (unless the goal was active at one point
    
    
• Active: The Workflows available at date isn't in the past and the Workflows close at date is at most, 31 days in the future.
  • Initial Workflows are available to agents (depending on the assignment strategy).
  • All scripts are available.
  • All lead actions are available.
  • Unread Workflows are available (Agents can reply based on the assignment strategy).

• Completed: The Workflows close at date is in the past (date/time).
  
  • Initial workflows aren’t available.
  • Unread workflows are available.
    • Scripts are unavailable (except agent-created scripts).
    • Lead actions are unavailable.
    • Which Agents can reply is based on the assignment strategy.
      
      
• Paused: An admin paused the goal.
  • Initial and reply workflows aren't available (Initial, Reply, Reminders)
  • Conversations are available
    • Scripts are unavailable (except agent-created scripts).
    • Lead actions are unavailable.

Note: Date/time is subject to the timezone of the group’s location.

How can agents message contacts?

In Hustle, groups created on and after July 21, 2021 use one Shared strategy to distribute contacts to agents.

• With Shared groups, even if the contact is assigned or unassigned, there’s only one thread of conversation history between agents and the contact in the group.

In groups created before July 21, 2021, admins choose between two different assignment strategies, Anyone & Assigned to distribute contacts to agents while creating goals.

• When using the Anyone & Assigned strategies, contacts use a mix of multiple, different threads, even if conversations are between the same agents and contacts in the group. For more information about these two strategies, see What are the different ways agents can message contacts?

This section details how contacts get distributed in Shared groups. 

How do I use Shared groups?

In Hustle, groups created on and after July 21, 2021 use one Shared strategy to distribute contacts to agents.

The contacts that agents will message in Shared thread groups depends on the assignment status of contacts.

If a contact is:

• Unassigned: any agent in the group can message and respond to the contact. Threads with Unassigned contacts are designed to be more flexible so when a contact replies, they’ll get a response from an available agent. We recommend leaving contacts unassigned when you want to reach out to your contacts and don’t mind which agents message them.
• Assigned: the contact will only be messaged by their assigned agent. Threads with assigned contacts are designed to maintain a consistent relationship between specific agents and contacts in a group. However, contacts can be reassigned to a different agent or unassigned and the conversation history will be preserved for any new agent messaging on the thread.

To help you make the best choice for your team, here’s a break-down of the two assignment statuses (Unassigned & Assigned) by workflow types.

Unassigned: When contacts are unassigned, agents can message any contact included in initial workflows on a first come first served basis. After a period of time (set by the admin) unread messages become available to any agent in the group. 

• Initial & Reminder Workflows:
  • Goal Status: Available for Active Goals only.
  • Scripts: Uses scripts for starting a new conversation or picking up an existing conversation.
  • Lead Actions (Yes/No responses): Unavailable
  • Conversation History: Conversation history transfers between Agents
  • Batch Availability: Contacts targeted in the Goal are divided into batches. Each batch is available to the first agent that accesses it (for a period of one hour).
  • Batch Size: 100 contacts.
• Unread Workflows:
  • Goal Status: Available for All Statuses (Active / Scheduled / Completed)
  • Scripts: Response Scripts and any other Additional Response Scripts.
  • Lead actions (Yes/No responses): Only available for Active goals.
  • Conversation History: Conversation history transfers between Agents.
  • Batch Availability: Admins decide how long a message can stay claimed in an agent’s unread workflows before it becomes unclaimed (Any agent can respond to the contact's message) and available to other agents.
  • Batch Size: 10 contacts.
• Note:
  • Contact facing numbers are Group-specific. So if a new group is created, contacts will be texted from a different number.
  • One agent at a time will ever occupy a conversation. Agents will receive an error when attempting to access a conversation that is currently owned by a different agent. The thread will become available and the error will disappear once the response window passes.

Assigned: When contacts are assigned, the contact will only be messaged by the assigned agent.

• Initial & Reminder Workflows:
  • Goal Status: Available for Active Goals only.
  • Scripts: Uses scripts for starting a new conversation or picking up an existing conversation.
  • Lead Actions (Yes/No responses) are unavailable.
  • Conversation History: Conversation history transfers between Agents when the contact is reassigned or unassigned.
  • Batch Availability: Contacts will only be messaged by their assigned agent. Contacts can be reassigned or unassigned at any point in time. IF a contact is assigned to a different agent in the group during an active workflow, there may be a delay of 20 minutes until the new agent can message the reassigned contact in a workflow batch. 
• Unread workflows:
  • Goal Status: Available for all Goal Statuses (Active / Scheduled / Completed)
  • Scripts: Response scripts and any other Additional Response scripts.
    
  • Lead action (Yes/No responses) are only available for Active goals.
  • Conversation History: Conversation history transfers between Agents when the contact is reassigned or unassigned.
  • Batch Availability: Contacts will only be messaged by their assigned agent. Contacts can be reassigned or unassigned at any point in time. IF a contact is assigned to a different agent in the group during an active workflow, there may be a delay of 20 minutes until the new agent can message the reassigned contact in a workflow batch.
• Note: 
  • Contact facing numbers are group specific. So if a new group is created, contacts will be texted from a different number.
  • If the contact becomes unassigned, Agents that sent the initial messages can access read and unread messages from those unassigned contacts via the All view on the Conversations tab. 
  • When a contact is reassigned, unread messages will be available to the new agent via unread workflows. Read messages will be available on the Conversations tab. 

If a contact is reassigned from an active workflow, it can take up to 20 minutes for the new agent to see the reassigned contact’s thread in the All tab on the Conversations tab. We recommend using the Assign button in Conversation Review to reassign contacts. For more information, see How do I reassign contacts?

How do I use the Anyone & Assigned groups?

Groups created before July 21, 2021 use the Anyone & Assigned strategy to distribute contacts to agents.  

For more information about Anyone & Assigned groups, see What are the different ways agents can message contacts?

 

Conversations

Conversations with contacts appear in the Conversation Review panel.

To open the Conversation Review panel, click on the agent's name. Here you can review conversations between agents and contacts and make changes as needed including applying tags, opting-out contacts, editing a contact's profile, etc.

While reviewing conversations:

• You can only search by contact name, group name, or tags.
• You can't message contacts.
• Reading a thread won't mark the thread as read for the agent.

There are two filters:

• All:
  • Every conversation with contacts.
  • Every conversation between a contact where the agent was the last person on the thread.
  • Unread messages which are marked with a blue dot
• Unresponded:
  • Every conversation from the All tab where the last message on the thread was from the contact. This message may have been read, but it remains unresponded.
  • Unread messages which are marked with a blue dot

 

For more information about conversations, and how to send threads to other agents, see Where are my threads and conversations?

Goal stats

An high level overview of a goal is available from the goals page.

Under the goals name, click Show stats to see a breakdown of the activity in a goal.

Common issues

The following section provides troubleshooting steps to common issues such as workflows not showing up, or a goal is inactive.

How do I give instructions to agents?

Admins can use the the Agent Instructions and Goal description fields to provide agents and other admins information about goals.

Information entered in the Agent Instructions field will appear on the Workflows tab for agents in the agent app:

Admins can also include links in the Agent Instructions field to provide agents resources they can refer to as they Hustle. 

Information entered in the Goal Description field will appear on the goal's summary page for other admins:

How do I stop a goal?

For instructions on how to stop goals, see How do I stop goals?

Workflows aren’t appearing

• Verify the Workflows close at date hasn’t passed. If it has, you can make the goal active again by moving the date of the Workflows close at date into the future. Fore more information about goal status, see Goal status in How do I use Hustle goals?
  
  
• Verify the agent is in the correct account. For more information, see Switching Orgs as an Agent on Web and Switching Orgs as an Agent on Mobile.
  
  
• Initial Workflows divide contacts into batches of 100. Check how many contacts are left to message on the Goal Stats page as there may not be enough batches of contacts left for all of your agents to message.

 

Scripts and lead actions aren’t available

Scripts and lead actions become unavailable when the goal is complete or paused. You can make the goal active again by making the Workflows close at date in the near future or you can resume the goal if it was paused. For more information, see Goal status in How do I use Hustle goals?

Goal can’t be edited

After a goal is launched, the following can’t be changed:

• Targeting
• Enable Reminders

For more information, on targeting, see How do I target contacts in my goals?

For more information on reminders, see What are the types of Goals?