This article provides details about important features and expected behavior when agents message contacts (also known as leads) in goals launched from groups a Hustle organization.
Skip to:
- Goals
- Workflows
- Goal status
- How can agents message contacts?
- Reviewing Conversations
- Goal stats
- Common issues
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.
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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:
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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 57 segment 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?
- To help ensure deliverability, initial scripts have a 57 segment limit
🚨 Please note when writing scripts! As part of 10DLC, T-Mobile is implementing a daily segment cap for TCR brands (with a few exceptions); so messages with many segments can cause some groups to quickly reach this daily limit.
For more information, see:
What is a message segment
How do segments affect 10DLC throughput?
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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
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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.
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Reminder scripts include language that lets the contact know how to opt out of messages. For more information, see How do I write scripts?
- To help ensure deliverability, Reminder scripts have a 500 character limit.
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:
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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
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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).
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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.
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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 groups, there’s only one thread for each contact in a group.
Many Agents can share threads, but only one agent can message on a thread at any one time. The contacts that agents will message in groups depends on the assignment status of contacts. To determine which agents can message on a particular thread, admins can assign contacts to specific agents in a group or leave contacts unassigned in groups.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Unread workflows:
- Goal Status: Available for all Goal Statuses (Active / Scheduled / Completed)
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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.
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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?
Reviewing Conversations
Conversations with contacts appear in the Conversation Review panel for admins.
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:
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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
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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?
To make sure every goal is available to review at a later time, goals can’t be deleted. However, goals can be paused and/or edited to be completed early.
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Pausing a goal pauses the initial and reply workflows so they can be resumed at a later time.
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Completing a goal closes the the initial and reply workflows and moves them to the Completed status.
For more info on Goal Status see How do I use Hustle goals?
While paused or completed, the following settings of a goal can't be changed:
- Targeting
- Reminders
- Goal type
For more information on targeting, see How do I target contacts in my goals?
How do I pause a goal?
To pause the initial and reply workflows of an Active goal, from the admin panel:
- Click Groups on the left side of the admin panel > the name of the group with the goal that needs to be paused.
- Click the goal options menu next to Edit > Pause goal.
To resume the a goal, click the goal options menu > Resume goal.
Agent will see the initial and reply workflows of the goal paused, with a message letting them know the workflow will open when an admin or manager resumes the goal.
What if messages have already been sent?
If messages have been sent in a goal and the goal needs to be changed, admins and managers can pause the goal and duplicate it into their group's goal drafts.
For more information on how to duplicate goals, see How do I duplicate my Goal?
With the goal draft open, admins can use the Goal Results targeting filter to change the new goals targeting to account for activity in the previous goal.
Detailed instructions on how to use targeting filters can be found here: How do I target contacts in group goals?
What if messages haven't been sent?
If messages haven't been sent, admins and managers can close the goal and duplicate it to create a follow up goal.
How do I close a goal?
Goals can also be edited so Active workflows are Completed and removed.
To complete a goal:
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Click Groups on the left side of the admin panel > name of the group with the goal that needs to be stopped.
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Click Edit next to the goal you’d like to stop.
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Scroll down to Step 1: Reach Out.
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Under Workflows Available At, set the time to be in the past.
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Under Workflows Close At, set the time to be in the past and within 30 days of the Workflows Available At time.
- If Reminders are enabled for the goal, take the same steps as above.
6. Click Save.
7. You can verify the goal is closed in the left corner which will be marked Completed.
How do I duplicate a goal?
Duplicating goals is a great way to save the information from your last goal and time creating a goal.
After duplicating a goal, all you'll need to do is change the date and start a new workflow without needing to create the goal from scratch.
Heads up! Duplication is not available for goals that target contacts based on goal results. Targeting filters based on goal results will say "only message contacts who were targeted on the goal [goal name] and any of the following happened"
- From the Goals tab in the Admin Panel find the goal you want to duplicate
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Edit > Duplicate goal
- In the Copy Goal window, change the name of the goal if needed.
- Set the Destination Group for the duplicate goal.
- Click Duplicate
- The duplicate goal will be available in the drafts of the destination group(s). Click Open in new tab to open the draft in a separate tab.
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, and added to the group with the correct email address. 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?