Birthday and win-back texts: how to set them up without annoying anyone

Most shops need two automatic messages and no more: one on a member's birthday, and one when a regular has gone quiet. Both run by themselves once they are set. Here is how to set them, and what will and will not happen afterwards.

Start from the starter campaigns

In your dashboard, the campaigns screen has a button that installs a starter set, including a birthday message and a win-back message. Pick your type of business first: it sets the win-back delay you start from, 21 days for a café or bakery, 60 for a restaurant, 90 for a salon or shop, and 30 otherwise. Nothing is overwritten if you press it twice. Each installed campaign is yours to edit, and each has its own switch, so you can read one before you turn it on. The full list of what a campaign can do is on the campaigns page.

The birthday message

• It goes to members whose birthday is today, once per calendar year. A February 29 birthday is honoured on February 28 in other years.
• It can only reach members who have a birthday on file. Most often they enter it themselves, on their own card, so mention it at the counter if you want this message to matter.
• You choose what it carries: words only, bonus points, or a reward code with a label your staff will recognise and a number of days it stays valid.
• If you attach a code, say what it is for and how long it lasts in the message itself. A code with no explanation looks like a mistake.

The win-back message

• It goes to members whose last visit is older than the number of days you set.
• Set that number past your regulars' normal gap. If people usually come every two weeks, thirty days means they are late. If they come every six weeks, thirty days reaches people who were about to come in anyway.
• A member is not messaged again inside that window. If they are still away after it has passed once more, they are.
• For a shop where rhythms vary a lot, there is a second kind of trigger that compares each member to their own usual gap instead of one number for everyone. It never targets a member with fewer than four visits.

If you want a third: reward reminders

• The starter set also installs two reminders about rewards, switched off. Read them before you turn either one on.
• The first goes to members a few stamps or points short of their next reward; you set how few, two stamps to start. The text can say exactly how many are left.
• The second goes to members who could claim a reward today and have not been in for a number of days you set, 14 to start.
• Both count confirmed stamps and points only, so the text arrives the day after the visit that got the member there, never the same afternoon.

What the product will refuse to send

Every promotional message passes the same checks, whatever you set. It is not sent to a member who has not ticked the consent box themselves. It is not sent between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. It is not sent if it would be a third promotional message to that member in a week. The words that tell the customer how to opt out are added for you, on every message. Your campaigns list shows how many sends were held back, so a quiet campaign is not a mystery.

Keep it to one text

• A plain text message holds 160 characters. The opt-out wording uses about 30, which leaves you roughly 130.
• One emoji, one curly quote or one character outside the basic text alphabet cuts the limit for the whole message to 70. In French, the lowercase c with a cedilla and vowels with a circumflex do it; grave and acute accents do not.
• A message that runs over is sent and billed as two.
• Use the first name. The variable for it is offered right under the text box, with the ones for the points balance and the reward code.