Recommended Reply Tips


Recommended Replies are saved replies that appear within the texter's reply screen as an optional response to commonly asked questions or phrases. You can add as many Recommended Replies as you like. Recommended Replies are accessible to texters after all of the initial messages are sent, and the replies are visible throughout the campaign as your senders continue to work through the script. 


Picking a relevant and easy-to-understand title is key to prompting texters to identify the proper recommended reply for each scenario.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Recommended Replies are created in the Admin view of the campaign. While an individual user can also set personal "Saved Replies," the Recommended Replies created by the admin always appear at the top of the Messenger's screen.


To add Recommended Replies, click the pink "Create New Reply" button at the top of the page.


Screenshot of the Recommended Replies header at the top of the page with a magenta "Create New Reply" button to its right, highlighted by a green rectangle around the button.


When creating a reply, enter a title and body, validate the preview, and click the "Add New Recommended Reply" button at the bottom of the page to save. 


Recommended Replies created within a campaign can utilize custom fields.


Screenshot of a text input field with a custom field code present. Below, in an illustrated example of a phone, the custom field code has been replaced by a dynamic variable.


To confirm your custom fields are displaying as desired, refer to the Message Preview below the Recommended Replies creation field.


Recommended Replies can be edited or deleted as necessary before and after launch without pausing the campaign. To edit a Recommended Reply, click on the "Edit" button to the right of the reply.


Screenshot of the first entry in a list of Recommended Replies. There are two blue links to the right of the body of the reply, "delete" and "edit" with a green rectangle around "edit."


Then, make the necessary changes and then click the "Update Recommended Reply" button at the bottom of the page.


Add Recommended Replies according to your desired conversation flow. This will help you guide your senders' conversations! 


If needed, you can reorder your Recommended Replies by clicking and dragging each question to the preferred place in the list.


To reduce the number of segments needed to send an SMS message, ThruText automatically checks Recommended Replies for characters that would change the replies' encoding. Then, the system replaces those characters with 7-bit friendly equivalents. If your team is billed per segment the smart encoding swap goes a long way to saving you money!


NOTE - If a custom field is used in a message, the segment counter becomes an estimation based on the length of the dynamic variable. For example, if my code was "%state%" and my list had the names of states written out, when "%state%" is replaced by "Kentucky" or "Mississippi", the message would become longer due to the extra characters.


Preventing blocked replies

Our texting partners recommended avoiding using link shorteners (example: bit.ly) in any text messaging. Please check out our SMS Best Practices guide for more details on avoiding link shorteners and other best practice recommendations.