The more emails a person receives, the more likely they are to ignore them. Today's update reduces the number of emails we send by bundling similar messages together! The three types of emails that are now consistently bundled are Scheduling Requests, Blockout Notifications, and Accepted Request Notifications.
Scheduling Requests
When a scheduler adds team members to a plan, the final step is usually sending out Scheduling Request emails. We recommend assembling your schedule for a couple months at a time, and sending the requests for all of them at once. If you send these requests from the Matrix on the full website, the requests have always been bundled. If instead you sent them from individual plans, which is the only way you can do it on mobile devices, your team members would receive separate emails for each plan.
Now, whether you send your requests in bulk from the Matrix or individually from each plan, we will bundle all of the requests you send within 5 minutes, as long as the content of the message is the same. If you customize the text of the message itself, those will still send as individual messages.
If you click a scheduled person within a plan immediately after sending a message, you'll see a new status called Sending. Messages should only ever be sending for 5 minutes while waiting to see if there are similar messages to bundle. Within 5 minutes, the message will be Sent.
If you visit the Communication tab on your profile, or the profile of someone to whom you just sent a message, you'll see a banner letting you know there are messages in the queue that will be sent within 5 minutes.
The email sender is the only person who will see this banner.
Blockout Notifications
Team Leaders have the option to receive notification emails when their team members block out dates. If a team member blocked out multiple dates from the full website, the leader would receive a bundled blockout notification. If, however, they blocked out dates in the mobile app, or submitted them one at a time from the website, the leader would get a separate email for each. Now no matter where dates are blocked out, Services will wait 5 minutes and send one notification email with everything blocked out during those 5 minutes.
Accepted Requests Notifications
Team Leaders also have the option to receive notification emails when their team members accept or decline scheduling notifications. If a team member used the Accept All button on the website or mobile app, the leader would receive a bundled notification. If, however, they accepted them individually, the leader would get a separate email for each. Now, no matter how requests are accepted, Services will wait 5 minutes and then send one email.
Decline notifications have not changed, and are never bundled. When someone declines, the leader usually gets an email with a list of people they can schedule instead. If we bundled those, the leader might not notice there were multiple positions to fill within one email.
Fewer Emails, More Responses
By reducing the number of emails you receive, each message should retain more importance and be less likely to get lost in the shuffle. We hope this increases the number of responses, makes it easier for you to stay organized, and ultimately allows you and your team to focus more time on ministry and less time in your email.
