Vivery text messaging functionality is only visible to Organization and Location admin users and is intended to be used only for messages related to an agency's food programs.
Once a location’s text messaging is enabled, you can start uploading contacts in bulk or individually. Contacts can include a first name, last name, and a phone number. If desired, you can also create contact groups to send more targeted messages if desired.
It is imperative that any person added to the contact list manually or by bulk upload has given consent to receiving texts from the organization. Individuals who have signed up directly through the Vivery text message form (either from the link in the location’s map listing or via the promotion link/QR code provided by Vivery) fulfill the consent criteria without further action needed. For further details about consent criteria, please reach out to your food bank.
- Understanding text messaging consent and federal regulations
If contacts decide they no longer wish to receive messages, they can easily opt out of receiving text messages from the organization within the message they are sent.
Contacts can be added one at a time or in bulk with the help of our CSV and Excel Upload templates. Bulk imports can also be assigned to groups.
NOTE: You must have text messaging enabled to add contacts.
NOTE: You must have consent to message every contact you add to Vivery.
NOTE: You must have created a contact group or groups to bulk upload contacts to a group.
Importing Contacts in Bulk
All contacts added in a bulk import must have consented to be contacted by the organization sending messages. For further information about consent criteria, please reach out to your food bank.
To bulk import contacts, navigate to Communications in the left navigation menu. Click Manage Contacts.
To add multiple contacts at the same time, scroll down to Bulk Import Contacts. Leverage the templates provided in that section to create a CSV or Excel spreadsheet with the contacts you would like to add.
Click the Read and Confirm Terms link and accept the terms, then upload the file by clicking the Upload button.
From the Import Contacts popup, confirm that the contacts are being uploaded to the correct Organization and Location. If correct, click Select Files and navigate to the spreadsheet you created.
NOTE: If you have created contact groups, you can assign contacts to them at this stage. See Managing Contact Groups for more information.
To assign all contacts in this file to a contact group, click the Dropdown icon in the Contact Group(s) section and select the desired group or groups by clicking the box next to their names.
NOTE: You must first create contact groups before contacts can be assigned to them.
If you have added your contacts to a group, click Save when finished.
If you do not wish to add these contacts to a group, click Upload Without Group(s)
Once you have completed these steps, review your upload. Large uploads of over 700 contacts should be split into two batches to avoid upload errors and slow upload times.
In this grid, you can see the file name, date and time of upload, and the status of the upload. Uploaded lists populate as “Not Started” under status. When the system starts processing the contacts, the status changes to “In Progress.” When complete, the status reads “Successful.”
To see details about each upload, click the List icon in its row. Depending on the size of the list, this may take a few minutes to populate.
Adding Individual Contacts
All contacts added to Vivery must have consented to be contacted by the organization sending messages. For further information about consent criteria, please reach out to your food bank.
To manually add individual contacts, click Communications in the left navigation menu, then click Manage Contacts. Choose the organization and location where the contacts will be added from the drop-down menus.
Below Bulk Imports, click +Add a Contact, then enter the contact first name, last name, and phone number in the designated fields. You can also assign them to a Contact Group under Select Groups (Optional). This step is not required to save the contact. Once you have entered the contact, click Save.
Editing and Deleting Existing Contacts
Once contacts have been added to the contact list, you can edit each individual contact as necessary. To edit or delete any contacts, click Communications in the left navigation menu, then click Manage Contacts.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the list of existing contacts. In this list, you can see the first and last name of each contact (if provided), the phone number, and the way they were added. To edit or delete a contact, click the List icon to the right of the contact's name.
Select Edit Contact and a pop-up window appears which allows you to change or add to this contact’s information.
Select Delete Contact to remove them from your contact list.
Click Save when finished.
NOTE: Deleted contacts cannot be recovered and will need to be added again if deleted by mistake.
Viewing, Refining, and Exporting Contact Lists
Once contacts have been uploaded, you can view your list of contacts by navigating to Communications in the left navigation menu. Click Manage Contacts.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to locate the contact grid, which is the list of contacts for the location selected. You can view the first name, last name, phone number, and group affiliation of each contact.
You can see whether the user is still subscribed to your text messaging service or if they have unsubscribed.
The Source column describes how the contact was added to the list. “Uploaded” contacts were part of a bulk upload. “Manually Added” contacts were added by a Vivery user using the + Add a Contact button. “Self Sign Up” self-register for text messaging using one of the Vivery subscribe tools like QR, sign up landing page, or via the sign up link on the location's map profile.
At the top of the grid, you can search for individual contacts or refine the list of contacts by clicking Add Filters above the grid.
Filter by Contact Group affiliation using the Dropdown icon under Group(s). You can filter by subscription status and source of contact by clicking the Checkboxes under their respective sections.
Click Apply to see the refined list of contacts. Click Reset Filters at the top of the pop-up to start over with default filters.
Click Export to export the filtered list of contacts as a CSV file.