Hotline Management Guide

This guide is intended only for those who had hotlines set up for their account by an engineer and have read and worked through the “What Is The Hotline And How Do I Set It Up” Guide.

So now we have a message attached to a hotline. It is important to know that hotline messages never expire, so if a user sends another message with the same caller ID as the hotline number, and neglects to check off “Hotline,” parents will hear a potentially outdated message if they call the number back. To mitigate this, you can set up a message which, upon launching, will reset the hotline to a default message of your design. This guide can help you get this set up.

Part 1: Creating a Custom List of one blank contact

1. Download the attached .csv or create something similar. The attached .csv contains no contacts, so using it will result in no messages going out!
2. From the Home page, Go to Contacts -> Create a New Contact List.
   
   
                                                                               
   
                                    
   
   
   
   
3. Give the list a name, we recommend something like “Hotline Reset” (Description is optional).
4. Select “Import File” as the List Type.
5. Click “Next.”
   
   
                        
   
   
   
   
6. Click “Browse” and select your .csv.
7. Click “Next.”
   
   
   
                      
   
   
   
   
8. Map your fields. For the attached .csv, you can match the Column name with the Type.
9. Click “Next.”
   
   
   
   
                      
   
   
   
10. Your Hotline Custom List is ready!

Part 2: Resetting your hotline

1. Now, create an alert! Make sure the only “recipient” is the custom list.
   
   
   
              
   
   
2. In the “Message Types” Step, make sure to check “Phone Call” and “Hotline.”
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. When drafting the message in the next step, consider a message that informs parents and guardians that “there are no bulletins at this time”, and directs them to call the school if they have questions.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Launch this alert. Remember that based on this setup, no calls will go out, but the hotline will still update because “Phone Call” and “Hotline” were checked.
   
   
   
                                                          
   
   
   
   
5. Call the hotline for the school to ensure that the number has been set to the default you just created, and that the message is to your liking.

If you follow these steps, then whenever you need to reset the hotline because the current message attached to it is no longer valid (i.e. a school closure for 1/24, but it is no longer 1/24), you can go to “Manage Alerts,” and launch the Hotline Reset Message. That way, the hotline will have the default message attached to it once again.