Text-to-join

Text-to-join lets a newcomer text one word, such as JOIN, to your church’s number and get a friendly reply asking them to confirm, then a confirmation with a personal link to your sign-up form. You set the keyword and both replies in Settings, on the Text messaging card, which also shows your church’s texting number and its status.

What the person sees

1. They text your keyword to your church’s number, for example “JOIN”.
2. HoW answers with your Welcome, which asks them to reply with your confirm word (YES unless you change it) and says how to stop (STOP) and get help (HELP).
3. They reply with the confirm word.
4. HoW answers with your Confirmation. If you put {join} in it, that becomes their own link to your join page.
5. They open the link and fill in the form on that page. HoW links their sign-up to the number they texted from.

How to set up the keyword

1. In the staff dashboard, open Settings and find the Text messaging card. (If it says “Texting isn’t set up for your church yet”, see below.)
2. Under Text-to-join keyword, fill in:
   • Keyword: the word people text, such as JOIN or WELCOME.
   • Confirm word: the word they reply with to confirm. It starts as YES.
   • Welcome: the first reply. It must ask them to reply with the confirm word and say how to stop (STOP) and get help (HELP), for example: “Welcome to Grace Church! Reply YES to confirm. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.”
   • Confirmation: the second reply. It must say how to stop (STOP). Write {join} where their sign-up link goes, for example: “Thanks for joining Grace Church! Tell us about you: {join} Reply STOP to opt out.”
   • Join page: the address of the page {join} sends them to, such as https://yourchurch.org/join. Use a page on your HoW website that has your sign-up form on it.
3. Under each reply HoW shows its length, “n of 320 characters”, and how many text segments it will use (a long text is sent, and billed, as several messages). The confirmation is measured with the link in place.
4. If anything still needs fixing, a Before you can save box lists it. When it is gone, choose Save keyword (or Save changes for a keyword you already have).
5. Tell DCX Logic (support@dcxlogic.com) before you add or change a keyword: carriers need every keyword listed in your church’s texting registration, and DCX Logic adds it there.

To stop using it, choose Remove keyword KEYWORD and confirm. Texting the word then gets no answer; people who already joined stay joined.

The join link

• Each link is personal. HoW makes a new one-time link every time someone confirms. It lasts seven days and works once, and only for your church.
• The sign-up is linked to the conversation. A form sent from the join page through the link is tied to the number the person texted from, which proves the number is theirs. An old, used or unknown link is ignored and the sign-up is still kept, just not linked.
• Adding them to your people. If your join form has a consent box, HoW does it when the sign-up arrives: it finds them by the number they texted from (or their email), or adds them as a new person with that number, and their conversation in the Inbox shows their name instead of “Unknown number”. Texting from the number already on their record proves who they are, so nothing more is asked. If the form matches someone by email but they texted from a number that person’s record doesn’t have, HoW emails the address on the record to confirm first, and the number and the conversation become theirs only once they do. When it isn’t sure, the form message says Needs you and you choose Add this person. See Form submissions.
• Mark the join form for adults if only adults use it: a yes to texts is then recorded at once, otherwise you confirm it on the sign-up (see Building a form).
• No join page, no link. If the confirmation has {join} but there is nothing to link to, HoW sends the confirmation without the link rather than a broken one.

The Text messaging card

DCX Logic runs your church’s texting: it sets up the number and looks after it with the carriers, so there is nothing to manage with the texting company yourself. The card shows:

• Its status: Set up, not yet verified (until the carriers accept the first text HoW sends from the number), Connected, Needs attention (with the Last problem), or Turned off.
• Texts go out from your church’s number.
• Messaging Service: a technical setting DCX Logic may give you. Leave it as DCX Logic set it.
• Incoming texts address, with Copy: what DCX Logic sets on your number so replies, STOP and your keyword reach HoW. You don’t need to do anything with it.
• Text-to-join keyword, described above.
• Turn off texting, behind a confirmation: texts stop going out from your number and replies stop reaching HoW. DCX Logic can turn it back on.

If texting is not set up yet, the card says “Texting isn’t set up for your church yet. To turn it on, email support@dcxlogic.com.” The fields under Set up with details from DCX Logic are only for details DCX Logic hands you; you don’t need them otherwise.

Good to know

• Joining is not agreeing to campaigns. Texting the keyword gets the welcome and the confirmation only. To be sent your church’s text campaigns, the person still needs a recorded yes, for example by ticking the text-message box on your join form, which is recorded when the sign-up arrives (or when you confirm it). See Agreement to texts and email, and STOP.
• Exact words. The keyword and the confirm word match in any capitals, but the text has to be just that word: “join” works, “I want to join” does not.
• The confirm word has to come next. It counts only as the person’s next text after the keyword, within a day. If they wait longer or text something else first, they text the keyword again.
• One keyword per church.
• The replies say STOP themselves. Campaign texts get the opt-out line added automatically; the welcome and confirmation have to include STOP in your own words, which is why HoW checks for it.
• Their texts are in your inbox. The keyword, the confirm word and anything else they text arrive in the Texting inbox.
• Who can do it. The Text messaging card is on the Settings page, which opens only for the church’s owner. The card also needs the Integration connectors feature to be on for your church (see Your plan); without it the card does not appear.

If something isn’t right

These are HoW’s own words in the Before you can save box, or if saving is refused:

• “A keyword and a confirm word are 2 to 20 letters or digits, with no spaces.”
• “WORD is reserved by the carriers (STOP, START, HELP and the like).” STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, REVOKE, OPTOUT, START, UNSTOP, HELP and INFO can’t be a keyword or a confirm word.
• “The confirm word must differ from the keyword.”
• “The welcome asks them to reply YES.” and “The welcome says how to stop (STOP) and get help (HELP).”
• “The confirmation says how to stop (STOP).”
• “The welcome is at most 320 characters.” and “The confirmation is at most 320 characters, with its link in place.” The link adds about 35 characters to the join page’s address; a shorter join page address helps.
• “The join page is an https address of at most 200 characters.”
• “A confirmation with {join} needs the join page’s address.”

And when it is running:

• Someone texts the keyword and gets no answer. Check that the card says Connected, that the keyword is saved, and that they texted only the word. If all is right, contact DCX Logic support: the keyword may not be in your church’s texting registration yet.
• They replied YES but got no confirmation. More than a day passed, or they texted something else in between. Ask them to text the keyword again.
• Someone used an old link. A link more than seven days old, or already used, still opens your join page and the sign-up is kept; it just isn’t linked to their texts.

What DCX Logic support can do

Support sets up your church’s texting number, registers it with the carriers, adds your keyword to that registration, and turns texting on or back on. Support can also check why a keyword got no answer.

Coming from Planning Center

Planning Center’s own texting in People sends from a toll-free number and does not take replies, and its help center describes no keywords; churches get text-to-join keywords from Clearstream, Planning Center’s texting partner, which also looks the number up in Planning Center People. HoW builds the keyword into your church’s own number, with a welcome, a confirm word and a confirmation the carriers expect, and a personal link to your sign-up form tied to the number they texted from. Clearstream offers text-to-join keywords and QR codes; HoW has one keyword per church today, and no QR code yet.