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Text us on your website

For
church staff who answer texts (owners, administrators and communications managers)
Status
Beta
Last reviewed

Beta: Text us is new: it works today, and its details may still change as churches use it

On this page
  1. Turn it on
  2. What a visitor sees
  3. What you see
  4. Good to know
  5. What DCX Logic support can do
  6. How it compares with Planning Center

Text us puts a button at the bottom right of every page of your website. A visitor taps it, leaves their name, mobile number and message, and the message arrives in your texting Inbox, where you answer it by text like any other.

Turn it on

  1. Go to Communications → Text us.
  2. Turn on Show the Text us button on your website.
  3. Change the Button label (for example “Message us”) and the Greeting at the top of the panel, if you like.
  4. Select Save. The button appears on your website within a minute.

To take it off your website, turn the switch off and select Save.

If the page says Texting isn’t set up, your church can’t send texts yet, so the button can’t be turned on. DCX Logic sets up texting for your church: email support@dcxlogic.com.

What a visitor sees

  • A Text us button with a chat icon, in your website’s colour.
  • A panel with your greeting, then Name, Mobile Phone and Message, and a box they can tick: Yes, text me at this number (optional), with the usual words about message frequency, rates, STOP and HELP. The box is never ticked for them, and they can send a message without ticking it.
  • After Send: “Your message is with our team, and they’ll get back to you soon.” If they didn’t tick the box, it also says you won’t text them.
  • If they ticked the box, they get a text straight away: “Thanks Ann, we got your message and will text you back here soon”, followed by how to stop texts. When they reply, it comes to the same conversation.

What you see

  1. The message opens a conversation in Communications → Inbox, marked unread.
  2. A note at the top says it came from your website’s Text us, on which page, whether they ticked the box, and whether a confirmation text went or why not.
  3. HoW looks for the person with that mobile number. If it finds one clear match, the conversation is theirs. If nobody has that number, it adds them to People (“New from the website’s Text us”). If it isn’t sure (someone else with that number, or a different first name), it changes nobody: use Add this person in the conversation.
  4. If they ticked the box, their yes to texts is recorded on their record in People under Text messages, with “Website Text us” as the source.
  5. Answer in the Inbox as usual. If they didn’t tick the box, you can’t text them: follow up another way.

Good to know

  • Only people who can answer the Inbox can change Text us (owners, administrators and communications managers).
  • Your church has one texting Inbox, so every Text us conversation goes there.
  • A visitor can send up to five messages an hour, and HoW sends at most one confirmation text to a number every ten minutes, so the button can’t be used to flood anyone with texts.
  • HoW never texts a child: if the number belongs to a child on your records, the message arrives but no text goes.
  • With pilot texting on (see Pilot texting), only pilot testers get texts. Anyone else still reaches your Inbox, but gets no confirmation, and you can’t answer them by text. The note says “not a pilot tester”. The confirmation is signed “DCX Logic HoW Test”, as all pilot texts are. Pilot texting exists only in DCX Logic’s demo and test copy of HoW; on your church’s live HoW, Text us needs your church’s own texting number.
  • With your own texting number, the button is a way people sign up for your texts, so it has to be listed in your texting registration. DCX Logic does this when it sets up your number; tell support@dcxlogic.com before you turn it on if your number is already set up.

What DCX Logic support can do

Support can check whether your church can text, why a confirmation didn’t go, and whether your registration lists the Text us button. Support can’t see a visitor’s message unless you start a support session.

How it compares with Planning Center

Planning Center has no texting button for your website, and its own texts can’t receive replies; churches add this with a texting partner. Text us works like the “Text us” chat many businesses use, with one difference: agreeing to texts is a separate, optional box, and no text goes without it.