As we mentioned in last week’s Office Hours, Can you ever just “set it and forget it” in Nudge?, messages in Nudge give you options for streamlining your coaching workflow. Whether you have messages attached to Cards or set up through the messaging feature, there are many different ways to use Scheduled Messages within the platform.
This week, we’re diving into when and how to schedule messages in the Nudge platform, plus some of our favorite use cases.
When and How to Schedule Messages
One of the many powerful client engagement tools at your fingertips in Nudge is the ability to schedule messages in advance.
When you’re working with clients individually or in groups, the ability to schedule a message that can be delivered to clients at a later time can be a huge time-saver.
But just as important as saving time for you is fitting into your client’s lives in the most convenient and effective way you can. Scheduling messages gives you a chance to be thoughtful about when the best times are for your clients to receive messages from you and take action.
Below we’ll cover how to schedule messages in Nudge, your scheduling options, and some interesting use cases to consider for your programs.
How to schedule messages in Nudge
To find your messages and dive into your scheduling options in your Nudge account, navigate over to the Messages Tab and click New.
Once you’ve entered the name of your recipient and typed up your message, just check the “Schedule” box and your scheduling options will pop up for you.
Select the day and time you want your client to receive it (based on their time zone), and hit Schedule.
Now that you know how to schedule messages, there are several basic options and use cases for scheduling messages to consider.
Scheduled message options and use cases
If you’re wondering how to scale a coaching program, some of the unique options for scheduling messages could be valuable as you manage and grow your programs.
But it’s not just about scaling, and we aren’t talking just ‘set it and forget it’ automation. Often, scheduling an individual message in advance is the best way to fully personalize the experience for your clients.
We’ll start there with a quick exploration of some interesting and effective use cases we’ve seen for scheduling messages.
When to schedule messages for individuals
As you saw above, it’s easy to schedule messages in advance for individuals. But why? When?
It may feel counterintuitive, but scheduling a message in advance for an individual client can actually provide them an even more personalized and engaging experience.
The use case isn’t complicated. It’s right there in front of you, and if you offer personal coaching programs of any kind you can implement this today.
During sessions or in check-in assessments with clients, one of the best things you can do is ask this simple question:
“When is the best time of day for you to see a message from me?”
Once you get that answer, save it to your Notes in that person’s Client Profile in Nudge.
Now whenever you have a specific reason for a touchpoint, or to “nudge” that client, you know you can write out that message for them, and schedule it in advance.
So not just the content of the message is “personalized”, but also the time they get it… Personalized to fit right into their daily life.
When to schedule messages for Groups
Yes, you can schedule a message in Nudge for a whole Group of clients at once. To do this, just create a new message like we showed above, but in the “To” field, start typing the name of the Group you want to send it to instead of the name of an individual.
If you don’t want to send it to EVERYONE in the Group, you can also just enter multiple individual client names there as well.
You can even choose “All Clients” if you want to send a message to everyone at once.
So when does scheduling a Group message make sense?
Let’s say we’re running multiple programs in Nudge, and we’ve scheduled a special live training event that we want to use to better educate our lower tier paid clients and free trial course prospects.
At the end of the session we’ll be providing a reason to upgrade to my one-on-one coaching, so I don’t want my one-on-one clients to attend.
Instead of setting up a new Card with all the details, we already have a landing page created and we want to drive everyone there to register.
Because this is a scheduled event, it’s not for all of my clients, and we have a registration page in place, a Group message is an ideal fit.
I’ll set up a scheduled message to be delivered to just my Groups in Nudge other than my one-on-one coaching Group at a convenient time of day for most of my audience, and include a link to the landing page so they can easily register and get reminders about the upcoming event.
Now that you’re armed with that example, here’s one thing you should NOT do. Don’t try to send Group messages in a way that tries to feel like a personalized message.
I know this sounds wrong, but trust me, clients can FEEL this when it happens and it’s off-putting every time.
Be open about the fact that this is more of an announcement for everyone. Your clients will not mind that at all.
When to schedule repeating messages
Okay, now for the final question when it comes to how to scale a coaching program.
Can I set an automatic reminder that repeats every day, week, etc?
Yes, you absolutely can. But you must be intentional about the specific use cases where an ongoing repeated message is called for and going to be appreciated by your clients.
Take the rule of thumb from the previous section about never pretending a Group message is a personalized message and add highlights to this one…
Never, ever try to pretend a repeating message is coming from you in real-time. This is THE QUICKEST way to get an eye-roll from your clients, get notifications turned off on your app, and to never hear from them again.
Don’t do it.
Now, let’s look at how (and when) you might actually be able to add value for a client with repeating messages.
-1- When tracking is required at a certain time of day
Imagine you’ve been working with a client to track their energy level at a certain time of day because you want to understand when it is optimal for them to tackle their most challenging work tasks.
As a client, it can genuinely be tough to remember to stop what you’re doing and self-assess at a specific time.
A daily reminder message might be just the ticket. Here’s the key.
Before you set it up, at minimum, mention to your client that a repeating reminder is going to be coming to them at [x] o’clock each day.
Let them know that if it becomes annoying and no longer helpful, you’ll be happy to turn it off for them.
Then set up the reminder message to be as simple and straight to the point as possible. You may even include the word, “Reminder” in it, so it never feels like you’re trying to pull one over on anyone.
Speaking of reminders, once you start setting these up, remember to check your “Scheduled Messages” from time-to-time within the Messages tab to make sure you turn off any old repeating messages before they drive someone crazy, or out of the app altogether.
-2- Your client asks you for reminders
This one’s obvious, but it’s also the ideal situation.
Now that you know you can set up repeating messages, keep them in mind that if a client ever asks for reminders, you have that power.
And if a client sounds frustrated in a session, saying something like “oops, I always forget to do that”, it’s time to suggest a repeating reminder and see how they feel about it.
-3- Birthdays!
It’s the oldest trick in the book, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.
It shows you care when you send a nice little message to your clients on their birthday. So if that’s information you happen to get from your clients, then go ahead and schedule a message to repeat yearly that simply wishes them a happy birthday.
It takes a minute and it’s guaranteed to get a smile.
Final thoughts
I hope this has helped you see that using scheduled messages wisely can help you both deliver more scalable client engagement, but also a more personalized client experience for individuals you work with closely.
If you have more ideas that we didn’t share, we’d love to hear them. Do you have any favorite use cases for scheduling messages?
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