Auto-replies

What it is for

When a guardian writes “fees” or messages the school at night, the school's answer reaches them at once, without waiting for a member of staff. Each reply has its fixed text, and may label the chat and give it to a member of staff who follows it up.

Who uses it

The page opens for whoever holds “View WhatsApp auto-replies”, to look only, or “Manage WhatsApp auto-replies”, to work in it. In the built-in roles: Owner. A group grants these to any role under Settings → Roles and permissions, and everyone sees only what is within their own scope.

Step by step

1. Press “+ New auto-reply”, type the reply's name, and choose its kind.
2. For a keyword: type the words separated by commas, and choose “Contains the word” or “Exact match”. For out of hours: the times the school day starts and ends.
3. Write the reply as it will arrive, choose a label and a member of staff if you like, then “Add”.
4. To change a reply: the pencil on its row. To delete it: the bin; it is restored from “Deleted”.

How it works

The keyword replies are tried first, in the order they were added, then the out-of-hours reply if the message came before the day starts, from its end, or on one of the group's weekend days; at most one reply to a message, and one active out-of-hours reply. Each reply answers a chat once a day, and never a chat a member of staff answered in the last day. Up to twenty words, each 40 characters at most, and hamza, diacritics and letter case do not matter. The text is fixed, up to 1,000 characters, and nothing of a pupil's goes in it. The label is put on the chat, and the chat given to the member of staff if nobody has it, who is told in the bell. If a guardian writes “إيقاف” or STOP, they get the fixed stop confirmation shown on the page, and no other reply. If the chat guide is on, it answers first, and the keyword replies rest while it runs.

On the page

• Active replies, what was sent in the last 30 days, and stop confirmations.
• The replies, and the deleted ones.
• Each reply's kind, when it answers, its text, the label and the member of staff, and how many it sent. The pencil changes it, the bin deletes it.
• What a guardian gets for “إيقاف” or STOP, and the order replies are tried in.
• “+ New auto-reply”: the name, the kind, the words or the hours, and the text.

Questions

Why did the system not answer a guardian?

It may have answered them already today, or a member of staff answered in the last day, or no word matched, or the chat guide was on.

Why can't I add a second out-of-hours reply?

One active out-of-hours reply is allowed. Change the existing one, or delete it first.