Here's what to look for in the December 11th release. 

The guidance in this document is offered for early planning purposes and is subject to change up to the time of release. 

Relate 

Group Texting

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents cannot communicate with a group of people at the same time. For example, an advisor/agent cannot simultaneously hold conversations with multiple individuals in a household, or with multiple team members in a client organization. The absence of Group Texting hinders collective discussion, collaboration, coordination, as well as sharing information efficiently.

Expected Value: Group Texting will provide the following value: 

• Provide enhanced ability to reach out to multiple contacts with one message to optimize efforts,  as well as build and strengthen relationships. 
• Improve the advisor/agent’s productivity by decreasing the repetitive work of maintaining separate conversations about the same subject with multiple different members of a group. 
• Encourage a collaborative and participatory approach to sharing information, which enhances transparency.
• Drive a better user experience and make cross functional collaboration easier and more productive.
• Support data monitoring capabilities for sales, training, customer success, and finding new opportunities.
• Archive data and meet compliance guidelines.

Expected Solution: Relate Group Texting will allow advisors/agents to compose and send messages as well as share files (in JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats) with groups of up to 10 contacts simultaneously while meeting compliance guidelines. All group members will need to opt-in to receiving messages to be included in the group. Once a group has been created, the advisor/agent and group members will be able to send and receive messages from the group. Advisors/agents will be able to create a group name or edit the name of an existing group. Advisors/agents will also be able to filter the messages in their conversation window to only view Group Texts.

Group Texting will follow your organization’s existing archiving and compliance policies. 

Advisors/agents will not be able to add additional members to an existing group or remove members from an existing group. If people need to be added or removed from a group, then a new group will need to be created. 

If any group member changes their attestation status and opts out of receiving text messages, then the advisor/agent will not be able to send messages to the group. However, the group will still receive messages from other members and the advisor/agent will be able to view these messages in the conversation window.

Group Texting will initially only be available on Relate Desktop and the Hearsay Mobile iOS app, while advisors/agents on Android and Salesforce Embedded Relate will see a message saying that Group Texting is not currently available, but is coming soon. 

Group Texting will initially not support sending scheduled messages or voice calling.     

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client, Compliance Admin
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: On for all organizations. Group Texting will initially be available on Relate Desktop and the Hearsay Mobile iOS app, while users on Android and Embedded Relate for Salesforce will be shown a message saying that Group Texting will be enabled in a future release.