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SMS: Bulk Send an SMS

This document explains how to send a single SMS to a list of customers. Please follow these instructions exactly, and triple check anything. We don't want to send 70000 SMS to people again.

Some clarification:

  • A template is the text of the SMS in multiple languages.
  • A campaign links a template to a group of customers to send an SMS.
  • A template can be used in multiple campaigns.


1. Prepare the list of customer IDs in this EXACT format:

[('unique_customer_id', 'in', [
'RWANDAGASIZA1276',
'RWANDAGASIZA4826',
'RWANDAGICUMBI1059',
'RWANDAGICUMBI3012',
'RWANDAKAYONZA2890',
'RWANDAMAHOKO2536',
'RWANDAMUHANGA2096',
'RWANDAMUHANGA3674',
'RWANDANGOMA6',
'RWANDANYAGATARE2883',
'RWANDANYAGATARE3369',
'RWANDARULI1224',
'RWANDANYAKARAMBI1448',
'RWANDANYAMATA2956',
'RWANDANYANZA3047'
])]

All customer IDs should be wrapped in single quotes and separated by a comma as above. Make sure the first line - [('unique_customer_id', 'in', [- and the last - ])]- are exactly as above. This will also work for a single customer ID.

2. Choose the company in 'Preferences':

3. Go to the SMS Centre Module, then choose "Template" in the left menu.

Click Create. "Name" should be unique and allow you to identify the message ti should be a unique template name. Click "Save" 


4. Click edit on the same page, the Template you choose the unique template you already saved, Add as many languages as necessary, and the message in each language in "Body".Click "Save".



5. Go to "Campaign" on the left menu. Click "Create"

6. DON'T CHANGE

5.1. Celery

5.2. Fast Track

5.3. Inactive from

5.4. Inactive to

5.5. Condition

5.6. Last activated date

5.7. Template Mappings

7. Choose a unique name for "Name"

8. Click "Active"

9. Choose the start and end date.

10. Start entering the name you picked in step 4 in "Template", it should show up in the search results. Select it.

11. Choose "Daily" as the "Schedule" - make sure the start and end dates in the "Daily" option are correctly configured

12. Choose a provider

13. To choose which customers to send the message to, click the arrow in the "Data Sources" Field and choose "Create and Edit..."

14. In the new window:

14.1. Choose a unique, identifiable name

14.2. Type of Source should be "Internal"

14.3. Model is "bboxx.crm.application"

14.4. Paste the list you've prepared in step 1 into "Domain"

14.5. Mobile number field is "Phone Number 1"

14.6. Language Field is "Preferred Language"

14.7. Click Save


15. Data Sources should be populated with the new Data Source you just created. Click "Save"

16. To send the SMSs, click "Trigger". They are not triggered automatically.