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7.4. MessageBee SMS Notifications
Last Updated 11/21/2024
What is MessageBee?
MessageBee is a patron communication tool for libraries. Evergreen uses an email gateway to send text notifications by sending an email to the telephone carrier, and then the telephone carrier turns the email into a text message which is sent to the patron. Increasingly, carrier services are moving away from this method and reducing the deliverability of these communications, and it has resulted in issues with patrons not receiving their text notifications in a reliable or timely fashion. In an effort to resolve this, Cardinal has partnered with Unique Management to implement MessageBee, which sends native text messages to patrons using a ten digit phone number that is specific to each library system. These phone numbers have been created by Unique Management for each library system using an area code previously provided by the library systems. You will be able to find a list of these phone numbers further down this page.
Note that for the time being, MessageBee will only be used to send hold notifications to patrons. This is to test the efficiency and efficacy of the MessageBee system before expanding it to cover all text notifications. During this testing period, Evergreen will still send all other text notifications.
MessageBee Portal
An account has been created for each library system in the consortium. This account is accessed via the MessageBee portal, which can be found at the following link, where you will log in with your email address and password:
https://beta.messagebee.uniquelibrary.com/login
Once you have logged in, you will be taken to the homescreen of the portal:
You will see some basic summary data here.
It will default to Today, but you can also select Yesterday or the Last 7 Days. The view will also default to All, but since we are only sending SMS notifications, there is no need to specifically select SMS. There will be no data for Email or Voice.
Total Notifications shows the total number of notifications that have been sent for the time period selected.
Success Rate shows the percentage of notifications that were successfully sent/received.
Engagement Rate tracks "opens" or "click rates," but since text messages do not have these, there will be no data for this.
Training
Unique Management hosted two trainings for library staff in the usage of the MessageBee portal. The trainings were recorded, and you can find both videos embedded below. The trainings cover a number of topics, including reports, adding users, hold notification templates, and responding to text messages.
Reports
As described in the trainings above, you have the ability to view and download reports from the portal that provide information on the number of notifications sent and delivered, how many failed to be delivered, how many patrons elected to opt out of receiving notifications, and the segment count (that is, how many segments a message had to be split into if the message's character count exceeded the 160 character limit).
To access these reports, click on Reports, and then select Transactional from the dropdown menu:
The reports screen is automatically scoped to show only text messages:
You can edit the date range by clicking Custom and then clicking inside the field to the left with the dates listed:
To download a report, you will want to click the Export Results button:
This will bring up the "Transactional Deliverability Download" window. It will already have a report name automatically generated, but you can rename the report as needed/desired. Next click the Download button.
Once the download has completed, you will see the following message:
From there you can access the report be either clicking on the pictured icon with the red number and selecting Report Downloads from the dropdown menu:
Or by clicking Downloads on the reports screen.
Here you will see the available reports to download:
The reports are downloaded as a .csv file.
Viewing Sent Notifications
If you want to see a list of notifications, including the specific phone numbers and corresponding library accounts to which the notifications were sent during a specific timeframe, click Search on the reports screen:
The Search By field will default to Email, so you will want to make sure you select Phone or Library Acct. # from the dropdown menu:
You do not need to enter anything into the Search Term field (unless you are only looking for a specific phone number or library account number, in which case you would enter that number). Once you selected a date or date range, click the Search button.
You will then see a list of the notifications that were sent and to whom. If the notification was successfully delivered, under Final Status you will see "Delivered." If for some reason the notification was unable to be delivered, you will see "Failed."
You can view additional details about each notification by clicking the plus sign next to the date:
If you click the envelope icon under Preview, you will be able to see the message that was sent to the patron:
These previews remain in the system for 90 days before they are purged. (The statistics about whether or not a notification was sent, and about whether or not it was delivered, last forever.)
You can also download a report of these text notifications by clicking the Export Results button.
Failed Notifications
To view notifications that failed to be delivered, along with the reason why, navigate back to the Transactional section of the reports screen. Then click View Details under Success Rate:
This will bring up a similar chart and list of notifications as shown previously above:
Under Reason you will see why a particular notification failed to be delivered.
Reasons may include:
- "Carrier Rejected as Invalid Destination Address"
- "No route to destination carrier or no roaming route exists."
- "Timed out waiting for delivery receipt. The reason a delivery receipt was not received is not known."
- "Messaging to country forbidden"
You can find a full list of the failure reasons along with explanations for each here.
You can also download a report of these failed notifications by clicking the Export Results button.
Patron Opt Out
Patrons have the option to opt out of receiving text notifications from MessageBee, and they can do this by responding to a text notification with "stop" or "quit."
The following is an example of a patron opting out:
As you can see, they can resume receiving text notifications by responding with START.
To access this information from the portal, click on Reports, and then select Communication Preferences from the dropdown menu:
On the "Communication Preferences Report" screen, you will see a list of phone numbers that have opted out from receiving text notifications:
The red checkmark underneath SMS Opt Out? denotes that the patron has elected to opt out of receiving text notifications. (The red checkmark will disappear if the patron texts START to the library's phone number that sends the text notifications.)
Important Note: At this time MessageBee is not communicating back to the Evergreen system, so Evergreen is not going to know that a patron has opted out of receiving these text notifications. Hold SMS Notifications in Evergreen were disabled when MessageBee went live, so if a patron says that they are not receiving their hold notification text messages, you will want to check here in MessageBee first.
2 Way SMS
MessageBee offers you the ability to view and respond to messages received from patrons (e.g. if a patron responds to a hold notification asking who is sending this message). When a patron responds "stop" or "quit" to opt out of receiving text notifications, that will appear here, as well.
To reach this interface, click on SMS:
This will take you to the chat screen, where you can see messages sent by patrons, respond to them, and initiate new conversations with patrons if necessary:
To begin a new conversation, enter a ten-digit phone number (without hyphens) into the "Start a new conversation" field and click the Create button.
The icon that you previously clicked on to access your report downloads will also tell you if you have any new SMS messages:
Below you can see an example conversation in the interface:
User Management
As an admin (which all initial accounts created by MessageBee for member libraries are), you can add additional users to your library's account so that they can access the MessageBee portal, as well.
First click Admin, and then select Users from the dropdown menu:
This will take you to the "Customer" section of the Accounts page. Here you will see the users that are already configured. If the account is highlighted in orange, that means it is a local admin for the library.
To add additional users, click the Add user button, which will bring up the "Add User" window:
Enter the email address for the user you wish to add. If you want the user to be an admin, as well, check both Customer Admin and Transactional. (If you do not check either of these, the user will only have access to the reports.)
Then click the Save button.
The user will appear under Pending Invites until they have accepted the email invitation, which will look like this:
You can also edit or delete users by clicking the three dots and selecting either Manage Roles or Remove from the dropdown menu:
Manage Roles brings up the "Modify Roles" window, which lets you assign or remove the Customer Admin and Transactional roles for a user:
Remove brings up the "Confirm Remove User" window where you can delete the user:
Support
Unique Management offers a support website for MessageBee with helpful articles and training videos at the following link:
https://mbsupport.uniquelibrary.com/support/home
You can also access this site from the MessageBee portal by clicking the question mark icon:
FAQ
1. Is the notification message template customizable?
- Yes. Each library system will eventually have the ability to customize the hold notification message to best suit their needs. Until then, if they need to have changes made to their message, they should submit a help ticket from the MessageBee portal. Instructions for submitting a help ticket can be found below.
2. Can each library branch have its own unique message template?
- No. However, the current message pulls some information from Evergreen, like the branch's phone number and the patron's pickup library, so this should help clarify for library staff which message corresponds to which branch.
3. Are there any limits on the message template?
- Yes, there is a 160 character limit, and we ask that you remain within that limit. We are charged for each text notification that is sent, and if you exceed the character limit, your message will be split into two texts, so we would be charged double for each notification sent.
4. Is there a limit to the number of users that can be created for an account?
- No, there is no limit, nor are there any additional charges for creating more users.
5. When viewing messages in the 2 Way SMS screen, is there a way to tell which messages are for which branch of a library system, or are they all just system-based?
- The messages are all system-based and not separated out by branch. However, as noted above, the current message template pulls the phone number and pickup location where an item is on hold from Evergreen, so this information can be used to help determine to which branch the patron belongs.
6. When are text notifications scheduled to be sent and with what frequency?
- Currently text notifications are scheduled to be sent between 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM. They are currently on a 30-minute delay. So if the first hold becomes available at 10:00 AM, for example, a text message will be sent at that time. Then if another hold becomes available at 10:02 AM, the notification for this second hold will be sent at 10:30 AM.
7. Are the text notification schedule and frequency customizable per library?
- No. At this time they must be set for the entire consortium, rather than individual library systems.
8. When adding new users, if a new user is an admin, should both options "Customer Admin" and "Transactional" be checked?
- Yes. Transactional gives you access to the templates, and Customer Admin grants you the ability to add additional users, remove users, manage permissions, etc.
Submitting a Help Ticket
To submit a help ticket, you will want to click on the small orange icon in the bottom righthand corner of the MessageBee portal screen that says "Help":
This will bring up the "Welcome to MessageBee Support" window:
Click Contact us to bring up the help ticket form which you can fill out with your request (such as to make changes to your hold notification message template, or a patron says they are not receiving their text notifications and you are not sure why):
Once you have finished filling out the form, click Send to submit your help ticket:
Library System Phone Numbers
These phone numbers will eventually be listed in the MessageBee portal, as well.
| Name | SMS Phone |
| Alexander County | (828) 688-7658 |
| AMY Regional | (828) 688-7876 |
| Appalachian Regional | (336) 704-0241 |
| BHM Regional | (252) 623-4401 |
| Bladen County | (910) 801-2890 |
| Braswell Memorial Library | (252) 740-2051 |
| Brown Library | (252) 623-4330 |
| Brunswick County | (910) 415-4665 |
| Buncombe County | (828) 998-1752 |
| Burke County | (828) 475-5260 |
| Caldwell County | (828) 572-3307 |
| Carteret County | (252) 248-3725 |
| Caswell County | (336) 933-1704 |
| Clayton Library System | (984) 279-2242 |
| Cleveland County | (980) 404-9059 |
| Cumberland County | (910) 766-6727 |
| Davidson County | (336) 743-2050 |
| Davie County | (743) 259-0330 |
| Duplin County | (910) 714-0690 |
| Farmville Public Library | (252) 228-2355 |
| Fontana Regional Library | (828) 341-7382 |
| Forsyth County | (336) 743-2950 |
| Franklin County | (984) 320-8111 |
| Gibsonville Public Library | (336) 901-2677 |
| Granville County | (984) 293-1121 |
| Halifax County | (252) 486-4631 |
| Harnett County | (910) 242-4746 |
| Harold D. Cooley Library | (252) 220-4306 |
| Haywood County | (828) 564-1469 |
| Henderson County | (828) 595-3625 |
| Iredell County | (980) 391-8390 |
| Johnston County | (984) 201-1446 |
| Lee County | (984) 977-9465 |
| Madison County | (828) 649-7341 |
| Mauney Memorial Public Library | (980) 396-0371 |
| McDowell County | (828) 583-0858 |
| Nantahala Regional Library | (828) 346-7786 |
| NC Cardinal | (984) 375-3790 |
| Neuse Regional Library | (252) 549-0966 |
| Northwestern Regional | (336) 914-1846 |
| Onslow County | (910) 939-3650 |
| Perry Memorial Library | (252) 226-9316 |
| Person County | (336) 223-6471 |
| Polk County | (828) 722-1721 |
| Robeson County Public Library | (910) 370-1859 |
| Rockingham County | (336) 743-1106 |
| Rutherford County | (828) 351-6015 |
| Sampson-Clinton | (910) 260-5453 |
| Sandhill Regional | (910) 948-5400 |
| Scotland County | (910) 501-8563 |
| Stanly County Public Library | (980) 581-9755 |
| State Library of NC and Affiliated Government Libraries | (984) 375-3790 |
| Transylvania County | (828) 419-6151 |
| Warren County | (252) 517-9890 |
| Wayne County | (984) 305-0824 |