Frequently Asked Question
Texts are Going Very Slowly
Last Updated 7 years ago
Texts being sent are over mobile networks. We have absolutely no control over the speed that the texts are sent.
If you regularly send bulk texts you may want to consider using a 2nd sim card. The first card can be used for bulk texts and the 2nd Card for shift confirmations etc.
You may also want to look at how and why you are sending bulk messages. The software is designed to use email as well as texting. The software is also designed to allow you to filter staff, both on the bookings screen and the staff search screen.
800 texts in a queue can take up to 80 minutes to send.
If the number of texts in the queue is diminishing then the texts are sending. If the number of texts is not diminishing there may be a problem with the unit or sim card. Please call our support line in the latter instance only, as texts that are sending but going slowly are out of our control. Texts going slowly could be caused by multiple things:
If you regularly send bulk texts you may want to consider using a 2nd sim card. The first card can be used for bulk texts and the 2nd Card for shift confirmations etc.
You may also want to look at how and why you are sending bulk messages. The software is designed to use email as well as texting. The software is also designed to allow you to filter staff, both on the bookings screen and the staff search screen.
800 texts in a queue can take up to 80 minutes to send.
If the number of texts in the queue is diminishing then the texts are sending. If the number of texts is not diminishing there may be a problem with the unit or sim card. Please call our support line in the latter instance only, as texts that are sending but going slowly are out of our control. Texts going slowly could be caused by multiple things:
- You only have 1 SIM card and are sending a large number of texts. Each text takes between 6-7 seconds to send, so a list of 500 texts could take up to an hour to send. If you have sent a bulk text to 500 of your staff members, the text queue will then be clogged up for at least an hour, meaning any other text you are trying to send such as booking confirmations or shift requests will be delayed by at least an hour. If you are regularly sending large amounts of texts and only have one SIM card, please consider sending us another SIM card to spread the load and help free up your text queue.
- You are sending texts that contain a large number of characters. Realistically, texts should only be 160 characters long. If you send a text that contains 250 characters, the message is broken down into two separate messages before being sent to the nurses phone, effectively doubling the amount of time it takes to send that text. Texts are broken down into multiple messages for every 160 characters that the message contains, so if you send a text with 480 characters, it will be sent as 3 messages, and so on. Consider the size of the text before you send it. If it's a long text message, you might consider sending it as an email instead. You could also try shortening the text to less than 160 characters so that it only sends as one text.
- You are sending texts to an unfiltered list of staff. While the system supports this, sending a bulk text message to a list of staff that has been unfiltered will send the text to every staff member with a mobile number on your system. If you have several hundred, or over one thousand staff members, the text queue could be clogged for up to 2 hours, or even more if the text you have sent is longer than 160 characters. Consider filtering the staff list you are sending the texts to, as you may be unnecessarily sending hundreds of texts to staff members where the text may not even be relevant to them.