Proactive messaging allows brands to send messages to consumers without them having to initiate the conversation first. This can be done through a variety of channels, such as SMS, WhatsApp, and the In-app Messaging channel.
Use LivePerson's new proactive two-way messaging tool to easily target your brands customers with outbound communications either individually or as part of a bulk campaign. This simple and easy to use proactive two-way messaging tool allows you to customize your brands outbound messages, define their target customers, and route responses back to our messaging platform.
This is a simple, easy to use solution for engaging customers fully in the channel of their choice.
An example of a Proactive message.
Consumer responses are routed into the LivePerson agent workspace, where conversations can be handled by humans, automation, or a tango of both. This enables brands to increase their ability to connect with a targeted consumer base; higher probability of achieving goals; richer personalized consumer experience, while utilizing LiveEngage capabilities.
Before sending any Proactive messages, brands need to ensure that the recipients of these messages have explicitly consented to receive outbound communications for that specific channel. For more details, please refer to each channel's policies:
Activate Proactive Tool
You must activate the tool for your brands Conversational Cloud account.
Click Proactive Messaging. The Activate messaging page appears.
Click Activate. The Legal Agreement dialog appears.
Click Agree. The Proactive Messaging page appears.
The Proactive Messaging tool is now successfully activated for this account.
Landing Page
Users will see a list of the most recent proactive campaigns. This includes campaigns created by all users who have access to the tool. Within the list, user can see the campaign details such as campaign title, messaging channel i.e. SMS or WhatsApp, the number of recipients the message was sent out to, the launch date and the status of whether it was successfully delivered or failed.
The landing page also shows high level metrics including:.
- Success rate - Percentage of total sent messages that are successfully delivered to the selected messaging gateway. In the future, this will represent those delivered to the consumer.
- Response rate - Percentage of the number of messages that get response over the total number of messages successfully delivered to the messaging gateway.
- Opt-outs - The number of consumers who opted out from receiving messages over the total number of consumers who received the Proactive outbound messages.
Analytics Page
Users have the option to click on Analytics tab to access the reporting metrics for Proactive Messaging. The current metrics are aggregated data at the brand level and not per campaign level.
Metrics per campaign level will be coming soon.
The data can be filtered on this page by:
- Date range - select a date range from MM/DD/YYYY to MM/DD/YYYY.
- Quick date range - select Today, This Week, This Month, Last 30/60/90 days, or Year to date.
- Skills - by default all skills are select but you can also select a single or a set of skills. When data is filtered by skill, the date range is defaulted to the full date range for the brand i.e. from the day they onboard to current date.
These are the metrics available:
- Success rate - Percentage of the number of messages successfully delivered to the messaging gateway over the total number of messages sent. Soon, this will be updated to be the percentage of the number of messages successfully delivered to the consumer over the total number of messages sent.
- Response rate - Percentage of the number of messages that get response over the total number of messages successfully delivered to the messaging gateway.
- Delivery Status - This chart shows the total number of messages sent, the number of messages successfully delivered to the messaging gateway i.e. SMS-Twilio or WhatsApp and the number of messages failed to get delivered.
- Response Status - This chart shows the total number of messages delivered, the number of messages delivered that got a response and the number of messages delivered that did not get a response.
Messages Sent - This chart shows the number of messages sent (success vs failed) per month/day and the number of responses per month/day. Message Sent chart reflects the data either on a daily basis when filter is for 2 or more days or hour basis when data is displayed for 1 day.
Create a Proactive Campaign
Click on New Campaign on the landing page and follow the 4-steps.
Step 1: Compose Message
- Campaign Name: Create a clear name including date (e.g., "NA Subscription Renewal Expiring 12/31/2019"). This helps track campaigns and sets context for agents.
- Channel: Choose your delivery method (SMS, WhatsApp, or Prioritized - starting with WhatsApp and falling back to SMS). Select the specific sending number for this campaign.
- Route to Skill: Assign a relevant agent skill to handle incoming customer responses (search available skills for the best fit).
- LookBack Period: Select the period duration from the dropdown menu, click the checkbox if you want to route all conversations to selected skill within lookback period.
- Message Preview: Provide the primary message template to be sent from the brand.
- Message Preview Second: Provide the secondary message template to be sent from the brand.
Once done click Next. The Define Recipients step appears.
Step 2: Define Recipients
Users can define recipients by two different methods:
- Upload CSV: For a large list, upload a CSV file containing one recipient per line. Each phone number must start with the country code, followed by the area code (e.g., US number: 1XXXXXXX). The tool accepts various formats (16001234567, +16001234567, 1(600)1234567, +1(600)1234567).
- Variable Message Support (CSV only): If using message templates with variables for WhatsApp, include a separate column in your CSV for each variable's value, immediately following the phone number column.
- Manually Enter Numbers: For smaller lists, enter phone numbers directly. Include country code and area code as mentioned above. You can also define a different message for each recipient by separating variable values with commas after the phone number.
Important Notes:
- There's a 140-character limit for messages, including the opt-out text.
- Use the "Parse" button after defining recipients to preview the message for each number. This helps identify any errors (highlighted phone number) before sending.
- If uploading a CSV with errors, you'll need to edit the file externally and re-upload it. The tool doesn't allow in-app editing.
Once done click Next. The Receiving Window step appears.
Step 3: Schedule Campaign
Delivery Window: Set the preferred time frame for recipients to receive messages based on their time zone (determined by phone number country code/area code). The default window is 8 AM to 9 PM in their local time. Messages received outside this window are queued and delivered when the window opens. For example, a 6 PM PST campaign sending to an EST recipient (currently 9 PM EST) will be delivered at 8 AM EST the next day.
Once done click Next. The Preview & Launch step appears.
Step 4: Preview & Launch
Users must check the box which states that they are responsible for collecting opt-in consent from consumers before reaching out to them and legally abide by the TCPA and GDPR compliance laws.
The final step is to review the details of the campaign before publishing, including the skill routing, the opt out text, the message content and the recipients.
Once done, click Publish. The confirmation dialog appears.
Click, Yes, send.
The campaign is created and published.
Customizing Messages Per Recipient
Whether users select SMS or WhatsApp, they can customize the message content per recipient.
Via typing in directly
- SMS
- 12223334444, Hi Jane your subscription is about the expire …
- 12223334445, Hi Bob, your subscription is about to expire ...
- For WhatsApp message template with two variables “Hello {{1}}, your credit card ending in {{2}} is about to expire. Would you like some help with renewal?”
- 12223334444, Jane, 9999…
- 12223334445, Bob, 8888
Skill Routing
- Skills need to be set up first in the LiveEngage Platform in order for them to be available in the Proactive Messaging tool.
- Proactive Messaging 2.0 will automatically show existing skills from LiveEngage. The context of the initial outbound message will be part of the conversation transcript when the consumer responds.
- For Proactive 1.0, any skills you’d like to show on Proactive tool must be manually added. Please reach out to your account team and get the skill added. Once the skill is available to use, it will show up in the "skill" dropdown list on the proactive tool. On Proactive 1.0, the context of the initial outbound message will show up in the SmartConnect widget.
Reporting
There is an analytics section built into the tool. Users can access this by clicking on the "analytics" tab. These metrics are aggregated for the entire brand/siteID.
The proactive Web tool has two dashboards for reports:
To access the account-level Analytics dashboard, click Analytics tab on the main Proactive Web tool.
To access this dashboard, go to the main Campaigns list page and click on the specific campaign. Next, click the Analytics tab.
In addition, brands can get deeper insights by using Outbound Reporting APIs.
Downloading Reports
On the landing page, an ellipsis next to New Campaign can be found that will allow users to download the details of all campaigns created from the date of the particular account/siteID.
If the user clicks on a proactive campaign to view the details, there is also an ellipsis to download the detailed list of all recipients and messages in that campaign.
Receiving incoming messages
- When a consumer responds to an outbound message created from Proactive Messaging tool, a conversation is created within LiveEngage and is routed to an available agent with the assigned specific skill to which the Proactive campaign was created.
- The context of the initial outbound message will be visible to the agent as part of the conversation transcript if the brand is onboarded to Proactive 2.0. If the brand is on Proactive 1.0, the initial outbound message is visible through an agent widget.
Opt Out/In
- Opt In: Brands are required to collect the opt-in consent from the This is managed by the brand entirely.
- Opt-out: SMS opt out is handled through Twilio pre-built opt out standards, and WhatsApp opt out is supported through the "block" in-built function. In future, we will have a LivePerson owned opt out feature.
Limitations
The following are the known limitations for Proactive Messaging:
Campaign Size:
- Text Area: The message body is limited to 100 lines.
- Manual Phone Numbers: You can add a maximum of 100 phone numbers directly (use a CSV file for larger lists).
- CSV File Upload: Currently limited to 1,000 recipients (increased to 100,000 coming soon).
Channel Specific:
- Prioritized Channel:
- No opt-out text included in fallback SMS messages.
- SMS:
- Character limit of 140 characters (messages exceeding this will be split into multiple texts).
- Multiple variables within SMS messages are not supported when creating campaigns in the UI.
- Canadian Phone Numbers: Proactive Messaging cannot currently verify mobile or landlines for Canadian numbers, leading to delivery failures. Contact LivePerson for a workaround.
Other Limitations:
- Sending messages will fail if the recipient already has an open conversation.
- WhatsApp rich templates are not supported for the "Prioritized" channel.
