When a parent replies to an Official Note sent through OnBoard there is no way for our admissions team to be notified of the reply. Currently they must scroll through the list of Official Notes (no archive function, either) to see if a notification has been replied to.
Hi Sarah - is there a way to add an email notification to admissions staff or managers when a parent replied to an offical note?
Hi All, new this morning, is the ability to filter your official notes by unread parent responses only. We've also highlighted unread parent responses in green so that they are easier to see right away.
thanks,
Sarah
As we head into admissions season I wanted to see if there has been any movement on this. Also can we include last names in the notifications?
This continues to be a huge gaping flaw in official notes. It's been almost four years since the original post.
The model for this should look like the BB Case Central system. A support tech enters a response into the case notes, I get an email notification. I can either click through to Case Central, or reply to the email. My email response is automagically entered into the case notes.
I have been voicing this for two years now!
Dear Blackbaud, this is a very serious issue and a major design flaw. Please consider finding a solution! I can't believe this has been happening since 2015! Yikes! We just started using your product and have already missed messages from parents.
I just noticed these today - new to system - and had to apologize to a parent that I had not seen it earlier. There were missed steps because I did not realize that the family had responded in the Official Notes. I am curious how many others I have missed and PLEASE make a change to this so that our professionalism is consistent.
Our admissions staff send out many official notes regarding missing checklist items and acceptances. When parents reply to the official note email, our admissions staff get an email in their email inbox which works effectively. However, when a parent replies to the official note directly within the app, there is no notification to the admissions staff that a reply was received. With so many official notes in their box, the reply gets buried, and the staff doesn't realize it is there. Parents then call wondering why we didn't respond which makes it appear that we are not effective. Just how a staff member can set their notifications to receive email/text whenever a message is posted, it would be very helpful if they could sign up for official note notifications as well.
I agree with everyone else's sentiments. Our office just started using onBoard this year and have been using official notes to send out reminders of what is missing in a file and also to keep a record of that communication. However, when they respond within the portal, we have no way of knowing that and only have stumbled upon a response "accidentally" when going back into a candidate's record. There should be a way to "ping" the staff member who sent the original message to the family OR the option to ping as many people you want in the office so those important communications do not get lost. You can't even scroll back past say maybe 20 notes to even check if there were any missed. Going into a message ONE BY ONE to check if there have been a response or not from the family is not very efficient and a waste of our time. Please fix this very important gaping hole in functionality. Thank you.
I have not only voted for this, I've expressed my desire for this many times when speaking to BB support staff. The feature of official notes is such an efficient way to communicate with parents and candidates but such and extremely inefficient method to receive a response to the notes. If we receive notification that we have an official notes with the number of notes in red in the menu bar, I cannot understand why we can't get a copy of the response in an email to our email address. Or at least have these unread response sort to the top of the list.
notification of a parent's comment is of paramount importance in delivering excellent customer service - this functionality for notification must be addressed immediately.
This is a major problem with the system and creates extra steps in checking for daily communications.
I really don't understand the point of the official notes notification area if it does not alert you to comments on official notes from parents. Shouldn't that be the primary group this feature is serving in OnBoard? We really need this functionality built into the system.
Agree! Here is a comment from a candidate parent: "I had thought it would be most effective to reply directly through that Portal as opposed to a separate email." Not so if we do not get notified of the reply.