Answer parents and guardians one to one

Replies land in one inbox, and the right person in the office can pick each one up.

What this helps you do

Conversations are your one-to-one messages with an individual, both replies you receive and messages you start. Replies arrive on two rails, Blasts and email, and land in the same inbox. Your team sees who is replying to whom right now, can assign a thread to a colleague, and keeps private staff notes on each person. Everything with one person stays together in a single thread you can find again by searching their name, email or a word from the message.

When to use it

Use it for the question only one family has: a different pickup on Thursday, whether a form was received, an absence the office should know about, a question about a fee, or a private follow-up after something that happened during the day.

How to do it

  • Open Conversations.
  • Read replies as they arrive, or click New conversation to message anyone connected.
  • Reply in the thread; the Hub answers on the rail the person uses, Blasts or email.
  • Assign a thread to a teammate when someone else should take it.
  • Open the person's page for their history, RSVPs, household, and staff notes that are never shown to the person.
  • Search by name, email, or message text to find any thread.

Example

After the early-dismissal Blast goes out, a parent replies that a grandparent is collecting today and is not on the pickup list. It appears in Conversations. The office manager assigns it to the front desk, who confirms what the family needs to bring, and the thread stays with that family if they write again.

Good to know

  • Replies can be turned off per Blast, for example on a calendar notice; a reply to such a Blast is marked so you know the context.
  • A Coordinator only sees replies from the audiences they are granted.
  • STOP and START are handled automatically on both rails, and the person's page shows their opt-out state.
  • Receiving is free for families; a reply they send uses their own Blasts credits, never the school's.
  • Staff notes on a person page are private to your Hub team and are never shown to the family. Anything that belongs in the student's official record belongs in the systems that keep it, not here.

Do it in your Hub

Inside your Hub, Help shows this same article next to the screen it describes. Sign in at directtoparents.com or right here.