1. Active involvement by at least one team member

From our experience working with many NGOs, we have identified one of the key parameters of any program success is the active involvement of at least one team member from the NGO program team. Monitor the responses from users and use the feedback to improve the communication flow and structure.

2. Interact with beneficiaries besides the automated chats

For better beneficiary engagement, we suggest interacting with them at regular intervals besides the chatbot to keep a check on its effectiveness. NGOs should not leave everything on bot communication for the success of the program. You may talk to your beneficiaries at random and on a regular basis, as a health check of the program and for them to not lose interest. Getting closer to what they need is key to a successful program.

3. Transition of the program team

Having at least one person fully aware of the flows and processes makes the execution a lot more efficient. Sometimes it may happen that the team members might switch or leave the program, and a new person may take over. This is a reality that NGOs must prepare for. It may be difficult for the new person to pick things up from the last checkpoint. From our observation, there appears a dip in the progress during such changes in the organisation. We advise to do a proper transition to the new person who joins the team for handling automated communications.

4. Discuss with the community and our team

Building a strong community for support, learning and collective growth is one of our missions with building a common platform for most NGOs. Other than features and functionalities, NGOs are free to discuss their program design challenges, end-user engagement or related to content. We hope to create an ecosystem where NGOs can find support about running their program end-to-end.

5. Refer to documentation

We have created an extensive list of documents for the features and functionalities of Glific. It includes detailed steps and screenshots to make it easier for you to refer wherever the NGO may feel stuck while using Glific. Use it as much as possible. Let us know, in case you find anything confusing or something is not clear. We are constantly improving our documents based on the feedback.

6. Share the issues with us

If you come across any issues or encounter any bugs, please don’t hesitate to share them with us. We recommend spending a max of 15 minutes to figure out the issue or refer to the documentation and if you don’t find any resolution, please message us in the discord support channel. We try to respond to all queries within 24 hours and resolve the critical issues within 24 hours.

One bonus tip: Think about your program long term, you get to learn a lot more about your end-users and make your program more effective over time. Learn from engagements and tweak for more impact.

In the meantime, keep using Glific for effective and scalable communication with your beneficiaries.