If you utilize Rock RMS as a church management system, using the integration with Text In Church is a great way to keep your contacts, data, and messaging organized and up to date! 🙌 In this article, we'll cover the basics of how the integration works and common FAQs before taking the initial steps to set up the integration. Let's dive in! 🤓
Jump to:
Overview
FAQs
Overview
The integration is with "Groups" feature from Rock RMS. This allows you to create groups in Rock RMS and then select them to sync into Text In Church. You can choose to create new syncing groups in Text In Church, or connect them to existing groups. From here you can add Keyword, Connect Cards, and Automated Workflows to this Text In Church syncing Group to gather new contacts and follow up with ease.
When contacts are added to this group in Rock RMS, they will then be synced into the matching group in Text In Church. Additionally, contacts added to this group in Text In Church will be synced back to this corresponding Rock RMS group.
FAQs
What information is required for a contact to be synced from Rock RMS into Text In Church?
Text In Church can sync in the first and last name, mobile phone number, and email address of records to and from Rock RMS. In order for a record to be synced into Text In Church, they must at minimum have a valid email or mobile phone number on their Rock RMS record.
How are duplicates handled?
Within Text In Church, email addresses and phone numbers cannot be shared between contacts. This would result in duplicate messaging which can easily lead to your emails and texts being filtered as spam. If two contacts sharing the same information are attempted to sync into Text In Church, only one will be synced and the other will be designated as a duplicate. 💡 Learn more about sync failures here!
If a contact is created in Text In Church and the data matches an existing contact in Rock RMS, when the record syncs back to Rock RMS, the records will be matched up and prevent duplicates from being created in your Rock RMS account.
How are opted-out or inactive records handled?
At any time, your people can reply with STOP to opt-out of text messaging. This opt-out will only be reflected in Text In Church and will not affect their record in Rock RMS. 👉 More about opting out here...
If a record is marked as inactive in Rock RMS, the record will not be synced into Text In Church
How are Child records handled?
If a record in Rock RMS is designated with the "child" status, it can not be synced into Text In Church.
You'll want to make sure your Rock RMS Groups that are selected to sync into Text In Church only contact the actual adult contacts you want to communicate with. It is not recommended to sync an "everybody" group that could possibly contain child records since you wouldn't be communicating with the child but their parents instead. This would result in the child records being flagged as sync failures inside the Text In Church Group.
If you would like to text child records using your Text In Church account you can import a CSV file of these records to your Text In Church account.
Where should I edit or delete records?
Rock RMS will function as the master database in the integration. This means that if you need to edit a person's name or contact information or delete their record, you'll need to make this change on the Rock RMS side. The changes will then be synced into TIC.
If the change is made on the Text In Church side when the sync completes the change will be reverted so that the record matches whatever Rock RMS has on file for this specific record.
How often can I sync my groups?
At any time, you can start a manual sync which will be completed as soon as possible (depending upon how many other accounts are syncing at the same time, and how much data is currently in the queue).
You can set each of your synced groups to sync on their own schedule, either nightly, weekly on a specific night, or monthly on a specific night.
Rock RMS Integration Initial Set-Up Guide
In this guide, we'll walk through the initial steps to take so you can start using the Rock RMS Integration with Text In Church.
1. Generate an API Key in Rock RMS
Log into your Rock RMS account
Select "Admin Tools" from the left panel
Select "Security" then click "REST Keys"
On the right hand side of the page, select the little plus icon
Enter a name for the Key (example "Text In Church"), no description is required
Ensure that the "Active" check box is selected
Click on the "Generate" button to create a unique 24 character key for this integration.
Copy this Key for future steps
Click Save
2. Grant Permissions
Once this REST Key has been saved, a new user account will be created with an obscure name. This user account needs to be given permission in the Rock RMSsystem.
Open "Admin Tools" then click on "Security" and select "User Accounts"
Find the user account associated with the key. The name of the person will match the name of the key. Click on the name of the person to open the person's record.
Once you have opened the person's profile, click on "Security".
Under "Security Roles", click on the plus button.
This will open a dialog box. Select the security group "RSR - Rock Administrator". The role will be "Member."
Click Save
3. Enabling the Integration in Text In Church
Sign in to your Text In Church account
Click on Settings (Gear Icon). Click on "Integrations"
Click on the "Connect" button by the Rock RMS integration
Paste your API URL into the designated box, then paste the REST Key generated earlier
Click "Save" to continue
⚠️ If any errors are displayed during these steps view the Troubleshooting Guide here
3. Selecting Groups to Sync
Within this same page, click the "2. Select Lists" tab
Here you'll be able to search for and select groups from Rock RMS to sync into Text In Church ☝️ One important note...the system will only pull groups that have "Show in Navigation" toggled on and are "Active" in Rock RMS.
Click the left checkbox by the name to select this Group. These groups will then be created as new, syncing groups within the "Groups" section of your Text In Church account.
Select the frequency you would like this specific group to sync, either nightly, weekly, or monthly.
Set Sync Destination:
From the dropdown menu, select the destination for the sync.
You can choose from the list of existing, non-syncing Text In Church groups to connect to
Alternatively, you can select "Create New Group" to generate a new syncing Text In Church group, which will be automatically connected.
Once you've selected all the needed Groups from Rock RMS, click the "Next" button to move to the "3. Sync"
4. Running the First Sync
Toggle on the "I have received permission" so that you'll be able to send text/email to your synced people.
Toggle on the "Enable automatic sync" so that the integration will sync automatically as determined by each group's set sync frequency.
Click "Schedule Sync" to begin your first sync.
If you have a large number of people to sync, this first sync could take a few hours to complete. You can close Text In Church or continue using any other part of the application while the sync is running in the background. When completed, the synced groups within the "Groups" section of Text In Church will be populated to match their connected Rock RMS Group.
The "Last Synced" section will display the time and date of when the last sync of the integration was completed.
Next Steps: Using the Rock RMS Integration
General Syncing Groups
The Rock RMS Groups that you've selected should now be auto-generated as new, Syncing Groups in your Text In Church "Groups" Section. These groups will be designated with a 🔁 icon and the description designating where the group originated from.
Just like a non-syncing Group in Text In Church, you can set up Keywords, Connect Cards, and Automated Workflow for your Syncing Groups. Check out the guides below on how to set up and use each feature if needed:
After the first sync has been completed on your account, these Syncing Groups should now be populated with members. Additionally, if you were to add any people to this Syncing Group in Text In Church, they will be synced back to Rock RMS when the next sync is completed. ...More about what information can be synced and how duplicates are handled in the article here!
You may see that some contacts were not synced into the Group as you were expecting. In this case, you'll want to open this Group in Text In Church, then review the "Sync Failures" tab for specific information about why these contacts could not be synced. ...More about troubleshooting sync failures in the article here!
First Time Guest Follow-Up with Rock RMS Integration
As we've talked about, the way the integration with Rock RMS works is that Rock RMS is the master holder of contact details. Upon sync, any selected groups from Rock RMS will then push to into the new Syncing Group in Text In Church. Let's talk about how the integration works specifically for first-time guest follow-up. 💡
Create your API REST Key in Rock RMS and complete the initial set-up for the Rock RMS Integration, and select your guest follow-up group to sync from Rock RMS into Text In Church.
If you don't have an existing group in Rock RMS, go ahead and create one now.
Once you've selected this guest follow-up group to sync into Text In Church, decide if you want to connect it to an existing Text In Church Group, or Create a New Group.
Next, you can enable the Keyword, Automated Reply, and Connect Card for this Syncing Group so that people can text in to receive the Connect Card and be automatically added to this group.
Finally, you'll want to set up your Automated Workflow. There are 3 ways you can do this:
After that is set up, anytime someone texts in the Keyword you've assigned to that Group and/or fills out the Connect Card, they will be created as a person record in Text In Church. When the next sync completes, they will be synced into Rock RMS. If they are new to Rock RMS, a record will be created for them. If they match an existing record in Rock RMS no duplicates will be created 🤩
You can also manually add any Rock RMS records to this group in Rock RMS and they will be synced into this Syncing Group in Text In Church; the Automated Workflow messages will then begin sending to them when they are synced into the Text In Church Group.
Connecting with Youth using the Rock RMS Integration
When utilizing Text In Church’s integration with Rock RMS, it's important to note that we do not bring over any record that is marked as a "Child" on the Rock RMS side. In most instances, a child record isn’t necessary to communicate with instead of the parent of the household. Additionally, we don’t ever want texts accidentally being sent to children without parental consent, so we’ve found it to be best practice to simply not house them as contacts in our system.
However, there are instances, like a youth group record, where being able to communicate with someone under the age of 18 via text message is appropriate and permitted. It's super simple to utilize your Text In Church account to connect with any youth records that will not sync with the integration. You have two options:
Option 1: Group Member Import
If you already have an established Group inside of Rock RMS that is up to date with all of the youth phone numbers (and you know they are the teenager's number and not the parent) then the fastest option is to do an export of that Rock Group into a CSV file. This is just a few clicks and the list will be exported and ready to import into Text In Church.
The columns you want to include are First Name, Last Name, Email, & Mobile Phone Number.
Under Settings in Text In Church, you can import the list with a few more clicks, and the whole process is done in under 10 minutes! This will be a non-syncing group, so you'll want to update it once a quarter or if you notice a big influx of new youth members. When you do subsequent imports, it will match by email and mobile phone and only add new members from the newly exported list.
Option 2: Use a Keyword for New Group
If you don't want to do the quick export/import process or your records are a mix of youth and parent mobile phone numbers, you can set up a new Group inside of Text In Church that has the Keyword YOUTH. Then when members text in you can ask them to fill out the Connect Card and get their updated data on file and then message as desired inside of Text In Church.
Un-Syncing a Group and Disconnecting the Rock RMS Integration
We totally understand that there may come a time when you need to remove a Syncing Group or disconnect the Rock RMS integration from Text In Church entirely. Here are some common questions Members ask before deciding to remove a group or disconnect the integration:
What happens to People records synced from Rock RMS if I remove or disconnect the integration?
The records will not be deleted from Text In Church. They will remain in your Text In Church People section, and the designation that they were created via Rock RMS Integration will remain on their profile.
What happens to Groups synced from Rock RMS if I remove or disconnect the integration?
The Group will now be designated as Non-Syncing and the description will still indicate that this group originated from Rock RMS. It will not be deleted. Instead, it will function just like your other groups in Text In Church. The members, Keywords, Workflow, etc., will not be impacted by this change.
Because Rock RMS is treated as the Master database, if you need to fully delete a group, you'll need to do this first in Rock RMS. Then you can delete the group from Text In Church and it won't be automatically re-created upon the next sync.
How to Un-sync a Group
Sign in to Text In Church, then select the Settings icon
Select Account Settings and then Integrations
Click View by the Rock RMS Integration
Within the "2. Select Lists" tab, click the left checkbox by the Group you'd like to un-sync to unselect this Group
How to Disconnect the Integration
Sign in to Text In Church, then select the Settings icon
Select Account Settings and then Integrations
Click View by the Rock RMS Integration
Within the "1. Connect" tab, click the "Disconnect" button and confirm your selection
This will prevent data from syncing between Rock RMS and Text In Church. Data will not be deleted from Text In Church because of this change.
The previously Synced Groups in Text In Church will now be designated as Non-Syncing and the description will still indicate that this group originated from Rock RMS. It will not be deleted. Instead, it will function just like your other groups in Text In Church. The members, Keywords, Workflow, etc., will not be impacted by this change.
Having trouble? Check out this guide on Troubleshooting the Rock RMS Integration.
Still have questions? No worries! Feel free to reach out to our Member Support team at support@textinchurch.com We're always happy to help!
