Notifications
How Recomly notifies advocates and referrals by email and SMS, and how to control which channels are used.
Overview
Recomly automatically notifies advocates and referrals at key moments — when someone uses a referral link, and when you mark a referral converted. You don't need to do anything to trigger these; they fire on their own.
Notifications are sent by email, SMS, or both depending on the contact information on file and the recipient's preference. Everyone needs at least one way to be reached (email or phone), but not both.
SMS availability
Email is included on every plan. SMS is available on Growth and above.
When you're on a Starter plan:
- Phone number fields are hidden on referral pages — referrals can only submit an email address
- Advocates are contacted by email only, regardless of whether you have a phone number on file for them
- Stored phone numbers are not deleted — if you upgrade later, SMS picks up automatically
How notification channels are determined
Recomly uses the simplest possible rule: notify someone on every channel you have for them (subject to their preference and your plan).
When an advocate is first invited, or a referral first submits their info, their notification preference is set automatically based on what contact information was provided:
| Contact info provided | How they'll be notified |
|---|---|
| Email only | |
| Phone only | SMS (Growth and above) |
| Email and phone | Email and SMS |
Changing a notification preference
Advocates
Advocates can update their own preference at any time from their personal portal — they'll see a simple Email / SMS / Both selector. The change takes effect immediately for all future notifications.
You can also update it on their behalf from the advocate's detail page in your dashboard, which is useful if they contact you directly to request a change.
SMS options only appear when your plan includes SMS.
Referrals
Referrals don't choose a preference on the referral form — it's set automatically from the contact info they submit, same as advocates. If a referral is later enrolled as an advocate (which happens automatically when you convert their referral), they can then update their preference from their portal just like any other advocate.
What gets sent and when
When you invite an advocate
| Who | What they receive |
|---|---|
| Advocate | An invitation with their referral link, portal URL, and the campaign reward details |
Delivery follows the advocate's contact record and your plan: email if they have an email address, SMS if they have a phone number and SMS is included in your plan, or both.
When a referral submits
| Who | What they receive |
|---|---|
| Everyone on your team | A new-lead email with the referral's name and contact details — email only, always sent, on every plan |
| Referral | A thank-you confirmation on whichever channel(s) they submitted |
| Advocate | An activity alert letting them know someone used their link |
All team members receive lead emails. Every user on your account receives a new-lead notification for every referral submission. There is currently no way to limit lead emails to specific team members or to opt individual members out. If your team is larger, consider using a shared inbox or email rule to route these to the right person.
The advocate's activity alert does not mention rewards — it's just a heads-up that someone is interested. Delivery for both the referral and the advocate follows their respective notification preferences on the channels available for your plan.
When you mark a referral converted
| Who | What they receive |
|---|---|
| Advocate | A reward confirmation showing what they earned and their updated credit balance |
| Referral | A reward notification showing their incentive, their new personal referral link, and their portal URL — because they are now enrolled as an advocate |
Both notifications are sent on whichever channels each recipient has configured (email, SMS, or both), subject to your plan.
What happens if you downgrade from a plan that included SMS
Recomly doesn't delete any stored phone numbers or preferences when you downgrade. However, SMS stops sending. The practical effects:
- Advocate with a phone number but no email — they become unreachable until you re-enable SMS or add an email address to their record
- Advocate with both email and phone who prefers SMS-only — they have an email on file, but their preference is to receive SMS. That preference is respected, so they won't receive notifications until they update their preference via their portal or you change it for them
- A warning appears on your Advocates list for any advocates in either situation so you know who needs attention
The dashboard shows warnings on your Advocates and Referrals tabs whenever any of these conditions apply, so you can act before advocates go unnotified.
Delivery failures and monitoring
Every email and SMS send is attempted and its result is logged. If a message cannot be delivered — for example, because an email address is invalid, a number is unsubscribed, or the sending provider returns an error — the send is recorded as failed and does not retry automatically.
CloudWatch alarms are configured on the Recomly infrastructure to alert the operations team when the notification error rate rises above normal thresholds. You don't need to set up any monitoring yourself. If systematic delivery problems arise (such as a provider outage), the team is alerted automatically.
If you believe a specific notification was not delivered, check the Activity tab on the relevant advocate's detail page — it shows every send attempt alongside its outcome. You can re-invite an advocate or contact them directly outside of Recomly if immediate follow-up is needed.