Here are a few common reasons why people who text in a Workflow keyword may not receive the expected response..
1. They did not text in the correct keyword
One important thing to remember is that when you set up keywords to activate a Workflow, one of those keywords must be texted in exactly and alone in order to trigger the Workflow. For example, if you set up a Workflow that is triggered by the keyword "volunteer," then only the text "volunteer" will trigger it. "I want to volunteer," I volunteer," or "volunter" will not activate the Workflow.
Check if the contact is texting in the wrong keyword- keywords are not case sensitive, but spelling and punctuation does matter.
One way to try and make sure as many people as possible successfully activate the Workflow is to set up a variety of keywords to trigger it. You can add as many keywords as you'd like, so get creative. Add variations of the word, misspellings, or even full sentences! You could set your volunteer Workflow up to activate from "volunteer," "volunteering, "volunteers," "volunter," "I want to volunteer," etc.
2. They are already enrolled in the Workflow
Another common reason people may text into a Workflow and not receive a response is if they are already enrolled in it! If you go into the Workflow and click on the Subscribers tab, you'll be able to see a list of anyone currently active in the Workflow, and what step they are on. If someone is currently In Progress, that means they are already enrolled in the Workflow and cannot restart it by texting in the keyword again.
If you'd like them to restart, they'll either have to wait until they are Completed, or click the trash can icon to remove them from the Workflow so they can re-enroll.
If someone has already completed the entire Workflow and is marked Completed, that person will be able to text in the keyword again and go through the Workflow a second time.
3. There is a mistake in the Workflow's configuration
Rarely, there can be an issue with the way your Workflow is configured that prevents people from receiving messages. This misconfiguration generally happens if changes are made to the Workflow upon setup, and the system gets confused on the order of things. Fortunately, this misconfiguration is easy to spot and fix.
Workflows can contain different types of steps like sending a message, adding people to a group, notifying a team member, etc. Regardless of how many administrative steps (add to group, notify team member, etc) there are at the beginning of a Workflow, the first step to send a message is always supposed to send immediately. This is shown by the dual callouts in the Workflow step like the one below - "Send Immediately" on the left side, and "Send a text" in the black bar.
Then, if you have future texts configured in the same Workflow, they will show a slightly different message, like the screenshot below - "Send X Days Later" on the left side, and "Send a text later" in the black bar.
What can occasionally happen is that the first step of the Workflow will correctly show "Send Immediately" on the left side, but will be misconfigured and show "Send a text later" in the black bar. If this happens, the system will get confused by the mismatch and not send the first text like it is supposed to.
If you notice this misconfiguration has happened and people aren't receiving the first text of the Workflow, simply delete the step, recreate it, and ensure the messages match ("Send immediately" and "Send a text") and everything will work correctly! You'll have to go to the Subscribers tab as well and delete everyone from the Workflow, then tell those people to text back in a second time to reactivate it.