Getting Started as a goHappy Admin

Welcome to goHappy. As an Admin, you have full access to everything in the platform — from sending messages and running surveys to managing users, setting up automation, and configuring your account. This guide walks you through the essentials so you can get comfortable quickly and start using goHappy with confidence.

What This Guide Covers

Logging in for the first time
Finding your company’s goHappy phone number
Navigating the dashboard
Sending your first message
Setting up automated messages (Triggers)
Using Keywords for employee self-service
Running surveys and reviewing feedback
Managing users and permissions
Setting up your notification preferences
Creating message templates

1. Logging In for the First Time

You’ll receive a setup email from support@gohappyhub.com — check your spam folder if you don’t see it in your inbox. The email contains a link to create your own password. Click it and follow the prompts to set your password and access your account.

⚠️ The password setup link expires after 72 hours. If you or a teammate don’t complete setup in time, an Account Admin can send a new password reset link from Settings → Users.

Bookmark this URL for easy access going forward: app.gohappyhub.com

You can also log in from a mobile web browser using the same URL — the layout will look slightly different but all the same features are available.

2. Your Company’s goHappy Phone Number

Once you’re logged in, the first thing to note is your company-specific phone number displayed in the top left of the screen on the main dashboard/home page. This is the number every text message will come from — whether it’s a manual message, an automated trigger, a keyword reply, or a survey. It never changes.

💡 Share this number with employees before or at launch so they know where messages are coming from and can save it in their phone. Including it in an internal newsletter, field report, or manager announcement is a great way to set expectations before the first message goes out.

3. The Dashboard

When you first log in you’ll land on the Dashboard. Before any activity has happened, it will look fairly quiet — but once you start sending, it becomes a useful home base. From the dashboard you’ll find:

Quick links to send a message or create a survey without navigating through the menu
A calendar showing upcoming employee birthdays and work anniversaries
Activity summaries that build over time as messages go out and responses come in

4. Sending a Manual Message

Sending a message to your employees is one of the most common things you’ll do in goHappy. Navigate to Messaging, select your contact type (e.g., Employees), choose your audience, and click Compose Message.

From the message composition screen you can:

Type a message from scratch
Personalize it with tokens (like employee first name)
Use a saved template
Use goCompose (AI) to help draft your message
Attach an image, file, or URL
Add a Smart Reply to collect structured responses (yes/no, multiple choice, open text, or photo). This essentially let's your employees text a response back to you, which you can see in the outbox!
Send now, schedule for a future date and time, or save as a draft

Messages can have a stamped footer showing employees how to access the keyword menu or how to opt out. Work with your implementation team or CSM so they can add this footer for you.

After sending, check your Outbox to see delivery status for every recipient — including confirmed deliveries, unconfirmed sends, failures, and opt-outs.

📖 Full guide: How to Send a Manual Message

📖 Outbox guide: Understanding the Message Outbox

5. Setting Up Automated Messages (Triggers)

Triggers are automated messages that send to employees when they meet specific criteria. No manual effort is required once they’re set up. Common starting triggers include:

Birthday — sends automatically on each employee’s birthday
Work Anniversary — sends automatically on each employee’s hire date anniversary
New Hire Welcome — sends one day after an employee’s hire date
New Hire Follow-up — sends at Day 5, Day 30, Day 120, or any interval you choose

Triggers are found under Messaging → Triggers and are only accessible to Account Admins. All triggers default to disabled status when created — nothing sends until you enable them.

💡 Tip: Get birthday and anniversary triggers set up early — they’re easy wins that make employees feel recognized automatically, every single day, without anyone having to remember. Make sure to update them once a year so the content isn't stale for your employees.

📖 Full guide: How to Create and Manage Triggers

6. Setting Up Keywords

Keywords are auto-reply messages employees can access by texting a specific word or code to your goHappy number. They’re a powerful self-service tool — employees can get instant answers to common questions any time, without contacting HR.

Common keyword examples:

BENEFITS → link to benefits enrollment info
PAY → link to the payroll portal
HR → HR contact information
HANDBOOK → link to the employee handbook
NEWSLETTER → link to the latest company newsletter
EMERGENCY → emergency protocol instructions

Messages can include a stamped footer with instructions to text MENU — when an employee does, they receive a list of all available keywords. Keep this menu keyword updated whenever you add or remove keywords.

Keywords are found under Messaging → Keywords and can be set to Public (anyone can use) or Private (contacts in your account only).

📖 Full guide: How to Set Up a Keyword

7. Running Surveys and Reviewing Feedback

goHappy makes it easy to collect feedback from your frontline employees — right to their phones via text.

Survey Types

New Hire Surveys — automated based on hire date (e.g., Day 30, Day 120). Built and activated by your goHappy Customer Success Manager.
Exit Surveys — can be automated when your HRIS feed is connected, or sent manually.
Custom Surveys — built by you, for any topic. Use a template or start from scratch.

Creating a Custom Survey

Go to Feedback → Custom Surveys → Create a Survey. The wizard walks you through choosing your audience, building questions, scheduling messages, and launching. Templates are available for common use cases like Benefits, Training, Employee Nomination, and more.

Reviewing Results

New Hire and Exit surveys have their own dashboard showing:

Participation rate (delivered vs. completed)
Overall experience score
Results by location, job title, or other HRIS fields
Individual responses with low score flags (ratings of 1 or 2)
A heatmap view by location or job title
Comment Themes — AI-grouped positive and constructive feedback

Results can be downloaded as an Excel file. Language translation is available for employees who prefer to respond in a different language.

📖 Full guide: How to Review Survey Feedback and Results

📖 Custom survey guide: How to Create a Custom Survey

📖 Survey templates: Available Survey Templates

8. Managing Users

As an Admin, you control who has access to goHappy and what they can do. Go to Settings (⚙️) → Users to view, add, edit, or delete users.

User Roles

Account Admin | Full access to everything

Super Manager | Can see messages sent by managers in their hierarchy

Manager | Limited to their assigned location or department. Admins will need to specifically assign this acces when creating a Manager User

Feature Admin | Full access within specific modules only

Adding a New User

Click Create New User, enter their name and email address, and assign their role. If adding a Manager, assign their location or job title permissions so they only see the employees relevant to them.

⚠️ Setup emails expire after 72 hours. If a new user doesn’t complete their password setup in time, you can resend the link from Settings → Users.

⚠️ User accounts are never deleted automatically — not when someone leaves the company, and not through SSO. An Admin must manually delete users who no longer need access.

📖 Full guide: Understanding User Roles in goHappy

📖 Deleting a user: How to Delete a User in goHappy

9. Setting Up Notification Preferences

Each user sets up their own email notifications independently. Go to Settings (⚙️) → Notifications to choose what you want to be alerted about and how often.

Available notifications:

Monthly account digest — a summary of all account activity from the prior month (recommended for all Admins)
Important dates — birthdays and work anniversaries (note: as an Admin you’ll receive these for the entire organization)
Survey responses — real time, daily, weekly, or monthly; configurable per survey
Low score responses — separate real-time alert when a survey response includes a rating of 1 or 2
Keyword usage — get notified when employees use a specific keyword
Opt-out digest — a regular list of employees who have opted out
Smart Reply responses — notified as employees respond to smart reply messages

💡 Recommended setup for Admins: Turn on the monthly account digest, set survey responses to weekly, and set low score responses to real time so you can act quickly on concerning feedback.

📖 Full guide: How to Set Up Email Notifications

10. Creating Message Templates

Templates save you time by storing frequently used messages that can be pulled into any send with one click. Go to Settings (⚙️) → Templates to create and manage your templates.

Give each template a name, assign a category, write your message, and choose whether it’s an Account template (visible to all users) or a Personal template (only visible to you).

Great templates to build early:

New hire welcome message
Monthly newsletter
Birthday and anniversary messages
Weather or emergency alerts
Open enrollment reminders
Incident response instructions

Templates are available in the message composer by clicking the Templates button. Managers can also create their own templates via Profile → Templates.

📖 Full guide: How to Create and Use Message Templates

Quick Reference: Where to Find Everything

Feature | Where to Go

Your goHappy phone number | Top left of the Dashboard screen

Send a message | Messaging → select contact type

View sent messages | Messaging → Outbox

Automated triggers | Messaging → Triggers

Keywords | Messaging → Keywords

Surveys and feedback | Feedback → Custom Surveys

Add or manage users | Settings (⚙️) → Users

Notification preferences | Settings (⚙️) → Notifications

Message templates | Settings (⚙️) → Templates

Need Help?

Your goHappy Customer Success Manager is your go-to resource as you get up and running. You can also reach our support team anytime at support@gohappyhub.com.