Clients and Text Messaging

How to build your Text Messaging (SMS) list

You're about to start using Text Messaging but obviously you're going to have to have some clients who want to receive the messages.  There are a few ways to include clients in SMS, and like email, they will need to confirm their subscription to make sure you're using best practices to maintain your list.

Subscribing by the Client

After you've gotten a phone number and "Use text messaging" is enabled, an additional field will appear below the field for signing up for the e-mail newsletter, which says "Your cell number".   New clients can enter their cell number in there and click Join.
If your client does not include the area code, we will add your businesses' area code to the phone number automatically, or if you only have an 800 number, we will use the area code for the phone number set up for text messaging.

A text confirmation will be sent to the cell phone number.  They will receive instructions to their phone to reply with a 1 to confirm that they want to receive text messages from your business.

In the client details, the Marketing and Booking Confirmation (oooh, what's that?  Don't worry about it yet....) check boxes will display that they are waiting for confirmation until the opt-in reply is received.

Clients can sign up for text messages and the e-mail newsletter at the same time, and your subscribe page will show the normal e-mail signup stuff along with the text message confirmation stuff at the end.

What if I already have them in my client list?

  • If the client's cell number is already somewhere in your list, the existing record will be updated, and they'll get the confirm text.
  • If the client's e-mail address is already on a client in your list, the cell number will be added. Because they might have forgotten about you, they will receive a confirmation email for participating in the e-mail newsletter, as well as their text confirmation message.

Subscribing Using Your Client List

You can create or edit client records manually to add a cell number, and the Marketing and Booking confirmation check boxes will appear.  Make sure they are checked, and then when the record is saved, a confirmation text will be sent to the cell number to allow the client to opt-in.

Subscribing - Follow Up for All Methods

There is no way to force a client to opt-in. The confirmation text is always required.

After receiving the opt-in reply from the client, a text confirming that the client has been subscribed and including instructions for unsubscribing will be sent to the client.