Setting Up Text Messaging and Opt-Outs

Availability: all plans

Text conversations work once you give ServiceVisit the phone number your messages are sent from. This guide covers that setup, what happens when a customer replies with a stop word, and why a text can be blocked.

Before you start

Viewing the SMS settings and changing them are two separate permissions. If you can see the section but cannot save, ask the person who administers roles on your account. The sending number must be in international format starting with a plus sign, and the country is fixed to the United States.

Steps

Open Settings, then the Notifications page, and find the section titled SMS Notifications.
If the section instead says that SMS messaging is temporarily disabled and to contact support, text messaging is switched off across ServiceVisit and you cannot set it up yet.
Turn on Enable SMS Notifications.
In From Phone Number, enter your number in the form shown in the example, a plus sign, the country code and the digits. The field is required, and the text beneath it says this number appears as the sender of all your SMS messages.
Read Default Country. It shows United States (+1) and cannot be edited. It is used to read customer numbers entered without a country prefix.
Choose Save SMS Configuration.
Check the blue Current Configuration box. It shows Status, From Number, Country Code and Last Updated. If you see SMS Not Configured, nothing has been saved yet.

Tips

Once SMS is on, the same page lets you choose which channels customers are notified through, including SMS, as a default and for each type of notification. Where SMS is unavailable that choice is shown as unavailable.

The page notes that SMS requires an active subscription with SMS capabilities and that standard SMS rates may apply.

How stop words work

When a customer texts one of these words alone as the whole message, ServiceVisit treats it as an opt-out: STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT. The customer's number is recorded as opted out for your account, no conversation is created for that message, and later texts to that number from you are blocked. Texting START, UNSTOP or SUBSCRIBE records an opt-in again, and that message is added to the conversation. HELP and INFO are recognized and logged.

Before any text is handed to the carrier, ServiceVisit checks its suppression list. A text to a blocked number is recorded as suppressed rather than sent, and it is never marked as sent.

If something goes wrong

A reply in a text conversation is not delivered: the customer may have opted out, or the number may be suppressed. The conversation page gives no warning of this before you send.
You cannot save: the number must start with a plus sign and be valid, and a number is required before SMS can be turned on.
You see only the disabled message: contact ServiceVisit support.

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