Texting consent
- No text goes out without texting consent on file. The database checks when the text is written and again when it is sent.
- Consent is recorded when the caller agrees on the phone-call form. Email leads and imported contacts come in without it.
- Every text ends with "Reply STOP to opt out."
- A reply of STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT records that they opted out. START or UNSTOP records that they opted back in.
The Messages page
Messages is the outbox: every email and text, with its status (Queued, Sent, Delivered, Failed, Blocked or Received), who it went to and who sent it.
- A text Blocked for "No SMS consent on file" or "No phone number" shows Send by email instead: the same words by email. With no email on file, call the customer. A blocked alert to a colleague doesn't offer it.
- A Failed message shows Try again. On a colleague's failed alert, only the person it concerns, someone who manages people, or the app itself can press it.
- The number next to Messages in the sidebar counts blocked texts and emails nobody has dealt with.
- The warnings about your own account (a sign-in from a new device, a lockout, a two-factor reset) appear here as Security warning, to you alone: nobody else in the company sees yours, and nobody can edit, cancel or resend one. Every person sees their own; see Sign-in protections.
Write a text
Compose a text: pick the customer, a template (Estimate ready, Proposal follow-up, Crew on the way, Rain delay, Job complete, Invoice or Maintenance reminder) and edit the message, up to 1,600 characters. A customer without consent is flagged before you send.
You need "Text and email customers". Estimators see and text only their own leads' customers. An "Estimate ready" text about a quote over your sending limit is refused.
Where a template shows (your quote link) or (your pay link), pressing Send text checks which estimate or invoice it stands for, and the background worker makes the customer's real link at the moment it sends the text. The stored message holds only the placeholder, so a working link never sits in the Outbox, and a link that has gone out belongs to that one message for good. The quote link is offered when the customer's latest estimate was sent from the Estimates page and is still waiting for an answer, to people who may send estimates. It opens the estimate exactly as it was sent. The pay link is offered when the customer owes money on an invoice, to people who may send invoices. The Job complete text asks for a review without a link.
Texts about the schedule
When a job gets its date, the customer is texted, with consent. A customer gets at most one date text per job per day: a later change that day alerts the team to call them instead.
What makes texts and emails go out
Texts go through your company's Twilio number, and one phone number belongs to one company only. Emails go out from each brand's sending address. Until these are connected, nothing reaches a customer. See Connections.