SMS

Texting or Short Message Service (SMS) has proven to increase effective communication for organizations and businesses. Given how popular text messaging has become over the years, (34% of people read their text within five minutes of receiving them) it’s not hard to see that a lot of people prefer communicating via SMS. With SMS, you can engage customers quickly and in their preferred communication channel which can result in increased revenue opportunities and an improved customer experience.

Engaging Leads via SMS

Field Requirements:

In order to be engaged, each lead will need an active phone number associated with them. Conversica will search the lead contact information to identify an SMS-compatible phone number in the following order:

• Cell Phone
• Home Phone
• Work Phone

With SMS conversations Conversica combines the speed and convenience of text messaging with AI-powered conversations to conduct brief but meaningful engagements at scale.

How it Works

1. SMS-enabled conversations start with the communication channel set to Email by default. 
2. The Assistant then sends an email message asking the Lead how they would prefer to be contacted by a rep via email, text, or phone.

Note: This message conveys the proper disclosure required by the TCPA in order to receive proper consent for SMS text messaging.

3. If a Lead prefers to text and provides a phone number that is capable of receiving text messages, the Assistant will recognize this and change the communication channel from Email to SMS.
4. The Assistant then sends an SMS text message to the provided phone number to confirm that it is correct.
   • If the Lead is unresponsive, the Assistant changes the communication channel back to Email and will stop messaging the Lead. 
   • If the Lead responds affirmatively, the Assistant will continue the conversation with the communication channel set to SMS.
5. After the Lead responds with a confirmation of interest and contact details, they will be marked as a Hot Lead and the assigned Rep will be notified, along with an indication of the lead's contact details and preferences.
6. The assistant will follow up via SMS to ensure that they received everything they needed from the rep. 

Note: The AI Assistant is able to pick up explicit and implicit requests to change their communication back to Email:

• If at any time a Lead states they no longer wish to receive SMS text messaging or expresses a preference to switch back to email, then the Assistant picks up on this and changes the communication channel, and indicates the Lead's current preferences in the Lead Details
• If a Lead has indicated they wish to receive SMS text messaging but respond to the Assistant via email, the Assistant will also pick up on this and change their preferences back to Email.

To see which Skills offer conversations that support SMS, look for the RDA Skills Overview you use below. Conversations offered in SMS will be labeled so in the Channel column.

• Sales RDA
• Marketing RDA
• Customer Success RDA
• Automotive Sales RDA
• Automotive Service RDA
• Other AI Solutions

Overview of SMS  Conversation

Once the SMS conversation has been initiated, there are different actions that will take place depending on the lead's response.

• If the lead responds Yes, they want SMS, the Assistant switches to SMS and will confirm their phone number is correct in the first message. 
• If the lead responds No, they want to stick with Email, the Assistant moves them to the next exchange.

For more information on our SMS First conversation flow, review our Conversation Flow: SMS Help Center article.

TCPA Compliance:

TCPA was enacted to restrict unsolicited marketing communication, particularly through telemarketing, robocalls, and SMS Text Messaging. Customers must have proper consent to send SMS First messaging to leads. Conversica deploys text messaging through Twilio as an approved sub-processor for SMS messaging.

For more information about what TCPA is, how Conversica stays TCPA compliant, how companies can stay compliant and consent types visit our TCPA Guidelines Article

SMS FAQs

Q: What happens if a lead calls the phone number that they received the text message from?

A: We will forward the call to your main number, the number that is associated with your assistant that displays in their signature.

Q: How is Conversica managing SMS Consent?

A:  For our corporate customers, we are not managing or collecting SMS Consent.  We require our corporate customers to sign our SMS First Addendum, in which they agree to only send leads with the proper consent to SMS First Conversations.  For some of our Auto customers, we do receive and store SMS Consent.  For specifics on this, reach out to CSM.

Q: How is Conversica managing STOP requests?

A: We honor all STOP requests.  Currently, we are adding leads who send in a STOP request to our Do Not Contact list.  In the future, we will have an SMS-specific version of this list, so leads that reply STOP to an SMS message could still be emailed.

Q: Can I send a text message between countries, like from the US to Canada?

A:  We do not currently have the capability to send SMS Messages between countries.  We do have an SMS International offering that can be used to send SMS Messages from within the same country.  We currently have SMS International for Australia, Canada, the UK and the Philippines, but more countries can be added based on demand.