Short codes

[Brian H]

Is anyone using short codes or short numbers when texting your customers? Or are you using a service that is using them?

We are looking to add that to our communication strategy with our customers though it seems pretty pricey!!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Is it for your convenience or theirs? If your current number is a hyperlink, is it worth the extra? Or is it about saving character space in your message?

 

[Brian H]

It's more to eliminate the possible "spam" designation and have our number flagged as a spam text and not go through. This is going to happen more and more as carriers are taking action against spam texting.

The short codes are vetted and have a much higher instance of reaching the intended target.

 

[FB19087]

 

[The Great Oz]

It's more to eliminate the possible "spam" designation and have our number flagged as a spam text and not go through. This is going to happen more and more as carriers are taking action against spam texting.

Should we worry if we don't spam text?

 

[Brian H]

Should we worry if we don't spam text?

We want to use it to confirm our cleaning appointments. We were also toying with the idea of also including a picture of the lead tech. That's more than 150 per day and that much data from a single number 10 digit number can get you incorrectly flagged.

 

[Hoody]

Brian - do you guys push your appointments to a central calendar like Google Calendar, Redtail, or does your calendar system have iCal abilities?

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I have a lot of experience using these guys and they utilize shortcodes. They offer both SMS and email confirmations. You would probably need a custom plan, which they can tailor to your needs, but they've been very reliable and support is great. There are workflows and such you can set up with the system to send them to a confirmation link and you could specify technician photos on the confirmation link/page based on various parameters that you set in the workflow such as the calendar name. They can support more than 25 calendars as well and I think they'd come way under the $1000 / month price that Fred mentioned. Your office staff can log in and chat back and forth with the client if needed too.