Text a client

Texts go from your company's business number, through the texting service your admin connected. A reply from the client lands on the same record and rings your bell.

Steps

1. Open the lead, contact, quote or order and press Text.
2. Check To shows the client's mobile number.
3. Pick a Template, or keep the Standard wording, and change the Message as you like.
4. To send pictures, tick them under the record's files. A text carries JPEG, PNG or GIF pictures, 5 MB in all.
5. Press Send.

Steps: answer a text in Messages

1. Open Messages and pick Texts, then the client.
2. To open what the text is about, press Open with the record's name at the top (for example Open Order DE-1011), or the client's name to open their contact. On the list, the small chip beside the name opens the record straight away.
3. To send pictures, press the paperclip beside the box. Tick pictures from the record's files, or press From this device (on a phone, From photos or Take a photo). Each one shows above the box; press its x to take it off.
4. Write your words (a picture may also go on its own) and press Send.

Good to know

• A text carries pictures only: JPEG, PNG or GIF, ten at most and 5 MB in all. A PDF, a video or any other file is refused in words; send it by email.
• A picture from your device is made smaller first and kept on the record's Files too, so the record and the text keep the same picture. When the text has no record, it is kept on the client's contact. A number nobody here knows has no paperclip until it is filed on a contact.
• Pictures a client texts you show in the thread in Messages. Press one to see it full size.
• The text shows on the record's Timeline under Text, with whether it was delivered. On a quote or an order it is in the Communications box at the foot of Items; press the Text chip under it to see exactly what went out.
• Replies are filed on the record the number belongs to. A text from a number nobody knows waits under Unfiled calls and texts on Settings, System, Connections, Phone.
• Every automatic text to a client ends "Reply STOP to opt out." A client who replies STOP is switched to no texts at once. See Unsubscribe and STOP.
• The Text button only shows if your role has Message clients switched on.
• Anything a client reads cannot contain an em dash. The composer warns you.
• The crew's "on my way" text is sent from their phone screen: see On my way texts.

If something goes wrong

• The send is refused: client messaging is off. Until an admin switches it on, only test contacts and the team can be texted. See Turn on client messages.
• It says no texting service is chosen. An admin connects RingCentral or Twilio first: Set up texting.
• The client never got it. Check the delivery line on the Timeline (on a quote or an order, under the text in the Communications box). US carriers filter texts from numbers that are not registered; the registration line on Settings, System, Connections, Phone says whether yours is approved.
• The client said they do not want texts. Their record shows Can text off (Does not want texts), and every text to them is refused, typed or automatic. If they replied STOP, texting START turns it back on. See Client consent.