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SMS Text Message Overview

Updated

Overview

StudioCloud provides the option for customers to either manually send sms text messages from StudioCloud by clicking a send text message button or by having StudioCloud send automated and personalized sms text messages for you. 

Table Of Contents

What format should the cell phone number be in to receive text messages?

Clients in the United States may use either of the following formats

  • Area code + local phone number
  • "+" [Country Code] [subscriber number include area code]
    • For example, to convert a US phone number (415 599 2671) to E.164 format, one would need to add the ‘+’ prefix and the country code (which is 1) in front of the number (+1 415 599 2671).

All SMS text messages sent from StudioCloud to a country outside of the United States should be formatted in the E.164 Number format.

Click here for more details regarding the E.164 number format

Which Countries Are Supported?

All carriers in the US and Canada are supported.

For limitations regarding SMS text message carriers for other countries please refer to the following link. 

Click here for list of text message carriers supported outside of the US and Canada

 

Text Message Credits Overview

You must purchase SMS text message credits before you can send sms text messages to your customers.

Please note that the purchase of SMS text messages is independent of your monthly subscription if you are a paying StudioCloud subscriber.

 

How Much Do Text Message Credits Cost?

100 Text Message Credits For $4 (0.04 per text)

 

How to View Your Text Messaging Credits

  1. Click on the Cloud Services component
  2. Click on the Your Subscription tab
  3. Click on the Manage Text Message Credits button
    1. purchase_credits.png
  4. Your text message credits are listed under the Available SMS Text Message Credits header

 

How to Purchase Text Messaging Credits

  1. Click on the Cloud Services component
  2. Click on the Your Subscription tab
  3. Click on the Manage Text Message Credits button
    1. purchase_credits.png
  4. Select the number of credits you want to purchase from the # of Credits drop-down box
  5. Enter in your credit or debit card information
  6. Once you have verified that your information is correct, click on the Purchase Credits button
  7. A confirmation window will appear and you are all set to start sending text messages.

 

How to Setup Auto-Recharge for Text Messaging Credits

This option allows StudioCloud to automatically charge your credit card on file to add more text messaging credits to your account.  These number that will be charged is based on the settings you choose and they will be recharged when your credits go below 100.  You will receive an email when your account is automatically recharged.

  1. Click on the Settings component
  2. Click on the Your Subscription tab
  3. Click the Manage Text Message Auto-Recharge button 
    1. purchase_multiple_credits.png
  4. Click the Enable Text Message Auto-Recharge checkbox
  5. Select the # of Credits to Purchase Automatically
  6. Enter your billing information
  7. Click the Save Auto-Recharge Settings button

 

How to Change the Number of Text Messaging Credits for Auto-Recharge

  1. Click on the Settings component
  2. Click on the Your Subscription tab
  3. Click the Manage Text Message Auto-Recharge button 
    1. purchase_multiple_credits.png
  4. Change the # of Credits to Purchase Automatically if desired
  5. Click the Update Billing Information checkbox if you need to update the billing information
    1. Enter your billing information
  6. Click the Save Auto-Recharge Settings button

 

How to Disable the Auto-Recharge for Text Messaging Credits 

  1. Click on the Settings component
  2. Click on the Your Subscription tab
  3. Click the Manage Text Message Auto-Recharge button 
    1. purchase_multiple_credits.png
  4. Click the Enable Text Message Auto-Recharge checkbox so that it is displayed as unchecked
  5. Click the Save Auto-Recharge Settings button

 

Custom Phone Number Overview

StudioCloud does not require that you have a custom phone number to send out text messages. However, StudioCloud HIGHLY recommends that you get one.

Without a custom phone number you will not receive any replies that a customer makes to a text message.

 

What Countries are Supported for Custom Phone Numbers

The following countries are supported at this time: 

United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Puerto Rico

 

What is the Monthly Price for a Custom Phone Number

The monthly price of a phone number is dependent upon the country due to the different cost of the phone number per country.

  • $5 Per Month For United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico.
  • $10 per Month for Australia.

 

Do Text Message Replies Cost Credits?

Yes. When a client replies to a text message it does use credits. It is 1 credit per 160 characters and, if there are any attachments, it is 1 credit per attachment.

 

How to Get a Custom Phone Number (Highly Recommended)

How to View The Manage Custom Phone Number Window

  1. Click on the Settings component
  2. Click on the Your Subscription tab
  3. Click the Custom Phone Number button 
    1. custom_phone_number.png

 

How to Subscribe to Get a Custom Phone Number

  1. (Required) Select the desired Country if it is not already selected
  2. (Optional) If a specific area code is desired enter it in the Search By Area Code field
  3. (Optional) If a specific phone number is desired enter it in the Search By Specific Number field. If the area code is selected it will only search for a specific phone number with the desired area code.
  4. Click the Search Available Numbers button
  5. Once the desired phone number is located click the Purchase button next to it

 

How to Remove A Custom Phone Number

If you remove a custom phone number you will not receive future text messages from clients.

  1. Open the Manage Custom Phone Number Window using the instructions above
  2. Click on the Remove Custom Phone Number button 
    1. remove_custom_phone_number.png

 

How to Forward Received Text Messages To An Email

  1. Go to the Settings component
  2. Click the Forward Received Text Messages button under the Received Text Messages heading
  3. Click the checkbox Forward Text Message to Email Addresses
  4. Enter one or more email addresses separated by commas that you want to receive the text messages 
    1. forward_to_email.png

 

How to Forward Received Text Messages To A Cell Phone

  1. Go to the Settings component
  2. Click the Forward Received Text Messages button under the Received Text Messages heading
  3. Click the checkbox Forward Text Message to Cell Phone Numbers
  4. Enter one or more cell phone numbers (comma separated list) that you want to receive the text messages 
    1. forward_to_text.png

How to View Sent and Received Text Messages

This tutorial explains how to view sent text messages, received text messages, and how to respond to received text messages. directly from StudioCloud. 

How to View All Of The Sent and Received Text Messages

  1. Click on Settings
  2. Click on the Text Message Credit History button

 

How to view a Text Message Conversation For a Received Text From The Overview Page

Here are the steps to view a text message conversation for a received text from the overview page:

  1. Click on the Overview Page
  2. Click on the Reply to Text button for the received text 
    1. reply_to_text_button.png
  3. Receive the previous message as shown by the yellow arrow in the screen shot below or click on the Logbook tab as shown by the orange arrow in the screen show below and review all the previous text messages 
    1. prevoius_message_and_logbook.png

How to View a Text Message Conversation For a Client When Editing The Client

StudioCloud's logbook records text messages that are sent as well as text messages that are received. To review a client's conversation you would need to go to the clients logbook history.

  1. Edit the Client
  2. Click on the Logbook tab
    1. The conversation would be listed under the Communication History

 

 

 

How to Know When A Text Message Has Arrived

All of the following options occur when a text message arrives

  • StudioCloud will display a text message popup when a text message has arrived
    • Unless the popup alert is disabled for that computer
  • StudioCloud will display the text message on the overview page
  • StudioCloud will send the text message to any email addresses setup to receive text messages.
  • StudioCloud will send the text message to any phone number that you have setup to receive forwarded text messages. 
    • Text Message Credits are used to forward a text message.
 

How to View Text Messages Awaiting A Response

  1. Click on the Overview
  2. All of the text messages awaiting a response are listed under the Text Messages Awaiting a Response header
    1. If you do not see the "Text Messages Awaiting A Response" widget you may have disabled it. Click here for how to customize the overview page.
  3. Click on the Reply to Text to send a text message back to the client.

 

How to View All Of The Received Text Messages

  1. Click on Settings
  2. Click on the View Received Text Messages button

 

How to View Text Message Attachments

Go to either the overview text message widget or the View All Received Text Messages window and click on the View Attachment button under the attachment column for the desired text message. If you do not see the text View Attachment for the text message that means that the text message did not include an attachment.

 

SMS Text Message Templates Overview

StudioCloud allows you to store SMS text message templates that can then be used to quickly create a personalized message when texting a client.

 

How to Create/Edit SMS Text Message Templates

  1. Click on the Settings component
  2. Click on the Settings tab
  3. Click the SMS Text Message Templates button
  4. Click the New SMS Text Template button to create a new template or find and edit an existing SMS text message template

 

SMS Text Message Template Fields Not Available

Sometimes you might get an error telling you that some particular template field was not available.  For example, if a template includes event and invoice information and you are generating the template from a client, then there is no event or invoice information to populate in the template.  So if you see these errors there is nothing to be worried about.  The error message is just letting you know that parts of the document template could not be populated.

 

Why was I charged multiple text message credits for a single text? (Text Message Character Limits)

A text message may contain up to 160 characters (e.g., letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces, etc...).  If a text message contains more than 160 characters then it will be automatically split into text messages with 153 characters per message.  

text_message_credit_characters.png

This is the same way that all phones treat SMS text messages. This means that a text message with 161 total characters will be broken into two text messages.  The first one will have 153 characters and the second will have 8 characters.

If the text message includes rare characters such as è, ù, Ç, å, É, etc. the text messages will automatically be split on 70 characters rather the 160. This is because a different type of text message must be used to support those characters. 

Please note, each text message will count as one text message credit.

The max text message size is 1600.

max_text_message_characters.png

Why Is More Than One Text Credit Sometimes Billed When Sending Texts?

Cell phone providers limit text messages to 153 character blocks with a max of 1600 characters overall. 

A text message credit is for a 153 text character block or 153 text characters. If you use more than 153 text characters you will use an additional credit for each 153 text characters you use. For example, if you use anywhere from 154 t0 306 text characters that would be 2 text credits. If you use anywhere from 307 to 459 that would be 3 text credits. etc.

The maximum number of text characters that you can have in a single text message is 1600 characters. 

  • Pro-Tip #1: Keep your message at or under 153 text characters to use only 1 text message credit.
  • Pro-Tip #2: Remember that if you use text fields that auto populate they can push the text message to be more than 153 characters in length. StudioCloud recommends that you factor in extra space for auto populated text message fields.

At the bottom of the text message there is a progress bar and a message that show the maximum number of characters and the currently used number of characters. Refer to the screen shot below for an example of this bar.

 

How to Setup Automatic Personalized Text Messages

CloudAlert allows you to setup automatic text messages that are automatically personalized and sent to clients.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup CloudAlert text messages to send out automatic personalized text messages

 

How To Manually Send a Text Message to a Client

Listed below are the various ways to manually send a SMS text message to a client or group of clients

 

How To Send a SMS Text Message To a Client From The New/Edit Client Window

  1. Click on the Clients component
  2. Click on the Clients tab
  3. Click either the New Client button or find and edit the desired client
  4. Click the Text menu option
  5. Click the Text Client menu item 
    1. text_client.png

How To Send a SMS Text Message To a Single Client From The List Of Clients Table

  1. Click on the Clients component
  2. Click on the Clients tab
  3. Find the desired client in the client and click the @ button
  4. Click the Send Text Message button

How To Send a SMS Text Message To a Group Of Clients From The List Of Clients Table

  1. Click on the Clients component
  2. Click on the Clients tab
  3. Select the desired clients by clicking the checkbox in the first column or go to Group Operations menu and click the Select All menu item
  4. Click the Group Operations menu
  5. Click the Communication Options menu item
  6. Click the Text Message Selected Clients menu item 
    1. text_multiple_clients_same_text.png
  7. Select the phone number from the drop down list
  8. Enter in your desired message.
    1. Note: SMS Text Message Templates are not available in this window because the same SMS text message will go out to all clients.
  9. Click on Send Text Message button

How To Send a SMS Text Message To a Group Of Tagged Clients

  1. Click on the Clients component
  2. Click on the Settings tab
  3. Click on the Manage Tags button
  4. Click on the View Clients button
  5. Select the desired clients by clicking the checkbox in the first column or go to Group Operations menu and click the Select All menu item
  6. Click the Group Operations menu
  7. Click the Communication Options menu item
  8. Click the Text Message Selected Clients Personalized Message menu item 
    1. text_multiple_clients.png
  9. Select the desired text message template.
  10. Click on Send Text Message button
 

How To Send Out Text Messages From a Marketing Campaign

  1. Click on the Clients component
  2. Click on the Settings tab
  3. Click the Manage Marketing Campaigns button
  4. Click the New Marketing Campaign button or edit the desired marketing campaign
  5. Click on the Send Options in the bottom left
  6. Click the Send Text Messages To Clients menu option

Reasons why a client may not receive the text message

When a text message is sent to a client from StudioCloud the following steps occur:

  • StudioCloud connects to their cell phone provider through our text message partner and sends them the text message.
  • Their cell phone provider then returns either a success message, which means that they received the message, or an error message which means that there was a problem sending the message.
  • StudioCloud records the cell phone providers responce

If a client does not receive a text message, it most likely means that that they didn't receive it due to one of the reasons listed below.

Reason #1 The Cell Phone is set to block messages from a specific phone number

It is easy to block a text message from a specific phone number. In fact, it is easy enough that some people can do it accidentally. This is the most common reason why StudioCloud text messages are not received.

 

Reason #2 The Cell Phone has third party software installed which blocks text messages

There are many apps that can be installed which will block text messages that aren't from someone that is already in the contact list or they can block text messages for all sorts of other reasons. Please review the apps that you have installed to verify that this isn't an issue.

 

Reason #3 The Cell Phone is having issues

Restarting a cell phone or upgrading the cell phone to the latest software can often resolve the issues.

 

Reason #4 The Cell Phone Provider is blocking the messages

Some cell phone providers offer options to block specific phone numbers, phone numbers that aren't in a contact list, spam like messages, or many other options. Please have your client check with their cell phone provider to verify that there isn't something setup that is blocking text messages.

For example, Sprint has an option that you can enable on their website or over the phone to block or restrict specific phone numbers. If a cell phone provider blocks a message they still return a "success" message to StudioCloud to protect their clients privacy. Unfortunately, there is nothing that StudioCloud can do if a cell phone provider is blocking text messages for a specific client.

 

If you do not think that above reasons apply to your situation please do the following:

Email support@studiocloud.com with the name of the client that you tried to text message, the date/time you tried to text message them, their cell phone provider, and what type of phone that they are using.