SMS Configuration

What it is

SMS Configuration decides which of your phone numbers a text message is sent from. That is the number your customer sees on their phone, and the number they text back. The page has four cards.

At the bottom of the page there is a read-only How It Works card that repeats the rules in short form, with a worked example. It is a handy sanity check after you change something.

Before you start

• You must be an admin. Team members without admin access will not see this page in Settings.
• Your numbers must be Active. Only numbers showing the Active badge on Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers can be picked here. If one is missing, open that page and click Activate on its row.
• Name your numbers first. On Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers, click the Friendly Name cell on a row and type something like "Main Line" or "Miami Office". The name shows next to the number in every dropdown on this page, and picking the right one from a list of bare numbers is guesswork.
• Create your service types first. The second card lists only service types that are marked Active under Settings›Pipeline›Service Types. If the card says "No active service types found", go and add them there before coming back.
• Finish your phone registration. Texting only starts working once your registration is approved under Settings›Channels›Phone Registration. This page will happily save settings before that, but no message will actually go out.

Step-by-step

Set the default number

1. Go to Settings›Channels›SMS Configuration.
2. In the Default SMS Number card, under Default From Number, click the box that says Select number....
3. Use Search phone numbers... to find your main business line and click it. Each option shows the number, then a dash, then its name.
4. Click Save. You will see "Default SMS number saved successfully".

Pick a number somebody actually watches. This is where texts to your field workers always go, and where every message lands when no other rule matches.

Give a service type its own number

1. Scroll to the Service Type SMS Numbers card. Each of your active service types has its own row.
2. Click the box next to a service type — it reads Select number (optional)... until something is chosen.
3. Search for the number you want and click it.

Leave a row blank if that service should just use whatever the rest of the rules decide. You do not have to fill in every row, and most companies only fill in one or two.

Choose the order the rules are tried in

The SMS From-Number Priority Order card splits your customers into three situations and lets you order the rules separately for each one:

• Single Lead — the customer's phone number is attached to exactly one job.
• Multiple Leads — attached to two or more jobs.
• No Leads — the number is not attached to any job at all.

(If your company renamed "Leads" to something else, these headings use your own wording.) Inside each situation you will see numbered rows with up and down arrows on the right:

• Service Type SMS Number — the number you mapped in the card above, for that job's service type.
• Last Interaction Number — the number this customer's existing message thread is already using.
• Default SMS Number — the fallback you set at the top of the page.

1. Click the up or down arrow on a row to move it. There is nothing else to press — each move saves on its own and shows "SMS priority order updated".
2. Repeat for the other two situations if you want them to behave differently.
3. If you make a mess of it, click Reset to Default in the top-right corner of that card to put all three lists back the way they started.

Out of the box, a customer with one job gets their service type number first; a customer with several jobs gets the number they were last messaged on first; and a customer with no jobs only has the last-used number and the default to fall back on.

Set the message sounds

1. Scroll to Sound Preferences and turn on Enable Sounds. The rest of the card is hidden until you do.
2. Pick a chime for Message Sent, Message Received and Notifications. The options are named things like Pulse, Pop, Swoosh, Ding, Chime, Note, Bell, Tri-tone and Popcorn.
3. Click the small play button next to a dropdown to hear it before you commit.
4. Under Internal Chat Sounds, do the same for @Mentioned, Reply to Message and Reaction — these are the sounds for your team's internal chat, not customer texts.

Common mistakes

• Renaming a service type after mapping it. The mapping is tied to the service type's name. If you rename "Garage Door" to "Garage Doors" under Settings›Pipeline›Service Types, the mapping quietly stops matching and those customers drop through to the next rule. Come back here and set the number again on the renamed row.
• Forgetting the Save button on the top card. The service type rows save themselves; the default number does not. Choose a number, then click Save.
• Leaving the default number empty. With nothing saved, messages fall back to whichever active number happens to be first in your list — which is rarely the one you want customers calling back.
• Mapping a number that has been switched off. A number deactivated on Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers disappears from the dropdowns here, but an old saved mapping can still be pointing at it. Re-check your mappings whenever you retire a number.
• Expecting an inactive service type to appear. Only service types marked Active are listed. Reactivate it first if you need to map it.
• Expecting field workers to follow the priority order. They never do — texts to a field worker's number always use the Default SMS Number, whatever the lists say. The card itself carries this warning.
• Assuming a long-running customer will switch numbers. Once a message thread exists, the Last Interaction Number rule usually keeps that customer on the number they already know. That is deliberate. If you need them moved, move that rule below the service type rule for the relevant situation.
• Changing sounds when you meant to change your own. The sound card is company-wide.