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Real Geeks Automated Texting - SMS Compliance

Overview

In recent years, SMS Marketing text messages have gained popularity among companies. However, this popularity has also led to an increase in reported spam text messages. As a result to increased customer frustration, major cellphone Carriers such as T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have updated their policies to regulate how businesses interact with their customers. 

Please Note

Phone carriers now require companies to register their business information before they can send text messages to their potential customers using a local area phone number. Until you complete the registration process, all texts sent through Real Geeks will use a toll-free phone number.

Learn more about the registration process.

 

How Does This Impact Me?

These changes primarily affect our automated services like Signup Autoresponders, Drip SMS, GeekAI (Robin), and Reactive Responses. If other services you have that use SMS don’t have any of these rules in place today, you should expect changes like this in the near future. Industry experts say that this will become the new normal.

What Changes Are Being Made?

In response to these policy changes, Real Geeks has implemented changes to the texting system. These changes address two of the biggest requirements from the Carriers:

Sender Identification

  • Every message sent from Real Geeks must clearly identify you as the sender. This is not required in a follow-up message for an ongoing conversation.
  • Real Geeks Response: To stay compliant, Real Geeks will append the following SMS “Signature” to every message to your lead: “- [First Name] from [site name/url]"

Example

Thank you for signing up on my website! What features are you looking for in your next home? - Michael from EZ Real Estate


Opt-Out Language

  • Carriers are requiring that the very first message sent to a lead should provide instructions that give the user an option to opt out of sms communication. Example: Reply STOP to unsubscribe
  • If you contact the same recipients multiple times per month, you don't have to give opt-out instructions in every message, but you must do it at least once per month.
  • Real Geeks Response: To stay compliant, Real Geeks will automatically include the following sentence in the initial message sent to a lead: "If you want me to only call you, reply STOP to stop receiving text messages.”

Example

Thank you for signing up on my website! What features are you looking for in your next home? - [First Name] from [site name/url]

If you want me to only call you, reply STOP to stop receiving text messages.

 

Conclusion

While these rules have been around for a while now, phone carriers have recently started enforcing them more strictly. Fortunately, history informs us that these new changes do not significantly affect communication. In fact, in 2022, Real Geeks incorporated the "STOP" language into our GeekAI and Reactive Responses messages. After closely monitoring thousands of conversations, we discovered that this additional "STOP" language resulted in only a 2% rise in opt-out rates.

Learn More

To learn more about the recent changes to carrier policies, review the links below:



FAQ

Which specific texting channels now have the signatures and opt-out language automatically added?

Only the automated ones, meaning Signup Autoresponders, Drip, Reactive Responses, and Geek AI (Robin). Standalone texts that you send directly to a lead are NOT impacted by this update.

How often are these additions included in the automated texts?

Regulations from the mobile carriers require the opt-out language only once in the very first text that goes out to leads and then once every 30 days. The text signature (agent name and company) must be included in every text until the lead begins responding. Our system is set to handle these rules automatically, so you don't have to worry about keeping track of them.

Can I turn this off?

Unfortunately, the mobile carriers require that these additions are made to any text message sent to consumers from a business platform. We made this quick change because we were starting to see the number of undelivered messages rise and wanted to ensure your critical communications were going through to your leads.

What if I've gone through the process to register my business with the mobile carriers?

The mobile carriers require the text signature and opt-out language adherence regardless of registration status.

Can I change or edit the signature or opt-out language?

Not at this time. We've taken the input from a lot of members of this community in drafting the current phrasing of the messaging in order to keep the wording as conversational as possible. We'd love to continue to gather your input for continual improvement, though, so feel free to send in your suggestions.

What if the name of my company is not correct in the signature portion?

If there needs to be an update to the way your company's name is displaying in the text signature, please shoot an email over to  that specifies what the correct format should be and we'll get that fixed for you.