Hey everyone!
The newest episode of the Genesys Cloud Community Q&A Show provides a great overview of SMS and covers some FAQs that everyone can benefit from. We are including the video and a text of the questions/answers.
SMS (texting) regulations are changing all the time, so much so, we decided to invite a Genesys expert to talk through all the hang-ups with SMS. We are happy to welcome @Amanda Logue, a Technical Program Manager, who goes through recent changes to SMS regulations, as well as upcoming ones that you should know about if you use this application regularly.
Watch the video below to learn more:
If you'd like a text reference to the episode, please see below:
1. What is the number one thing customers need to know about onboarding SMS?
The number one thing customers need to know is compliance. How they are collecting their call to action for consent to opt in. They look for the CTA to be as transparent as possible. This includes the fee disclosure, message and data rates may apply, the frequency disclosure, "message frequency may vary" along with consent provided for SMS only, meaning it cannot be lumped in with calls, emails, automated dialers, prerecorded messages. Consumers should have the right to agree to calls or emails, but not text messages. They also vet customers websites privacy policy to make sure consent is not shared with affiliates or third parties. If shared consent is necessary or if a business has subsidiaries they would have to provide the names of those companies and purpose for their outreach. They also view the website for terms of service. This includes the purpose for messaging, reply stop to opt out, reply help for more information, customer care contact information.
2. Are these requirements legal?
CTA for opt in is a requirement by Wireless Carriers. Guidelines also follow the CTIA, not only the TCPA. As fraud, spam, deceptive opt in, and harassment has increased through the SMS channels, Wireless Carriers expect all compliance requirements be met for approval. Wireless Carriers govern final approval on who they permit to use their product.
3. What are the guidelines for message content and use cases?
That's a little two fold. Message content contains the use case. There are forbidden use cases that the carriers will not approve under any circumstance. Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, Gambling, Cannabis, or Third-Party Collections
The carriers do monitor message content even after a campaign is approved and if there are any violations they will shut down the program. A recent change I've seen is a customer receiving a violation for not including "Reply stop to opt out" in their initial outbound message to consumers.
4. Are there any upcoming deadlines or changes the wireless carrier's have announced?
Yes, the carriers are requiring that all UK numbers be registered. Any newly purchased numbers will require
5. What if customers are using their numbers for other reasons other than campaigns or customer facing? Are these requirements still necessary?
Regardless of the use case the call to action for consent to opt in method must be provided. We see a lot of dev accounts, internal employee communication, single use cases like 2 factor authentication, SMS programs that are not live yet, and customer initiated only. This often confuses customers on how to provide opt in when their use case is not customer facing. There are various methods to collect opt in. For customer initiated only we need to see and know how the end user is informed on initiated the interaction such as the website, marketing material, internal communication, agent provided, etc. For programs that are not live yet we will need to see a mock up script and/or flow. For dev or demo accounts the customer can inform us in formal writing their technical team or personal mobile device end user will initiate the first text.
6. What are some of the recent changes Wireless carriers that have impacted Genesys customers the most?
August 31st they blocked traffic on all unregistered 10DLCs. On January 31st they did the same for toll free numbers. As of now all US sender types cannot sent traffic until registration has been submitted with all the requirements and the carriers approve. This is why we highly suggest customers plan ahead as much as possible and don't set a go live date until they have gained approval.
7. What does it mean if a SMS number is showing as pending in the SMS inventory?
It means registration is required. The number will not show as active until the carriers have approved their form.
8. What are the most common reasons a customer could experience outbound filtering, or message failures?
Most common reason would be their number is not registered so submitting the registration form is the first line f defense. If a customer knows they have received approval, they could experience filtering for messaging landline numbers or unreachable handsets that don't receive SMS. Their message content could be in violation as well, depending on certain URL like bitly.
9. What should a customer know about having voice and SMS capabilities?
It is highly recommended that a Genesys cloud voice number be purchased if they want voice and SMS on the same number. We can simply add SMS to a voice number with GCV or most other voice carriers by submitting a LOA to us, and that's something we provide upon request.
I did want to touch on this as well because of it's importance. Customer should know that that if they are ever moving SMS from one carrier to us, there will be a brief outage on the SMS traffic that they should prepare for. We do our best to work around business hours and keep it as minimal as possible. The longest outage could be up to 3 days, but typically it's between hours or 1-2 days. It depends on the losing carrier approve the release as well.
10. What should a customer do if they have a go live date for SMS, but their numbers have not been approved by the wireless carriers or there is a back log somewhere in the process?
Unfortunately, all we can do is wait. There is a pretty minimal escalation process to gain approval. The best way to have the fastest approval turn around time is to read through the email template explaining the carrier requirements and proactively meet those requirements prior to submitting the form back t us. Once a form is submitted with missing information or inaccurate, it really creates a snowball affect or delays. Customers can reach out to their account team and/or submit a customer care ticket. Our peers have various ways of contacting us. We are a very small team right now doing our best to adapt to the changes the carriers have put in place. These changes happened so fast even the carriers are still working on updating their documentation to reflect these changes, as are we. That's why I'm so happy to jump on camera and have this conversation with you!
11. How can a customer get more information or additional support since your product has grown faster than your team? (It grew 500% in the past year and we are working out the logistics of staffing.)
Since this is all manual for us, the work load drastically increased since we have to communicate the changes the best we can, meet with our customers, and manually submit registration for all US & Canada numbers since the numbers have been blocked until approval. I recommend contacting their support team, partners, or submitting a care ticket. We are working on improving the process, we are under no delusion that this has been difficult for our customers. We are continuing to do the best we can and looking forward to an enhanced process just as much as our customers.
Reference Links to the episode:
Genesys Online Community https://community.genesys.com/home
Genesys Resource Center: https://help.mypurecloud.com/
Genesys Knowledge Network (GKN): https://know.genesys.com/
#CommunityVideos(TAM,QA,etc.)
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Matt Lawson
Genesys - Employees
Online Community Manager
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