Phone Messaging Policy

All messaging transmitted via the platform - regardless of use case or phone number type (e.g., long code, or toll-free) - need to comply with the Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging. All A2P messages originating from the system are subject to this Messaging Policy, which covers messaging rules and /or prohibitions regarding:

Consent (“opt-in”): Consent can't be bought, sold, or exchanged. For example, you can't obtain the consent of message recipients by purchasing a phone list from another party. And SMS should only be sent to the opted-in contacts.Revocation of Consent (“opt-out”): The initial message that you send to an individual needs to include the following language: “Reply STOP to unsubscribe,” or the equivalent so that Individuals have the ability to revoke consent at any time by replying with a standard opt-out keyword.Sender Identification: Every initial message you send must clearly identify you (the party that obtained the opt-in from the recipient) as the sender, except in follow-up messages of an ongoing conversation.Messaging Usage: You should not be sending messages in any way related to alcohol, firearms, gambling, tobacco, or other adult content.Filtering Evasion: As noted above, we do not allow content that has been specifically designed to evade detection by unwanted messaging detection and prevention mechanisms. This includes intentionally misspelled words or non-standard opt-out phrases which have been specifically created with the intent to evade these mechanisms. We do not permit snowshoeing, which is defined as spreading similar or identical messages across many phone numbers with the intent or effect of evading unwanted messaging detection and prevention mechanisms.

This policy applies to all customers who use Shop Launch - Phone messaging services to safeguard their messaging capabilities and services.

How We Handle Violations?

When we identify a violation of these principles, where possible, we will work with customers in good faith to get them back into compliance with the messaging policy. However, to protect the continued ability of all our customers to freely use messaging for legitimate purposes, we reserve the right to suspend or remove access to the platform for customers or customers’ end users’ that we determine are not complying with the Messaging Policy, or who are not following the law in any applicable area or applicable communications industry guidelines or standards, in some instances with limited notice in the case of serious violations of this policy.

1. Ramp-Up Model:

Every new sub-account (from April 20, 2022) that are on LC - Phone System going forward will follow the "Ramp Up Model".The SMS limit is multiplied each day by the number of days (till the 7th day) the location has spent with us. Starting the 8th day the location will have the limit set to 5000 SMS/day. Below is the table which will give you a detailed idea:

DayLimit [SMS]1-250, 2-500, 3-750, 4-1000, 5-1250, 6-1500, 7- 1750, 8th Day & Ongoing 5000

Please Note: The daily counter resets every day at midnight 00:00:01 AM UTC. If the limit is reached before the rest time the account is locked for the rest of the time period.

Why the change?

LC - Phone policy was implemented to:

Avoid SMS Spam blasts from fake signups. New accounts - Phone will follow the Ramp-Up ModelAvoid getting accounts blocked due to suspicious activityAvoid legal actions due to increased spamming to non-consenting customers. Only bulk SMS sending will have daily limitations to avoid sub-account suspension due to non-compliant messaging activity.

What error screens or notifications will a account see during a violation

Conversation Error: You have exceeded your SMS sending limit.Bulk Action: You are allowed to send 5000 message(s) in a day. You have already sent 5000 message(s). If you wish to proceed, 1 Message(s) will be failed.

Spam Message Handling:Each of the messages sent out from the sub-account ends up with the following 4 statuses:

Sent: The messages whose response we did not receive from the carrier, can be in any of the three statuses below.Delivered: The messages which were successfully delivered and sent to the contact.Failed: The messages which were canceled or were not sent to the carrier to forward to the contact.Undelivered: The message sent was suspicious or did not fulfill the messaging policy.

As part of this feature, we will only consider Undelivered messages. All the undelivered messages end up with a particular error code and we will start storing them at each of the message levels. We will further use them to start enabling Temporary/Permanent DND at a contact level so that new SMSs are not sent to them increasing your deliverability rate. 

The below table summarizes the undelivered SMS error codes and what each of them means and the relevant remediation measure we are taking:

Response CodeCode DescriptionRemediation30005User Inactive/Number does not existEnable Temporary DND30003Unreachable- Out of ServiceEnable Temporary DND30004Do not want SMS/DND enabledEnable Permanent DND30006Landline/Incapable to receive SMSEnable Temporary DND30008None of the above scenarios matchedDo nothing

Temporary DND: The DND set at a contact level can be revoked by the agency or location.Permanent DND: The DND set at the contact level cannot be revoked by the agency or the location as the contact is incapable to receive the message or had opted out from receiving messages.Opt-Out Keyword: Individuals must have the ability to revoke consent at any time by replying with a standard opt-out keyword like STOP, Unsubscribe, etc. In this case, also a permanent DND will be enabled at the contact level.

Advantage:

This will restrict the location from sending SMS to non-relevant contacts, eventually increasing the deliverability rate and decreasing the possibility of getting blocked.The locations will only send out messages to the contacts who have opted in. 

Spam messaging error screens:

Conversation: Cannot send messages as DND is active for SMS.Bull Action: All SMS sent via features like workflow, and bulk SMS will automatically skip the DND-marked contacts from the sender list.

How to revoke the DND for a contact?

For Temporary DND, go to the contact details and remove the DND flag, below is the screenshot of the sample screen:For Permanent DND, you cannot revoke the same from UI. To revoke the permanent DND, request the contact to send a reply with the "START", "YES", and "UNSTOP" keywords to the number. This should automatically remove the DND from the contract.

Please Note:If the START keyword does not revoke the DND and still incoming/outgoing messages are failing, please raise a support ticket.

3. Opt-Out Language addition

The consent for sending out communications cannot be bought and the only way is to take explicit consent from the user for the SMS campaigns and communications.The consent is taken by a specific entity, in our case sub-accounts that are the actual sender of these communications.To comply with the messaging policies each of the initial messages sent out by the company to an end-user should have below two mandatory information, ie, Sender ID and opt-out Language:Opt-Out Language: The end user should have the capability to remove the consent at any time, so similar to above each initial message should also have opt-out keywords like STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, etc. We will additionally add the opt-out language: “Reply STOP to unsubscribe".

Please note:“Opt out message” feature is only applicable to Bulk action (Bulk SMS) and is not applicable to One on One conversation or Workflows or Campaigns.

Sample Opt-Out Language message screen:

4. Sender Information addition

The consent for sending out communications cannot be bought and the only way is to take explicit consent from the user for the SMS campaigns and communications.The consent is taken by a specific entity, in our case locations that are the actual sender of these communications. To comply with the messaging policies each of the initial messages sent out by the company to an end-user should have below two mandatory information, ie, Sender ID and opt-out Language:SenderID: Every message you send must clearly identify you (the party that obtained the opt-in from the recipient) as the sender, except in follow-up messages of an ongoing conversation. We will additionally add the sender info: “Thanks, <Location Name>".

How can I customize the opt-out message?Go to Settings -> Business Info -> General, where you can customize the opt-out message, below is the screenshot for reference:

Please Note:This is mandatory info that should be shared with the end customer so this is a mandatory check for all the initial messages.

5. Error and Opt-out Rate Monitoring

We are focused on helping our customers deliver trusted communications. To make sure that the carrier does not block or suspend the account permanently based on bad usage.We will be monitoring the delivery rate of the overall account and be taking proactive measures(as mentioned below) to keep the delivery rate in check:Violation Email - We will send out an email notification as soon as the subaccount hits the error rate of 8% and opt-out rate of 1%.Temporary Account Restriction - We will send out a suspension email as the subaccount hits the error rate of 12.5% and opt-out rate of 2.5%.

How and when is my card charged?

Based upon your auto-recharge rules on the Settings -> Billing page, we charge your card with the recharge amount once your credit balance becomes lower than the threshold.

A few examples:

Example 1

This is also the default setting. In this scenario, once your credit balance goes below $10, your Agency's credit card would be charged $10 to get your balance up to $20.

Example 2

In this scenario, your card would get charged with $200 when your credit balance goes below $50 to take your credit balance up to $250

Please note that when charges to your credit card fail, we notify all admins in your account. SMS, Calls, Emails, etc for all your clients get hampered if your credit balance goes below $0.

Why is my SMS cost so high?

Reason 1 - Sending long SMS

An SMS comprises segments and each segment is 160 characters long. So if you are sending a lengthy SMS, it will consume multiple segments and thereby drive up your cost. 

Please note that while 160 characters form a segment, even using 161 characters counts as 2 segments.

Character lengths of segments also vary by countries & regions which might be another reason for your high SMS cost.

Reason 2 - Having hidden characters in your SMS text

Many agencies copy/paste the SMS text body while designing automation. When you copy/paste text from a text editor software like MS Word or Google Docs, sometimes hidden characters get appended in the string. These hidden characters can not be seen by the user but they are present in the text. 

ExampleIn this example a simple phrase Hey there was copied from a webpage. Usually, it should be just 1 segment. But actually, it contains many hidden characters (empty characters) making this as large as 4 segments. 

You can use https://twiliodeved.github.io/message-segment-calculator/ to check the actual number of segments & character length of your SMS text.

While pasting contents of an SMS to System text editor it is recommended to use paste as plain text option instead of simple paste

Reason 3 - Using Emojis

This is the most common reason for unexpected high costs while sending SMS automation. 

ExampleIn the example below some emojis were used that increased the number of segments from 1 to 4.

Using emojis is a great way to make your automation exciting but being aware of the costs involved will help you make an informed decision about their frequency of usage.

Reason 4 - Using a picture attachment

Both SMS and MMS carrier fees will apply which could drive up the cost of each SMS. When you send a picture message with text, you get charged $0.02 for the picture + the usual SMS cost depending upon the length of the text.For example, If the following text portion of the Picture SMS is 2 segments - 

"Hey Shivam, this is Matty Light from BusinessName, just wanted to let you know that this upcoming Monday, we have a new update for your system, REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/BIZ-xxxxxxxx or text MOREINFO for more info!"

We will charge $0.0075 x 2 = $0.015 for the text portion.

If there's an image attached to this message, it will charge at $0.02 / message

So the total cost per message is $0.02 + $0.015 = $0.035

Reason 5 - Carrier fees (on top of sms costs. See sms costs below)

Further, there might be some additional charges incurred:

MMS-MESSAGES-CARRIERFEES PHONE NUMBERSSMS-MESSAGES-CARRIERFEES

https://www.shoplaunch.io/tc

Reason 6 - SMS Costs

$.009-SMS per Segment (160 characters, characters do not include special characters)

$.0102-Inbound Call per minute

$.0156-Outbound Call per minute

$1.50-Per phone number monthly

All Usage Subject To Monthly Carrier Fees Based On Usage And Data And Future Changes*

DND for SMS

There are 2 ways in which the DND will be enabled:

If the customer replied with Opt-Out keywords like STOP, UNSTOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, or CANCEL If we get 30003, 30004, 30005, 30006 any of these error codes

Response CodeCode DescriptionRemediation30005User Inactive/Number does not existEnable Temporary DND30003 Out of Service/Carrier Filtering Enable Temporary DND30004 Do not want SMS/DND enabledEnable Permanent DND30006Landline/Incapable to receive SMSEnable Temporary DND

Two types of DND will be applied to a contact

Temporary -> If we get 30003, 30005 and 30006 Permanent -> If we get 30004 or receive Opt-Out keywords mentioned above 

Best & Recommended Practices

Try refraining from using emojis as they are extremely costlyCopy and pasted messages from HTML can have hidden images. Please run any builk sms messages through HERE to prevent additional charges.

FAQs

How often does the SMS limit last?

The SMS limit will refresh every 24 hours. If the account is brand new then each day the increments will increase according to the table above. Once you have hit the 8th day your SMS limit will be capped at 5000 per day.

I'd like to send more than 5000 SMS per day, how can I increase my limit?Once your location(s) hit the 8th-day mark (5000 SMS per day), you may reach out to support and request a Limit extension. 

What happens when we hit our daily limit, will we be able to respond to SMS if a lead replies?

No, you cannot respond manually to incoming messages. SMS daily limits will affect all messaging activities including manual SMS in conversation, automation within workflows, and bulk actions.

Can we undo the DND option in bulk?

No, we cannot because this is to prevent sending SMS in bulk again after DND is enabled for the contacts. Updating My Credit CardUpdating CC in Shop Launch