TX SMS FAQ

Costs

Are there any add-on costs for volume or international texts?

 Yes, you’ll be charged directly by Twilio, either at their base rate of $0.007 per message or $0.005 if you apply for their Impact Access program at Twilio.org/application. Currently, costs with the Higher Education discount are approximately $0.75/mo and $0.005 per text in or out.

There are additional costs for international texts, which vary based on the country to which you are sending. You can determine the exact costs by going to the Twilio pricing page, and then selecting the country you’re trying to text to in the Outbound section about halfway down the page. Note that this will show you their base rate, which does not include the roughly 25% Higher Education discount.

With regard to 10DLC A2P Registration is the monthly charge per number?

 The charge is per messaging service (which is analogous to a TX SMS inbox). So if you have 3 counselors, all with their inboxes and one big inbox for all admissions to share, you’d have 4 monthly charges.

Forwarding

Can I forward calls to my mobile phone?

 Yes! If someone calls your TX SMS number, you can forward that call to a different phone number using Twilio Studio. ​​​​​

Images & Emojis

Does SMS text support emojis?

 Yes, TX SMS can both send and receive emojis.

 Does SMS text support images?

 No, TX SMS does not support MMS at this time.

Implementation

Will SMS Inbox and TX SMS peacefully coexist while implementing TX SMS?

 Yes,  you can continue using SMS Inbox as you implement TX SMS to train your users.

Inboxes

Can I set up multiple inboxes for different departments in my school?

 Yes, you can create multiple Inboxes in TX SMS.

 Can users see Inboxes they aren’t assigned to? Can they see Chat History for other Inboxes?

 You can assign users to any inbox and determine if they have bulk permissions for that inbox. When they are in the interface, they will only see inboxes in the selector to which they have been assigned. This also applies to the chat history button; they will only see transcripts for inboxes they have access to.

 If I want all users to see content from all inboxes, does each user have to be a member of that inbox?

 You’d need to add them to each inbox they want access to.

 What happens if multiple people are texting the same student from different inboxes?

 Since each inbox is a different entity, each inbox will have a different phone number for that student and by extension, a different conversation thread in that student’s messaging app.

Integration

Can we integrate WhatsApp with TX SMS?

 Not at this time. While Twilio does have an integration with Whatsapp that we hope to leverage in the future, there are some additional regulatory requirements on the Whatsapp side that we can’t currently meet with the product as it exists today.

Merge

Can I add merge fields to my message templates?

 Yes, you can add merge fields in Message Templates and when creating Bulk SMS messages in TX SMS.

Messages

How many messages should I send per day?

 Please see TX SMS Best Practices article for more information on message volume.

 Can students text our SMS number if we haven't texted them first?

 Yes! When you receive a message from an unknown number, it will display the number in the conversation history in the left column. Once you create a contact record for that student in SF, you can hit the “Plus” icon in your TX SMS interface and search for that created record. Find the student and hit confirm, and now the contact will be linked to that conversation history.

Notifications

Are there staff notifications for new incoming messages?

 Not at this time, though we intend to bring configurable email alerts for unread messages to the system in a future release.

How long does it take for the SMS Email alert to send?

The email alerts sent to the last advisor who communicated with a student are polled every 15 minutes for unread messages. This interval is fixed. Users could have to wait up to 29 minutes for the message.

Why 29 minutes?
The system only polls for messages older than 15 minutes, and the polling interval is fixed at every 15 minutes of the hour. So if an email is sent at the 16th minute of the hour, it will not be picked up until it is polled at the 45th minute (because at the 30th minute, it is still only 14 minutes old).

Opt In/Opt Out

Can I customize the Opt Out / Opt In messages?

 You can! For any given messaging service, you can adjust the accepted commands and the confirmation message using Twilio’s Advanced Opt-Out options.

Phone Numbers

Can I use multiple phone numbers?

 Yes, you can create multiple phone numbers and Inboxes in TX SMS. 

Can SMS Texting be configured to use another Contact Phone Number?

 No, TX SMS requires that the number you’re texting be held in the `Mobile` field on the contact record.
 

What is the relationship between the Twilio messaging service, the phone number and the TX SMS Inbox? 

There is a 1:1 relationship between TX SMS Inboxes and Twilio Messaging services. Think of each inbox as a User Interface for that particular messaging service. Then, each messaging service can have up to 400 phone numbers. Phone numbers can be attached to one and only one messaging service at a time. 

If a staff member is given their own texting phone number, does that mean you set up a separate messaging service and inbox for that person? 

Yes
 

What are the advantages to giving out individual numbers? Disadvantages? 

This will depend on your texting strategy:

• Think about how many counselors need individual numbers.
• Think about how many bulk-capable inboxes you need and the volume you expect to send through those numbers.

The more you think ahead, the easier your number setup will be and the fewer times you’ll need to go back and forth between Twilio and TX SMS.  Please see TX SMS Best Practices for more information on texting best practices and daily volume.

If I have a department with 25 light texting users (less than per day for the entire group) and I don't want to pay for individual numbers, how does that work? Buy a number, attach it to a messaging service, create an Inbox, attach the messaging service to that inbox, create all 25 users and assign them to that inbox? Student will receive messages from that number/Inbox but will it be tagged to the person who sent it? 

It won’t be tagged. It will just be in the big group inbox since all messages came from the same messaging service. 

 

What happens In TX SMS if the same mobile number is on multiple Contacts? 

There will be a single conversation with that mobile number in TX SMS, and the contact details displayed will be whichever we’ve most recently seen associated with that phone number, either by manual creation of a conversation (as mentioned in the article Merging Contacts and TX SMS) or as part of an outgoing bulk SMS.

Reporting

Can I report on SMS Messages? 

Not at this time. All SMS data is stored via Twilio, so you cannot run reports via the CRM.
 

Currently, we are running KPI's and other reports off the SMS Messages object that is part of the SMS Inbox. Assuming that object is deprecated with TX SMS, do we have the ability to maintain the KPI's? 

Not at this time, though, as mentioned in 2, we’re looking to see how we can do the full SMS Inbox style logging, and the same or similar KPIs should be possible when that is added to the project.

Scheduling

Can I send a text blast or schedule SMS messages to go out? 

You can send Bulk SMS messages in TX SMS and schedule the bulk messages for a future date.

Sending/Delivery

Using TX SMS, can a text message be sent or replied to directly from the Contact record in Salesforce? 

In Salesforce, TX SMS is accessible by a specific URL, and you will log in with your Salesforce credentials. 

There is currently no functionality to send within Salesforce, it has to be done within the TX SMS tool (https://sms.targetx.com/inboxes). 

How quickly will my messages be delivered?

SMS messages have a maximum throughput on a Long Code of one message per number per second.

Short Code

Can I use a short code? 

TX SMS uses Twilio Messaging services, which can accommodate Short Codes. However, these have not been tested with the system as of yet. If you have a short code and are interested in using it with the system, please reach out to your CSM and ask to discuss this further.

Users

How many SMS users can I have? 

There is no limit to users and no cost for adding users.