Texting is an integral aspect of today’s world. Between family, friends, colleagues, organizations, and even service providers, there are many reasons why texting is a preferred method of getting your attention.
To manage spam texting (and emails and calls), the FCC continues to evolve the rules and regulations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
One key aspect of text communication is consent. Consent primarily applies in A2P (application to person) communication. A2P consent centers on you, the recipient, taking action to consent to receive automated texts from a service or business. The other key aspect of consent is to provide a method for you, the recipient, to rescind your consent and stop unwanted messages.
We’ve all seen messages like “Company ABC requests permission to send you texts, reply YES to accept, STOP to cancel.”
But the AutoPylot service is different – it’s a P2P service (Person to Person). You don’t need to get consent to text your friends and family, but do you need consent to text a colleague? A contact? A sales lead?
Don’t worry, AutoPylot has you covered.
AutoPylot Texting
The AutoPylot service includes text messaging to new and existing Leads and Contacts in the AutoPylot User’s CRM system.
Users can only text to the contact or lead’s “Mobile Phone” number field, so make sure phone numbers are classified correctly (i.e. business vs office vs mobile).
But just because there is a mobile phone number, does the User have consent to text that person?
Consent to Text Settings
Many CRMs do not have a data table/object for a text message. New data fields and objects must be installed to add text messaging support to your CRM. The AutoPylot Console App, installed by your CRM administrator, ensures the required fields are added to your CRM system.
One field AutoPylot adds to each contact and lead record is .ap_consentForTexting.
This field has several states:
- Null (or undefined). All contacts and leads start as Null. Before the first text can be sent, consent (implied or verbal) must be obtained
- OptedIn. The contact or lead has provided consent and has OptedIn to receive texts from the User. Normal text conversations can be conducted
- OptedOut. AutoPylot will block a user from texting to any contact or lead who has opted out.
Before the AutoPylot Mobile App sends a message, it checks the Contact/Lead record in the CRM for the .ap_consentForTexting field value.
AutoPylot Consent to Text Controls
AutoPylot offers two levels of control for an Admin to manage C2T (consent to text). All Admin controls for your company’s AutoPylot service are managed from the AutoPylot Admin Portal: https://portal.autopylot.com.
At the top level, an Admin can enable or disable text messaging across their entire account. Users can still see previous messages in the AutoPylot mobile app as well as via the web interface to the CRM, but Users will not be able to send new messages when the capability is set to DISABLED.
The second setting allows the Admin to enable the Users to confirm they have Verbal Consent to text their contacts and leads.
When Verbal Consent is enabled, a User will be asked, via a screen pop in the mobile app, to “Please confirm you have verbal consent to text this contact.” As an admin, you are enabling your Users to use their judgment based on the relationships they have with their contacts/leads to confirm a text message is appropriate.
If the Verbal Consent setting is disabled, then Users must get implied consent before a text can be sent.
Implied vs Verbal Consent
All text systems support implied consent. If someone texts you first, they are giving you consent to text them back. Thus consent to text is implied.
If the Verbal Consent setting is Disabled, and a particular contact or lead’s consent to text value is Null/undefined, the User will need the contact or lead to text them first.
When a text is received, the AutoPylot system checks the .ap_consentForTexting field for that contact or lead. If the value is Null/undefined, AutoPylot sets it to OptedIn.
STOP, or Opting out of texting
The AutoPylot system does monitor for STOP. If a contact or lead sends a message with the single word STOP, AutoPylot will automatically set the .ap_consentForTexting field to OptedOut.
It is also possible for the User to go into the contact or lead record via the CRM’s web interface and change the .ap_consentForTexting value to OptedOut.
If you have additional questions, please email support@autopylot.com.