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Texting setup and consent

US carriers require every business that texts its customers to register once — who you are and what you send — before texts go out. Until it’s approved, Porch Route logs each text and sends the update by email instead. Record each customer’s consent on the order; customers who haven’t agreed get at most one text per delivery.

Where
Integrations → Texting customers · Orders
Last updated

Steps

  1. Step 1: Understand why registration exists

    Carriers block or filter business texts from unregistered senders. Registration (the carriers’ “A2P 10DLC” programme) identifies the business sending — that’s you, not Porch Route — and the kind of messages you send. Review can take a few weeks.

    Email and tracking links work from day one and need no registration.

  2. Step 2: Gather what registration needs

    Integrations → “Texting customers” → “What registration needs”: your business’s legal name exactly as on IRS paperwork; your EIN (a sole proprietor without one can still register, with lower daily limits); a live website that clearly belongs to the business; a privacy policy and texting terms on that website; texting consent where customers give their number; a support phone or email (set in Settings); and sample messages, which the sheet prepares in your own wording.

  3. Step 3: Publish the texting terms carriers look for

    Your website’s privacy policy must say you don’t share phone numbers or texting consent with anyone for marketing, what you text and how often, that message and data rates may apply, and that customers can reply HELP for help or STOP to opt out. Our messaging terms page is a model you can adapt.

  4. Step 4: Submit the registration

    With those ready, use “Email us to register” in the sheet (or the contact page) and we register your business with the carriers. The sheet shows the status: “Not started”, “With the carriers”, “Approved” or “Turned down” with the usual fixes.

  5. Step 5: Record consent on every order

    Consent is collected where the customer gives their number — an unchecked box or a clear line at your checkout, never required to buy. Send it with each order (the API and the CSV template have an sms_consent field) or set “Delivery texts” on the order: “Customer agreed to delivery texts”, “Customer doesn’t want texts” or “Not recorded”.

    Without recorded agreement a customer gets at most one text per delivery; the rest go by email.

  6. Step 6: Know what happens automatically

    The first text a business sends a number ends with “Reply STOP to opt out.” A number that replied STOP is never texted again until it replies START. Daily safety limits (shown under “Today”) stop runaway sending, and Messages says why any text was skipped.

Good to know

  • Porch Route is the software; the sender is your business. Registration is in your name, with your details, which is why we ask for them.
  • While texts aren’t sending, every text notice also goes by email when there’s an address, so nobody is left uninformed.

Questions

Why can’t I text on day one?

US carriers require your business to be registered first and review it themselves. Porch Route can’t skip that. Email updates and tracking links start immediately.

Does a customer have to agree to texts to order?

No — and carriers require that it isn’t a condition of buying. Record whether they agreed; those who didn’t still get email updates and at most one text.

Where do texts go before registration is approved?

They are recorded in Integrations → Messages as “Logged, not sent”, and the same update is emailed when there’s an address.

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