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Texting setup and consent

US carriers require every business that texts its customers to be registered: who you are and what you send. Texts come with paid plans and turn on once texting is ready for your business. Until then, Porch Routes 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 Routes) and the kind of messages you send.

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

  2. Step 2: Get what registration needs ready

    Integrations → “Texting customers” → “What registration needs”. Have these ready for when texting turns on: your business’s legal name exactly as on IRS paperwork; your EIN (a sole proprietor without one can still be registered, 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: Wait for texting to turn on

    There’s nothing to send yet. We’re building carrier registration into Porch Routes, and texts turn on for your business once it’s ready. Until then, email updates and tracking links carry every update.

  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 Routes is the software; the sender is your business. Registration is in your business’s name, with its details.
  • 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 yet?

US carriers require businesses to be registered before they text customers, and we’re still building that registration into Porch Routes. Email updates and tracking links work from day one.

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 texting is on?

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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