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SMS Changes - No Need to Request Text Set-up

Joshua Esau

April 11, 2022 15:21

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Hi there,

Two questions:

1. Has anyone used an outside SMS platform like Cadence/Mongoose and created an API with Populi? 
2. Can Populi change the SMS process so that users can automatically directly text prospects/leads with phone numbers? Maybe in the first text, there can be an opt out statement so recipients can easily opt out, but users can still directly text them without the email set-up. For example, the first text could be, "'Hi, this is Joshua from Arizona Christian University. I'd love to chat with you about how ACU is preparing students to transform our culture with Truth. Can I schedule a phone call to talk through our free application and scholarships?" Reply 'Stop to opt out."

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7 comments

• 2
  
  AJ Zimmermann April 11, 2022 17:25

  Agreed - this would be a great feature. We also use an outside SMS tool for incoming messages. Once they are in Populi we use that channel but would love to have them be able to text us, even for inquiries. 

• 1
  
  Joshua Esau April 11, 2022 17:53

  Yes, agreed.

• 0
  
  Adam Sentz April 11, 2022 19:11

  The Populi Inquiry form already has an SMS opt-in built in. If you have questions about using that please reach out to Populi support. 

  Sending SMS without prior consent is prohibited so unfortunately that's not an option. If you have ideas for other ways of obtaining consent in a lower-friction way let us know!

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  Brad Cooksey December 05, 2022 15:41

  This functionality (or lack thereof) is very disappointing and is a major complaint we have regarding the user-friendliness of Populi. We want the ability to enter a prospect/inquiry and have immediate ability to text them within Populi. Other CRM's offer this functionality and allow the prospect/inquiry to opt out, rather than requiring them to opt in. We are forced to use a third-party program to send/receive texts unless/until the prospect/lead opts into the Populi text messaging system. This is very inefficient and creates additional work for my team as we must document SMS communications by copying and pasting messages sent/received into Populi. I would very much like to see this addressed by Populi in the very near future as my team and I will be deciding whether or not to stay with Populi or migrate to another system.

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  James December 05, 2022 17:23

  Hi Brad,

  We're always looking for ways to make Populi better, but given that it's actually illegal (under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act) to send unsolicited sales/marketing SMS messages without prior written consent, can you explain your use-case a bit more and help us understand how you're capturing written consent first? Is it through an external form or system perhaps?

  Thanks!

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  Brad Cooksey December 05, 2022 18:45

  We are fully aware and understand it is illegal to send unsolicited SMS messages without prior consent. Therefore, we have check boxes on our lead cards where prospective students mark "Yes" or "No" to receive info through text messages. Our applications have a check box as well. We keep every lead card and application on file and have recently starting scanning the lead cards and adding them into the students' Populi profile. We don't purchase leads. 100% of our leads are either generated by our recruiting efforts or by prospective students who request information through our website or email. So the VAST majority of the leads we enter into Populi have already given our college permission to send them SMS messages. Because students have already given us permission, many are not completing the additional steps in Populi to give us permission a second time (if they even read the set-up email). We find that SMS messages are the most effective tool for communicating with prospective students and Populi is handicapping us with this restriction. I feel we should be allowed to police ourselves, rather than requiring prospective students to "opt-in" to SMS messaging. PLEASE let colleges manage this themselves. Give prospective students/leads the ability to opt-out by replying to the SMS messages generated in Populi with "STOP", should they later decide they no longer wish to receive SMS messages from us. I would like to see Populi to add a required field in the "Add Lead" page where users have to indicate whether or not the prospective student/lead has given permission for the college to send SMS messages. Set it so that the SMS messaging is not available unless the user answers "Yes". Please please please make these changes. 

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  James December 07, 2022 21:36

  Hi Brad, thanks for getting back to us and providing more detail! Unfortunately this is not an easy fix, but we are contemplating some architecture changes that may allow us more flexibility in this regard. It definitely sounds like you're doing everything correctly in harvesting consent! The problem is that right now if we were to make the changes you mention, and then one of our clients didn't do consent verification properly (resulting in lots of angry people and spam reports), that would damage our sending reputation and would negatively affect all our colleges' ability to send SMS.

  So we're working toward a more compartmentalized sending architecture, at which point we'll reevaluate and see what we can do to take away some of the friction in communicating with prospective students!