How to add and verify a phone number for sending text messages
If you want ReputationStacker to send text messages to your contacts (in addition to or opposed to email), you must first add a phone number to the applicable review profile(s).
To do this, navigate to Settings > Review Settings > Review Profiles, and in the "Edit Review Campaign" column click the pencil icon for the applicable review profile.
This will take you to the review campaign settings. In the upper left, in the "Send Messages From" section, click the pencil icon:
This will open a modal with your email & phone settings:
Click the dropdown under "Phone Number" to select your country, then click the blue button next to it. If you selected any country other than the United States or Canada then you'll see a modal that looks like this:
Click the "Request Number" button and we'll start the process of finding and verifying a phone number for you.
If you select the United States or Canada from the dropdown then on the next screen you'll select a toll-free phone number, and then you'll see a notification about phone number verification requirements. Verifying a phone number to use for "A2P" (Application-to-Person) communications is a relatively new requirement by mobile phone carriers, but it's a good thing as it greatly reduces spam messages and robocalls. Click the "Verify" button and you'll be taken to a screen that looks like this:
It's important that you enter the information into this form as accurately and completely as possible. If you don't then your phone number will likely not be approved and you won't be able to send text messages.
After you click the "Submit" button, you'll be returned to the email & phone settings modal. Be sure to click the "Save" button at the bottom right of the modal in order to complete your phone number submission.
It typically takes 1-7 days for U.S./Canadian phone carriers to review and verify your phone number. You'll receive an email notification letting you know if your phone number has been approved or rejected. Don't worry if you get rejected - we'll check your information and resubmit your phone number for verification.
Note that you won't be able to send any text messages until your phone number has been verified.
Once your phone number has been verified then the last step to take in order to send text messages is to go to Settings > Review Settings > Review Profiles, and in the "Edit Review Campaign" column click the pencil icon for the applicable review profile. Then click each text message template in the campaign messages (and Review Reminders) list and click the "Save Message" button on the right side of the screen.
Again, you must do this for each text message template. When you do it you'll see the outline of the template change from orange to green.
A few important points:
- Phone numbers are applied on a per-review profile basis. So if you have more than one review profile and you want to send text messages from each of them then you'll need to add a phone number to each review profile.
- You can check how many text message credits each of your review profiles has available each month by going to Settings > Review Settings > Review Profiles. In the "Total Text Credits" column you can see how many credits are allotted, and in the "Text Credit Usage" column you can see how many credits you've used during the current monthly cycle.
- When one of your review profiles exceeds the monthly number of text message credits included in your plan, the system will automatically add a block of additional text message credits to that review profile so that your campaigns run continuously. Each block of additional text message credits is charged at the price that can be found on our pricing page. Any text message credits that are added in this way rollover to the next month and don't expire.
- Not all countries support "A2P" (Application-to-Person) text messaging. If you operate in a country that doesn't support sending text messages from ReputationStacker, don't add a phone number. You'll still be able to use ReputationStacker to its full extent - your only limitation is that the system won't send out text messages to your contacts.
- Mobile phone carriers will not approve phone numbers for certain business categories including high-risk financial services, lead generation, debt collection/forgiveness, "get rich quick" schemes, illegal substances/articles, prescription drugs, gambling, S.H.A.F.T use cases (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco) and electronic smoking devices.