When the SMS feature is enabled in your CRM you will find an SMS icon next to all the phone fields on your lead form:
For more information on how to enable this feature please refer to the last section of this article.
To send a new SMS message click on the SMS icon and the Send SMS window will pop up with the sender’s and the lead’s phone numbers already entered. You can now type your text, and if needed you can also paste in an image. When finished click Send:
You will now see a confirmation in the top right corner of the lead form that looks like this and signifies that the sending was successful:
Note: Sending cannabis or CBD related content via SMS is not allowed. More info: Prohibited SMS Content
When your contact replies to your message, an incoming SMS notification will appear in the top right corner. The notification displays the lead’s name, the message text and it also has a Reply button which you can use to text your contact right back:
Incoming SMS notifications are shown every 15 seconds. You can also find the notifications under the quick notification icon shown next to your username:
The CRM also allows you to enable the SMS forwarding feature so that you receive your lead's SMS messages even when you're away from your CRM.
For more information please see our article on SMS Forwarding.
Viewing the SMS Conversations
All incoming and outgoing SMS messages are automatically added as new notes on the lead form. This provides a convenient way of reviewing the entire conversation threads. If an image or video file was included with the message, it will preview in the note, and also become an attachment to the lead:
Note: if using a toll-free number for sending and receiving SMS messages, image attachments cannot be received.
Inbound Messages
Inbound SMS messages trigger different kinds of notifications depending on whether the sender's number is a known number or if the inbound SMS is a reply to an outgoing message.
Here is a description of a few typical scenarios and the associated notification rules:
- If a text is received in the CRM coming from a number not belonging to a lead, all Admin-type users with Dialer Metrics and Systemwide Leads permissions are notified since the CRM does not know where to link the inbound SMS. We recommend then adding that number to a new lead and sending an SMS of "Which business are you from?".
- If an SMS sent from a lead gets a reply, only the person who sent the most recent SMS on that lead will receive a popup notification of the new message. Other users who are assigned to the lead will be able to see the message in the Notes.
- If an SMS message comes in and there are multiple leads with that number, the lead that was last updated will get the message added in the Notes.
Local Presence
Similarly to the CRM Dialer, the SMS feature also supports the Local Presence feature. With Local Presence, your text messages will show up on the prospect’s caller ID as having been sent from a local phone number.
For more information on Local Presence, please see our article on Dialer - Local Presence.
SMS Reports
For reporting purposes, you can view the number of sent and received messages on the Sales Metrics page in Leads > Sales Metrics.
More detailed reports are also available in Tools > SMS Metrics. For more information please see our article on SMS Metrics.
Enabling the SMS Feature in Your CRM
The SMS feature may be enabled for each user class individually. For example, to enable this feature for the Administrator class, go to Manage > Administration > Users & Groups > User Classes and then click on the Administrator's Permissions button:
Now expand the Communications section and click on the Send & Receive SMS Messages checkbox:
With the permissions set, you can now create a new cell phone field on your lead form by selecting Cell Phone in the Special drop-down:
After you've saved the new field refresh your lead from and the cell phone field will appear with the SMS icon next to it.