To be compliant with our SMS provider’s messaging policy, tenants must give consent to receive text message communications. If you send text messages from your ESS software, there are a number of ways that tenants can opt in or out of text messages.
Please note: Tenants who were created prior to September 26th, 2023 will automatically be opted into text messaging unless they previously replied STOP to the text message thread with your facility. The consent process explained below applies to tenants created on or after September 26, 2023.
Consenting to Text Messages
From the Customer Profile
You can opt a customer in from their customer profile by checking the box: This customer agrees to receive text message communications from this facility. If the customer does not want to receive text messages, leave the box unchecked.
From the customer portal
A customer can opt in or out of text messages from their customer portal. Under their Contact Information on their Account Information screen, they can check the box: I agree to receive text message communications from this facility to consent to receive text messages.
Viewing consent status
You can view a report of consent status from the Email, Txt, & Print > Text Messages page.
Click Customer Consent Status.
The Provided consent? column display's the customer's consent status.
You can search for a specific tenant, phone number, or unit number or filter the report by Consent Status.
Consent status when a customer has not provided consent
You will not be able to text tenants when consent has not been provided or if they have opted out. You will know that the tenant has not provided consent in a few ways.
Customer Profile
If the customer is not opted in, you will see an X icon next to the cell phone number In their Customer Profile.
Two-Way Texting module
You will see a message at the bottom of the two-way text messaging window stating that the customer has not agreed to receive text message communications.
Automatic Notification Preferences
You will not be able to select Text for Automatic Notification Preferences if a tenant has not provided consent to be texted.
Notification Preferences
The notification preferences module will show a dash next to all text templates if consent has not been provided.
Customer view
If you use Two-Way Texting, the customer will see a note in the Customer Portal under their cell phone number that indicates: Please reply START to receive communications via text messages.
If a tenant opts out of text messages, how do they opt back in?
From the text message thread
If you have Two-Way Texting enabled and a tenant opts out of text messages by replying “STOP” to the text message thread with your facility, they can opt back in by replying “START”. You cannot override this status. The tenant must reply START to begin receiving messages again.
If the customer no longer has the text thread where they have replied, you can give them your two-way texting number so they can send a new “START” message to opt back into communications.
From the Customer Portal
If you don’t have two-way texting enabled or if the tenant opted out from their customer portal, they can only opt back in from their customer portal.