Why the same number matters
Customers save the number they called. A text from a different number looks like spam, and replies to it land somewhere your office doesn’t look.
Some customers also try to text the number on your truck or your Google listing. If that number can’t take texts, those messages usually never reach you, and the customer assumes you ignored them.
How text-enabling works
It’s called hosted SMS or text-enabling. Your phone company keeps handling calls. A texting provider takes over only the texting side of the number. The steps are similar across providers:
Check the number type
Most landline numbers can be text-enabled while your phone company keeps the calls (Textline). If your number is on a VoIP system that already offers texting, ask that provider whether texting is switched on, because only one provider can text from a number.
Prove you own the number
Usually the provider calls the number with a code you enter, or asks for paperwork that proves you own it (Sonar). Have a recent phone bill ready so the details match.
Sign a letter of authorization
It lets the provider route texts for your number. Use the name and service address exactly as they appear on your phone bill.
Register for business texting
Text-enabling doesn’t replace carrier registration. A local number still needs A2P 10DLC registration.
Will it change my calls?
It shouldn’t. Hosted texting changes only where texts go. Calls, voicemail and your phone bill stay with your current carrier. If you plan to move the number to a new phone company later, ask your texting provider first how to keep texting working through the move.
If your business number is your cell phone
Your phone can already text, but hosted texting works on landline and VoIP numbers, not on a number tied to a phone’s SIM card. Business software can’t send automatic texts from it.
The usual fixes are a separate business number that rings through to your cell, or moving the business number to a provider with calls and texts in an app. Either way, put the business number on your listings and your trucks so customers have one number for both.
How we handle it
We text from the number your customers already call wherever the number allows it, and handle the authorization and registration paperwork for you.