Texting clients gets documents back faster than email, but it's the most regulated thing docEvault does. Three conditions have to be met before a message goes out.
1. A plan that includes SMS
SMS reminders are a Professional feature. On Easy Start, reminders are email only. See Plans and billing.
2. Your firm has to be verified
US carriers require businesses to be verified before they will deliver automated text messages. In docEvault this is Toll-Free Verification, and you complete it from your settings with Verify your firm for SMS reminders.
You will be asked for:
- Details about your firm.
- How you'll use SMS — a plain description of the messages you send.
- How your clients consent to receive texts — and evidence of it.
Verification is reviewed by the carriers, not by docEvault, so it isn't instant. Start it before the week you actually need it. Once it's approved, your reminders send from your firm's own verified number.
3. The contact has to have consented
Consent has to exist before you add a phone number to a contact and turn texting on. docEvault supports recording how consent was obtained, including a verbal consent script your team reads to the client — which docEvault can host at a public link for use as carrier evidence.
Consent is per person and per number. Don't add a phone number to a contact record on the assumption they won't mind. Recording consent you didn't actually collect is the thing that gets firms' numbers blocked.
If you change a contact's phone number, SMS consent needs to be re-confirmed for the new number.
Opting out
Recipients can reply STOP to any message to opt out at any time, and that is handled at the carrier level. Once someone has replied STOP, nothing inside docEvault can turn their texts back on — they have to text START themselves. If a client asks why they stopped getting texts, Stopping text messages explains it from their side.
Because a phone number can be attached to more than one contact record, a STOP reply stops texts to every contact sharing that number.