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. Whether or not you have one yet, Settings › Notifications shows the number your texts come from, so anyone on the team can tell a client which number to expect.
3. The contact has to have consented
When you add a phone number to a contact, docEvault emails them a private link to a consent form. They confirm their number and check a separate box to opt in to text messages, and no text is sent to them until they do. Consent they give there is recorded against the contact.
During verification, the answer to How do your clients consent to receive texts? is Web Form by default, because that emailed form is how your clients opt in. docEvault fills in a public link to a copy of the form, with your firm's name, as the carrier evidence. If your firm instead reads a consent script to clients in person, choose Verbal Consent, and docEvault links to a hosted copy of that script instead.
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.
Firms that collect consent themselves
Some firms get SMS consent from clients directly, for example by reading a consent script at intake. docEvault can set a firm up so that it attests to consent itself. This is arranged with docEvault support, not a setting you change yourself. For a firm set up this way:
- No opt-in email is sent. A phone number you save can receive texts right away, and the contact shows SMS Consent (Firm Attested).
- Changing a contact's number records consent for the new number the same way.
- A contact who replies STOP is still opted out, and stays opted out until they text START themselves.
The firm is responsible for actually having that consent, so it should match how the firm told the carriers its clients consent (usually Verbal Consent).
Opting out
Every text docEvault sends to a contact tells them how to opt out: if your message wording doesn't already say so, "Reply STOP to opt out." is added to the end automatically, and the message editor under Settings › Message Sequences shows which is the case. 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.