It looks like VoIP Innovations does have an email-to-SMS feature similar to email-to-FAX, so I will test that. I don’t see any auto reply capability though.
From: Jason Wilson Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2016 11:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] customer support via text message I have had clients text me for a few years. I never advertise it, but I do respond. I use Ringcentral for my hosted PBX and can text back through their apps. Jason Wilson Remotely Located Providing High Speed Internet to out of the way places. 530-651-1736 530-748-9608 Cell www.remotelylocated.com On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 8:56 AM, That One Guy /sarcasm <[email protected]> wrote: Im curious if this is a bigger problem in the US than elsewhere, we are a sloth nation of gluttons who are too lazy to actually use their vocal cords to call On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 10:47 AM, Josh Luthman <[email protected]> wrote: Those same people have land lines, it's clearly a crazy world over there. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Cameron Crum <[email protected]> wrote: Why would a customer think it is ok to text a company's voice number? Do you send sms out from this number? I would never expect that I could text a support or billing phone number unless I had previously received a message from it. Why not get a dedicated sms number for such activities and advertise it as such. Twillio is pretty cost effective and you can use their API to do all kinds of cool stuff. If our customers want to communicate through text in our software we require it. You can set up auto-reply's or have the number forwarded to something else. You can even handle the call forwarding if someone hits the "call back" from their phone so it rings your main number. I think most people set up an auto reply that tells them the SMS is really only for notification purposes, not for support issues, mostly due to the reasons outlined previously. It is pretty difficult to support people via sms especially if they are using a phone not registered in the account. On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 10:16 AM, That One Guy /sarcasm <[email protected]> wrote: haha, the ones who pay with prepaid cards they always have to put money on, i love them On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 10:14 AM, Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: I'm thinking you'll find a correlation between those folks and the ones who don't pay their bills. ------ Original Message ------ From: "CBB - Jay Fuller" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: 9/8/2016 11:13:23 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] customer support via text message it looks to me like people change their phone numbers every few months. ----- Original Message ----- From: Josh Luthman To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2016 9:12 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] customer support via text message How the hell do you not have their numbers tied to their accounts??? Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 10:08 AM, Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: Earlier this year we enabled SMS messaging on our main business phone number. We never announced anything, but people do send us texts, which makes me wonder how many were dropping off the end of the earth previously. We don't actually get a text message, it gets turned into an email to our support address. Problem is, customers often don't include their name, all we have is their cellphone number. Their expectation seems to be that we will text back and forth with them. In reality we have to call them. But we can't investigate the problem first unless we can correlate the cellphone number to a customer account, and then when we call them, lots of people don't actually answer their phones, they do everything by text message. How are people handling this? -- If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team. -- If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team.
