Twilio 10DLC Setup

Introduction

Twilio is a 3rd-party text messaging service that allows our POS to send text messages to your customers and staff members.

The primary ways Grindless sends texts to people are:

• Events: when scheduling an event in the POS, you can send text messages to customers who are part of a subscription list, informing them about the new event and typically encouraging them to purchase a ticket for the event.
• Sales: when creating a coupon, you have the ability to send text messages to customers who are part of a subscription list, informing them of a limited time sale, for example.
• Shift Planner: send texts to your staff informing them of their assigned scheduled shifts for any given work week. Staff can also send a text to your Twilio number with the word “shifts” and the POS will respond with their shifts for the current work week.
• Sales Totals: Owners and Managers can send the word “sales” to your Twilio number and receive a text with the current day’s sales figures. Append the word “day”, “week”, or “month” to get sales totals for that time period.

See the help topics for each relevant screen in the POS for details on how to send texts.

Twilio is one of the top SMS providers and has a robust interface for managing and setting up SMS services. It is recommended to use Twilio over Plivo (which our POS also supports), as Twilio tends to offer an easier and more streamlined setup process, and has overall better customer service if you need to contact their support team for help.

Twilio is a paid, optional service that Grindless users can choose to enable. Users (i.e. owners) are responsible for payments and billing related to using the service. There are one-time setup fees associated with creating a Twilio account, as well as monthly fees for renting phone number(s) from Twilio. Each text message sent and received also incur a cost. Any fees are deducted from an ongoing balance on your Twilio account.

Creating an Account

To create a brand new Twilio account:

1. From a web browser, go to Twilio.com and begin creating an account. In the top right, look for a sign-up button, which may be labeled as “Start for Free”.
   • Even though Twilio allows you to create a trial account, you won’t be able to use texting from the POS until you upgrade your account to a regular account by adding a payment method and adding money to your Twilio account balance.
2. Fill out the account creation form in full, including your name, email, and password. You may be asked to verify your email address and/or phone number.
3. Twilio may ask questions on how you plan on using Twilio. Use the following answers:
   1. Which best describes you: Business
   2. What kind of business: Direct brand
   3. How would you describe your role: Business owner or director
   4. How do you want to build with Twilio: With no code at all
   5. What do you want to build with Twilio: Marketing
   6. Which channel are you interested in: SMS

Adding a Payment Method

Once your account is created and you are back on the main dashboard, click the “Upgrade” link in the top banner. This will allow you to add a payment method to your account and add some money to your account balance. You will be asked to create a customer profile, which may require additional verification (including verifying your identity).

When you reach the “Starting balance” screen, choose an amount between $50 and $100. When asked if you want to setup automatic recharge, choose “standard”. This allows Twilio to bill your card on file if your account balance falls below a given threshold. We highly recommend turning on auto-recharge or else you may run out of funds while sending texts from the POS and need to login to Twilio to manually add to your balance. Enable auto-recharge to avoid this. You will then be asked to enter a credit card number or link a PayPal account to your Twilio account for billing.

Purchasing Phone Numbers

With your account created and billing info added, you can proceed to purchasing your first phone number.

Important: if you operate multiple stores, you will need to use Subaccounts. Each store in your company will have its own subaccount in Twilio.

1. From the left menu, navigate to Phone Numbers > Manage > Buy a number
2. In the search box near the top, type in an area code that matches where your store is located and click Search.
   • The reason we choose a phone number from the same area code is to increase the likelihood of customers trusting the phone number. If they see a new text conversation from a phone number in their same region, they are more likely to open the conversation and read text messages from your number. The city shown also does not matter.
3. Find a phone number in the list to purchase and click Buy. Agree to any compliance requirements and proceed to buy the number.
   • It doesn’t matter which phone number you choose, so long as Voice, SMS, and MMS features are enabled.
   • You can add an emergency address, but it’s not required in our case. This is required in case you use your Twilio number to call 911. The POS does not have the ability to make outbound calls (especially to emergency services), so this step isn’t strictly necessary.
4. With your phone number now purchased, click Configure in the pop-up.
5. Under Voice Configuration, scroll down to “A call comes in” and replace the URL with this:
   • http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=%3CResponse%3E%3CDial%3E+1YOUR-NUMBER-HERE%3C%2FDial%3E%3C%2FResponse%3E
   • Replace “YOUR-NUMBER-HERE” above with your store’s actual phone number. This allows calls to be routed to your store in the event a customer calls the phone number that is texting them.
6. Under Messaging Configuration, scroll down to “A message comes in” and replace the URL with this:
   1. https://pos.grindless.com/api/twilio/message/YOUR-ORGID-HERE
   2. Replace “YOUR-ORGID-HERE” with your store’s organization ID from the Grindless POS. If you don’t know it, you can find it under Settings > Manage Organizations.

Subaccounts

If your business operates multiple locations, you will need to use Twilio’s subaccounts feature. Each store will have its own subaccount, and each subaccount will have its own phone numbers. This is how the POS knows which phone number to use when sending texts messages.

To create a new subaccount for each store, follow these steps:

1. In the top right of your Twilio dashboard, click your name (shown next to the search box) and choose Account Management from the menu.
2. From the left menu under Manage Account, choose Subaccounts.
3. From the upper right, click Create Subaccount. Give your new subaccount a name, such as your store’s name (including the city or some other identifier). This will only be seen by you.
4. With your new subaccount made, click on it from the list. You will now be taken to the dashboard for that subaccount.

Each subaccount acts as its own Twilio account, except the parent account provides billing, account balance, and other information that each subaccount can use.

Linking to the POS

In order for the Grindless POS to use your Twilio account, you will need to provide your Twilio account information to it.

1. Login as an Owner/Manager and navigate to Settings > Manage Organizations.
2. Find your store in the list and click the edit (pencil) icon.
3. In the SMS Settings section, fill out this information:
   1. Provider: Twilio
   2. accountsid: Your Twilio account SID.
      • Get this from your account dashboard in Twilio (console.twilio.com). Scroll down to Account Info and you’ll see your account SID and API (aka “auth”) token.
   3. apitoken: Your Twilio account API token.

For multi-store users, repeat the steps above for each of your stores’ subaccounts. You may need to switch to each subaccount in Twilio before gathering your SID and token.

10DLC Setup

Go to Messaging > Regulatory Compliance > A2P 10DLC Overview

Direct link: https://console.twilio.com/us1/develop/sms/regulatory-compliance/a2p-10dlc-overview

The process is you need to register your “brand” (company), then a “campaign” (verifying what your company will be sending texts regarding). Once that’s done, you’ll just need to get a phone number and link it to your brand + campaign. This info is then reviewed by Twilio and passed along to cell carrier to comply with anti-spam laws. So, click the link above and start going through the process.

Twilio has helpful information about the 10DLC sign-up process on their site here: https://help.twilio.com/articles/1260801864489-How-do-I-register-to-use-A2P-10DLC-messaging

Here are generic answers you can use during the sign-up process. Of course, alter these to include your company’s name and such.

 

Campaign Description

{business name} will periodically will send text messages to recipients’ phones who have opted-in to receive them. Text may be marketing related or to notify the recipient of an event or sale happening inside the store. Employees who work at the store may also receive texts describing their work schedule for the given week.

 

Message Flow

A customer makes a purchase in-store in-person and is asked if they would like to receive information about upcoming events or special offers. If they consent to receiving messages, they are added to a list of customers. Periodically, management at the store will send out text messages to one or more customer groups with relevant text messages (based on which category of information they have consented to receive). Customers are asked verbally if they would like to opt-in during checkout. If they agree, a text message is immediately sent to their phone number informing them of the change. With this text, they are told that they can opt-out at any time by replying back with “REMOVE”, at which point our system takes them off of any lists they are apart of. We do not buy lists of phone numbers or attempt to send messages to numbers belonging to people we have not personally interacted with or those who have not opted-in to receiving such text messages. Every customer who receives a text has consented to receiving them. They may unsubscribe at any time by replying with “REMOVE”. Customers may receive multiple text messages per month, and sometimes multiple per week (if they are signed up for multiple interest-based lists).

 

Sample Message #1

John Smith, join us this weekend for our memorial day sale. 20% off all items. Use code MEM23

 

#2

John Smith, we are hosting a late-night event this Saturday 7/16/2023 at 8pm. Join us for prizes and raffles. Tickets: $8

 

Help Message

Text STOP to stop receiving any messages from this number. Message & Data rates may apply.

 

Opt-out Message

You have replied with the word STOP which blocks all texts sent from this number. Text back “unstop” or “start” to receive messages again.

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If Twilio asks, you are registering as a “sole proprietor” type of business. More info about what this means is here: https://help.twilio.com/articles/9550596959643-New-Changes-to-A2P-10DLC-Starter-Brands-FAQ

Once your 10DLC application is submitted, it will take some time for Twilio to review it. Wait 24 hours and check your Twilio account to see if the process has been approved. Once approved, you can begin sending texts from the POS!