Business text messaging

What is business text messaging (also known as business SMS)?

Business text messaging is when you send a short message (or an SMS) from your business phone to your contact's phone number. It's important to note that this is not the same as team or instant messaging, where you have messaging threads and team channels since those don't require phone numbers to work.

Businesses use texting for appointment reminders, customer support, order notifications, and follow-ups after a call. You can text external numbers outside your organization, not just other Dialpad users, so you can reach customers, prospects, and partners on the phones they already use.

Depending on the service, business texting can be text-only (SMS) or include images and other media (MMS). The difference between SMS and MMS comes down to content: SMS carries text only, while MMS can include media and longer messages. Dialpad supports both, along with A2P messaging and internal team messaging in the same app.

Why business texting belongs on the same platform as your calls

When texting lives in a separate tool, customer conversations can end up split across apps, logins, and bills. Dialpad developed its UCaaS and CCaaS products natively on a shared foundation, so texting, calling, team messaging, meetings, and contact center work share one app and one set of customer data rather than being packaged from separate products.

For your team, that means a customer's recent calls and texts are easy to find in the same app. Reps can text a link while they're still on a call, or reply by text after a missed call. For IT, it can mean one fewer tool to buy, secure, and maintain, with numbers, users, and texting managed alongside the rest of your Dialpad communications.

Texting is built into Dialpad Connect and carries into Dialpad Sell and Dialpad Support for contact centers, so sales and support teams text from the same AI platform for customer experience they already use.

Text customers without losing the conversation

Customers don't necessarily think in channels. They call, text a follow-up question, then call back. When those conversations stay connected, customers are less likely to have to repeat themselves.

Sales and support teams can send and receive texts from shared numbers, like a department or contact center line, so customers reach the team instead of one person's phone. Customers see the team's name along with the name of the person replying.

With digital channels enabled, Dialpad Support for contact centers can route inbound texts to available agents, send an automated greeting, collect contact details before an agent joins, and handle after-hours messages based on your business hours. Agents reply from the same Dialpad app they use for calls, as part of an omnichannel contact center.

After a contact center call, you can also send a short customer satisfaction survey by text, so customers can respond on their own time instead of staying on the line.

Business texting features for sales and support teams

Shared line messaging

Send and receive texts from main line, department, and contact center numbers. Replies land in the shared line's inbox, where team members on that line can pick them up.

Group texting

Start a group text with up to 25 people when everyone uses Dialpad, or up to 10 people when the group includes external numbers.

Bulk messaging

On eligible plans, send the same SMS or MMS to many recipients at once from a personal or shared line. Bulk messages can be scheduled, which makes them useful for automated text messages like reminders and notices. Admins choose which users, departments, and contact centers can send them.

Personal templates

Save replies you send often and drop them into any conversation, including on shared lines. Your templates stay private to you.

Content checks before sending

Dialpad checks outbound texts against carrier content standards and flags messages that may be filtered, so you can revise them before they go out.

Delivery status and analytics

See when a text wasn't delivered and why, and track sent, delivered, and failed messages in your analytics.

Custom caller ID

Text and call from your own mobile phone without sharing your personal number. Choose which caller ID to display when you send business SMS or make calls from the Dialpad app.

Business texting use cases by industry

Healthcare

Clinics and practices can text appointment confirmations and reminders, share pre-visit instructions, and follow up after a visit from a shared practice number, so patients hear from the practice rather than a staff member's personal phone.

Credit unions and financial services

Member service teams can answer quick questions by text and follow up after a call, with conversations logged to the CRM so the next person who helps a member has context.

Auto dealerships

Service advisors can text customers when a vehicle is ready or a repair needs approval, using a business number instead of a personal cell. Photos can go by MMS.

Field and home services

Scheduling and dispatch teams can confirm appointments, share arrival windows, and handle rescheduling by text, which can help reduce missed visits.

Insurance and sales teams

When a new lead comes in, a text alongside a call can help reps reach prospects faster, and those messages can log to Salesforce or HubSpot for follow-up.

Business texting compliance and registration

US carriers require businesses that text 10-digit phone numbers to register their brand and messaging use case, a process known as A2P 10DLC registration. Dialpad's SMS registration process walks you through registering your brand and campaigns, which helps keep your messages from being filtered or blocked. The A2P messaging rules behind registration apply to most business texting in the US.

When a recipient replies STOP, Dialpad sends an opt-out confirmation and stops further texts to that number from your organization. HELP replies return a message you can customize with your business's contact details, and an opt-out API shows which numbers have opted out.

Your organization is still responsible for how it collects consent, so review carrier and TCPA requirements as you set up texting.

Business texting integrations for your CRM and other tools

Texts sent and received in Dialpad can log automatically to Salesforce and HubSpot as activities on the matching record, including texts from shared department and contact center lines. Bulk messages can also log to Microsoft Dynamics. Sales and support teams get the customer conversation in the CRM without copying and pasting.

Dialpad also integrates with tools like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Zendesk, so texting fits into the rest of your workflow.

How teams use Dialpad business texting

James River Equipment moved customer communication off personal phones and onto dedicated business numbers in Dialpad. Using texting, media sharing, and video together, the team cut in-person trips by 75%.

At Andy Mohr Auto, texting runs in the same Dialpad app the dealership uses for calls, so service staff can text customers from a business number when a vehicle is ready.

At Los Angeles Pacific University, staff text from inside the Dialpad dialer in Salesforce, which helps keep everyone working in one view.

Riders Share, often called the "Airbnb of motorcycles," runs customer support with a small team, so even CEO Guillermo Cornejo helps customers regularly. Texting is built into the same Dialpad app the team uses for calls, so there's no separate texting tool to pay for or manage.