Enabling and Configuring SMS / Text Messaging

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SMS messaging, or texting, in CERVIS works by having CERVIS send SMS messages through your existing Twilio messaging account. There is a $250 annual fee to use SMS messaging in your CERVIS system.  There will also be fees with Twilio for each message you send (for more information about messaging rates and pricing please refer to their website HERE). Essentially, you will pay CERVIS yearly to activate and maintain the feature, and then you will have ongoing fees with Twilio based on your service agreement with them and the amount of messages you send. 

Please contact CERVIS Customer Support at support@cervistech.com to enable SMS on your account. Once enabled, you’ll need to establish an account with Twilio and configure it to work with CERVIS. To do so, please follow the steps below:

Setup a Twilio account

If you don't already have a FREE account with Twilio, then you will need to sign up for one through their website at https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio.  

If you are a non-profit, you should also look into their "Impact Access program" at https://www.twilio.org/benefits where they offer discounts and free message credits for those organizations with confirmed eligibility.

Purchase a Phone number

Once you have your Twilio account, you will need to purchase a phone number to send SMS / Text messages from. Phone numbers through Twilio typically cost around $1 per month for each number you purchase. If you will be sending out a high volume of messages, or messages to recipients in many different parts of the country, you may want to consider buying multiple numbers. If you're not sure how many numbers you need, we recommend starting with a single number, as you can always add additional numbers in the future.

To purchase a phone number, please follow, the steps and corresponding screenshots below:

1. Sign in to your Twilio account (if you're not already signed in): https://www.twilio.com/login
2. Click on the Phone Numbers menu option on the left side of the screen
3. Click on the Buy a Number option
4. Search for a number with "SMS" capabilities in your desired area code
5. Click the Buy button next to the number you want to buy

Create a Messaging Service

A Twilio Messaging Service is a higher-level “bundling” of messaging functionality around a common set of senders, features, and configuration that allows you to send messages from Twilio by using your CERVIS account. To create a messaging service in your Twilio account, please complete these steps:

1. Sign in to your Twilio account (if you're not already signed in): https://www.twilio.com/login
2. Click on the Messaging menu option on the left side of the screen
3. Click on the Services option
4. Click the Create Messaging Service at the bottom of the page
5. Enter "CERVIS" as the Messaging Service friendly name
6. Select "Notify my users" for the Select what to use Messaging for option
7. Click the Create Messaging Service button

Add Your Twilio Phone Number into your Messaging Service

In order to use your Twilio messaging service to send messages from within your CERVIS account, you will first need to add the phone number, that you purchased in the steps above, to your Twilio messaging service. To accomplish this, please follow these instructions:

1. Sign in to your Twilio account (if you're not already signed in): https://www.twilio.com/login
2. Click on the Messaging menu option on the left side of the screen
3. Click on the Services option
4. Click the name of the messaging service you created above
5. Click on the Sender Pool option
6. Click on the Add Senders button
7. Set the Sender Type to Phone Number
8. Click the Continue button
9. Place a checkmark in the checkbox next to the number (or multiple numbers) that you created previously
10. Click the Add Phone Numbers button

Enable and Configure SMS Message Replies

When you send out a message from your CERVIS console, by default, any replies to that message will be discarded. If you would like to receive the content of any message replies, you will need to configure message replies in your Twilio account by following these steps:

1. Sign in to your Twilio account (if you're not already signed in): https://www.twilio.com/login
2. Click on the Messaging menu option on the left side of the screen
3. Click on the Services option
4. Click the name of the messaging service you created above
5. Click on the Integration option
6. Click on the radio button next to Send a webhook under the Incoming Messages section of the page
7. Enter the URL "https://www.cervistech.com/acts/sms_response.php?provider=twilio&org_id=xxxx" into the "Request URL" field (NOTE: You must replace the “xxxx” at the end of the URL with your Organization ID that can be found in System Configuration of your CERVIS Console under the “Organization Information” section.)
8. Click the Save button down at the bottom of the screen

Once you have completed the steps above, the system will send an email message, containing the content of the SMS message reply, to your primary organization email and primary contact email any time someone replies to an SMS message that you send (these are the default addresses that will receive a copy of the message, but this can be customized later in the instructions below).

The reply email that you receive will look similar to the example below:

REQUIRED -- Register your Organization as a "Trusted Sender" for improved message deliverability and increased message throughput

In the face of ever-increasing phone and SMS SPAM, mobile carriers in the United States (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, etc) have increasingly exercised tighter scrutiny over who is allowed to send messages over their mobile networks. As a result, mobile carriers in the U.S. have implemented additional requirements for organizations (both businesses and non-profits) wishing to send SMS traffic to recipients on their mobile networks. These new requirements are grouped together in the mobile network industry in what they are calling "A2P 10DLC". 

"A2P 10DLC" stands for "Application-to-Person 10-digit long code messaging" and is the latest offering from U.S. carriers to help support the growing ecosystem of businesses and non-profit organizations texting their customers while protecting end users from unwanted messages. 10-digit long codes (which are the same thing as standard 10-digit phone numbers) have traditionally been designed for Person-to-Person (P2P) traffic only, causing businesses to be constrained by limited throughput and heightened filtering. The launch and support of A2P 10DLC across all carriers in the United States provides good actors, such as CERVIS customers, with increased deliverability and throughput, but also requires additional registration to build trust with carriers. There are also associated fees with this registration process and also a very small increase in per-message carrier fees.

In the past, registering your A2P 10DLC was an optional action, however, it is now REQUIRED by all major carriers.  Failing to register will result in additional fees per message and limits on the number of messages you are able to send.  Please reviewing the information here before starting the registration process:  https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260801864489-How-do-I-register-to-use-A2P-10DLC-messaging-

You can get started with A2P 10 DLC registration by following these steps:

1. Sign in to your Twilio account (if you're not already signed in): https://www.twilio.com/login
2. Click on the Messaging menu option on the left side of the screen
3. Click on the A2P 10DLC Overview option
4. Follow the prompts on the page to register a new "Brand" which will include information about your organization.
5. After registering your "Brand", you will want to register a "Campaign" which will tell mobile carriers what types of messages you will be sending.
6. When creating your campaign, you will select the A2P Brand that you created in the previous steps.
7. For the Available A2P Campaign use cases field, you will select the option that best matches your intended usage scenario.  For most organizations, this will be "Low Volume Mixed" or "Charity" (for validated non-profit organizations), but may vary based on your specific requirements.
8. Select the Existing Messaging Service that you created previously in the "Create a Messaging Service" section above.
9. For the Campaign description, provide a simple description of what types of messages you are planning on sending out.  This will be different for each organization, but should be something simple such as "We are a non-profit organization that uses SMS to send out communication regarding volunteer opportunities to our volunteer base"
10. For the Sample messages, again this will be different for each organization, but some basic examples would include:  "Hi John,  This is a reminder that you are registered to volunteer tomorrow.  We can't wait to see you there!  Reply STOP to opt out." and "Hi John, We are in urgent need of volunteers for tomorrow's event.  If you are available, please sign-up online through your volunteer profile.   Reply STOP to opt out.".
11. For the Message contents options, please select the checkboxes that messages will include embedded links and phone numbers
12. For the How do end-users consent to receive messages? field, use the following:  "We utilize CERVIS Online Volunteer Management Software to manage the volunteer program for our organization, including SMS communication with our established volunteer base.  Volunteers are presented with the option to opt-in to receive text messages when they are creating or updating their profile in the system. Opting in to receive text messages is completely optional and a volunteer can opt out at any time within their profile or by texting 'STOP' to a message they receive. Opt-in occurs when volunteers are creating or updating their profile at the website: https://cerv.is/3240a. You can view the opt-in language by mousing over the 'Receive Text Messages' checkbox on the page and you can view the privacy policy by clicking on the privacy policy link down at the bottom of the page or by visiting this website: https://cerv.is/privacy.  All volunteer and opt-in data is collected directly by our organization (using CERVIS) and is collected for exclusive use by our organization.  No volunteer or opt-in data is collected by 3rd party organizations, nor is data provided to any 3rd parties after it is collected by our organization."
13. Click on the Create button to submit the campaign information for review.
14. Once your campaign has been submitted, it will be reviewed by Twilio and you will be notified once it has been approved or if there are any issues.  At this point you may continue the setup below to configure CERVIS to send messages through your Twilio account, but your message throughput may be limited until your campaign is approved and activated by Twilio.

Configure CERVIS to Send Messages via Twilio

Now that you have your Twilio account set up, you will need to copy your authentication from your Twilio account and input it into your CERVIS console.  Please follow these steps to complete the setup:

Retrieve Authentication Information from Twilio

1. Sign in to your Twilio account (if you're not already signed in): https://www.twilio.com/login
2. Click on the Console Dashboard option at the top of the screen
3. Locate and copy your Twilio Account SID for input into your CERVIS console
4. Locate and copy your Twilio Auth Token for input into your CERVIS console (if this value is not being displayed, click the Show option to view it)
5. Click on the Messaging menu on the left side of the screen
6. Click on the Services option
7. Locate and copy your Twilio Messaging Service SID or input into your CERVIS console

Input Twilio Authentication Information into CERVIS

1. Sign into your CERVIS console
2. Click on the Edit System Configuration option under the "System Management" section of your CERVIS Main Dashboard.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the CERVIS System Configuration page and expand the SMS Gateway section. If you do not see the SMS Gateway section in your CERVIS System Configuration, you will need to contact CERVIS Customer Support to enable this functionality. There is a $250 yearly activation and maintenance fee to use SMS messaging in your CERVIS system.
4. Input your Twilio Account SID into the Twilio Account SID field in your CERVIS System Configuration
5. Input your Twilio Auth Token into the Twilio Authentication Token field in your CERVIS System Configuration
6. Input your Twilio Messaging Service SID into the Twilio Messaging Service SID field in your CERVIS System Configuration
7. OPTIONAL: If you would like to specify a custom list of individuals who will receive an E-mail notification any time a recipient of an SMS / Text message replies, please enter a comma separated list of E-mail addresses in the Send SMS Replies To field in your CERVIS System Configuration. If this field is left blank, SMS message replies will be sent to the main contact address and the primary organization address for your account 
8. Click the Update Configuration button in your CERVIS System Configuration to complete the SMS setup in your CERVIS Console

Sending SMS / Text Messages from within CERVIS

After completing these steps, SMS is now enabled in your account and you can manually send out SMS messages or configure your events to send SMS reminders. For instructions on how to send SMS messages, review the Knowledge Base Article linked HERE.