Are there any regulations associated to sending SMS messages to people in my CRM system?

Can my SMS account be connected to more than one CRM system?

Can people respond to my SMS messages?

Can people unsubscribe from SMS messages?

Yes – they can just text the word “STOP” to the number the SMS was sent from, and they will be unsubscribed.

If you try to send an SMS message to someone who has unsubscribed, they will never receive your message, and you will not be charged for that SMS message.

Does PowerSMS work for international numbers?

How much does PowerSMS cost?

A subscription to PowerSMS is $1/user/month. A user is defined as anyone enabled in your CRM system, including admin and read-only users. Additional to the fee you pay for PowerSMS, you will also have to pay for the text messages sent by your third party text message provider (Twilio or CallFire).

What are the system requirements for PowerSMS?

PowerSMS can be used with CRM 2011 or higher and requires acceess ADFS forms based authentication - login fields need to be embedded on the webpage. The cloud cannot access your CRM if you have a pop-up login.

Example of ADFS forms based:

How do I setup my Callfire account in PowerSMS?

Once you’ve finished setting up your CallFire account, navigate back to Settings, then Solution in CRM, and double-click on PowerSMS to reopen the solution and select the Setup tab. Select CallFire in the Service Provider dropdown list.

CallFire

SMS URL

If the URL is not already there, please double click in the blank space under the “value” column, next to SMS URL, and put https://www.callfire.com/api/1.0/soap12/text in the value area.

API Username
This is the App username that was given to you when you set up the API key in your CallFire account.

API Password
This is the App password that was given to you when you set up the API key in your CallFire account.

Bitly
Connect your PowerSMS solution with Bitly so that you can text short links to records in your system. To get an access token from your Bitly account, please login to your Bitly account and navigate to https://bitly.com/a/oauth_apps, here you will be able to generate your token.

How do I setup my Twilio account in PowerSMS?

Once you’ve finished setting up your Twilio account, navigate back to Settings, then Solution in CRM, and double-click on PowerSMS to reopen the solution and select the Setup tab. Select Twilio in the Service Provider dropdown list.

Phone Number
This is where you will want to add the Phone Number that Twilio assigned to your account when you initially registered for the service.

Account SID
This is the Account SID that was given to you on the dashboard of your Twilio account.

Auth Token
This is the Token that was given to your on the dashboard of your Twilio account.

Bitly
Connect your PowerSMS solution with Bitly so that you can text short links to records in your system. To get an access token from your Bitly account, please login to your Bitly account and navigate to https://bitly.com/a/oauth_apps, here you will be able to generate your token.

How do I setup Twilio for incoming messages?

If you are using the Twillio SMS service, you will be able to track SMS replies back inside of CRM as well. To configure how SMS replies are tracked, navigate to the “Received SMS Match” tab in the PowerSMS solution. When an SMS message is replied to, PowerSMS will search through the entities configured here, search through the defined “SMS Match” phone numbers, and set the message regarding the first record it finds. To add an Entity to be searched in, Click “+ Add Entity”. To remove an entity to be searched in, select the dropdown, and click on “X” next to the entity you’d like to remove.

Next, choose an entity in the dropdown, and configure which phone number fields you’d like to search in. You can add fields by dragging them from the right-hand list, under the “SMS Match” section. You can remove fields by clicking on the “X” next to the field name. Search order defines, when an SMS message comes back in, which entities are searched in first. The SMS message will be set regarding the first record that is found with a matching phone number.

After you’re done with your configuration, remember to click Save.

Which SMS providers can I use with PowerSMS?

To use PowerSMS, you'll need an account with one of the third party SMS providers integrated with the solution. At this time, PowerSMS itegrates with CallFire and Twilio. For information on each of these providers, including their SMS rates, please visit their websites.

Once you have chosen one of these providers, you will need to sign up for an account with them. For instructions on how setup accounts with either provider, see the import guide on the PowerSMS webpage.

Who needs the PowerSMS User security role?

In order for CRM users that are not System Administrators to be able to use PowerSMS, they will need to be assigned the PowerSMS User security role. System Administrators will automatically be able to use PowerSMS.

Can people unsubscribe from SMS messages?

Yes – they can just text the word “STOP” to the number the SMS was sent from, and they will be unsubscribed.

If you try to send an SMS message to someone who has unsubscribed, they will never receive your message, and you will not be charged for that SMS message.

Do I need people to opt-in to receive SMS messages?

It is the CRM user’s responsibility to ensure that people they are sending SMS messages to have opted into receive text messages. There are a number of ways to keep track of opt-ins in CRM. One option to keep track of SMS opt-ins would be to add a radio button to the contact/lead form called “Allow SMS Message” and set that to radio button to “yes” or “no” depending on that person’s SMS preference.

How can I tell if my SMS message was sent?

After your SMS message is sent, you will get a message in the “Status Reason” field, letting you know either that your message was sent successfully, that it’s pending send, or that the sending failed. The “Results” field on the message record may also provide additional information as to why a message may have failed.

Under the PowerPack tab, you will also find an SMS Message area that lists all SMS messages that were sent, what the message was and who it was sent to. You can change this view to one of the views created by the solution or create your own SMS view.

How do I know if someone responded to my SMS message?

If you’re using Twilio as your SMS provider, you will be able not only send messages to international phone numbers, but will also be able to track SMS replies back in CRM.

If someone replies to your SMS message, and the responding phone number matches a phone number on a record in your CRM, the response message will automatically be set regarding that record. The status reason of the SMS message will be “Received”. Even if the recipient replies “STOP” to unsubscribe, this will also be tracked in CRM.

Responses can be found in the PowerPack section of CRM under SMS Messages. This section will give you a list of all sent and received SMS messages. If a received SMS message does not match a phone number format in CRM it’s regarding will not be set, as shown in the second SMS record below:

Additionally, you will be able to see sent and received SMS messages on the individual contact or lead records that you send the SMS messages under closed activities.

How do I send an SMS message from PowerSMS?

A SMS message can be sent to any CRM record that allows activities to be added to it. There are a number of different ways to send a PowerSMS from your CRM.

Select one of the following options for instructions.

Sending a SMS to One Person

If you would like to send a SMS to just one person, navigate to their record in CRM and open their record. From the ellipsis select ‘Other Activities’ and then ‘SMS Message.’

If that person has a mobile phone number on their record, that phone number will automatically be populated into the “Phone Number” field on the SMS activity record. The regarding field of the message will be filled in with the name of the person you are sending the SMS to. Type your message in the “SMS Message” field, and click on “Mark Complete” to send the message. Clicking “Save” or “Save & Close” will not send the message.

Sending a SMS via Workflow

Another option for sending a PowerSMS message would be by using a workflow, which automatically fires off the SMS when something happens in your CRM. To send a SMS message through a workflow, you would build the workflow as usual, setting up what trigger you would like to send the SMS message. For example, send a SMS message when a case is closed, or when an opportunity is set to won. Then add a “Create Record” step, and choose SMS Message.

Click on Set Properties, to the right of where you selected to create an SMS Message, and use the Form Assistant on the right hand side of the screen to dynamically fill in the phone number field with a cell phone number, and type the SMS message.

Then Save and Close. Next, add another step, a “Change Status” step, that will change the status of the SMS to “Pending Sent.” This will actually send the SMS message.

Finally, Save, Activate and test your workflow.

Sending to a Marketing List

To send a SMS to a marketing list of accounts, contacts or leads, you first need to create a workflow that can be run manually. To do this, navigate to CRM Settings > Processes and click New. Name the process, and choose the type of entity that your marketing list will be made up of (either contacts, leads or accounts). Then click OK.

Next, uncheck the box that says “Start when: Record is created”, and check the box that says “Available to Run: As an on-demand process.”

Add a Step, choose “Create Record” and choose “SMS Message” in the drop down. Then click on Set Properties.

Use the form assistant on the right side to dynamically insert the mobile number of the lead, contact, or account. Type the SMS message you would like to send, and click Save and Close.

Note: You can also use the form assistant on the right-hand side to insert dynamic values (such as the person’s name) into the text message.

Now, add a step that will change the status of the SMS message to “Pending Sent”, which will send the message. To do this, click on “Add Step” and add a “Change Status” step. Choose “SMS Message” in the first dropdown and “Pending Sent” in the second dropdown, so that your workflow steps look similar to the below.

Then Save and Activate your workflow.

Next, create a marketing list, as you normally would in CRM. Once you have pulled together your marketing list members, click on marketing list members on the left hand side, and click to select all members at the top of the view. Click on Run Workflow at the top of the window, and select the workflow you just created. Then click OK.

Remember to repeat this with each page of marketing list members. Note: It is your responsibility as the user to comply with mass SMS laws.

How do I update my username and password?

To update your CRM username/password in a solution, navigate to Settings, then select Solutions and double click on the PowerPack add-on you need to update. Once the solution page has opened, re-enter the username/password in the CRM Credentials section, and press Submit.

I get a duplicate record error when I save an SMS Activity, why?

This error appeared when saving an SMS Activity.

This error has been reported by users who did not have correct privileges to use PowerSMS. Please navigate to Settings > Adminsitration > Users, open the record for the user receiving the error, and select Manage Roles, and add the appropriate PowerEmail role.

I received an error when trying to send an SMS?

This error appeared when the Mark Complete was selected.

This error has been reported by users who did not have correct privileges to use PowerSMS. Please navigate to Settings > Adminsitration > Users, open the record for the user receiving the error, and select Manage Roles, and add the appropriate PowerEmail role.

Why does my message results say that I violated blacklist rules?

The message From/To pair violates a blacklist rule.