Set-up and Manage your Text Messaging Inbox – OfferingTree Support

Ready to connect with your audience in a whole new way? This article will guide you through the simple steps to set up your two-way texting inbox, allowing you to send and receive text messages directly within your software. Please keep in mind that this feature is currently available for users in the US, UK, and CA.

How to get started:

Step 1: Navigate to the Text Messaging Inbox. You'll find this under the "Communications" section.
Step 2: If you haven't already, you'll be prompted to add the "Conversational Text Messaging" add-on to your subscription.
Step 3: After purchasing your plan, return to your text messaging inbox and click the button to add a phone number. You will be presented with options to choose the specific phone number you'd like to associate with your plan.
Step 4: Important: Once you have selected your phone number, our support team will reach out to you directly. They will contact you to gather essential business information required to provision your business phone number for texting purposes. Please keep an eye out for communication from our team so we can finalize your text messaging setup and you can start connecting with your contacts!

The complete setup of your phone number for texting can take a few business days. Once everything is finalized, you'll be able to communicate directly with your clients through your Text Messaging Inbox. Additionally, you'll gain the ability to send text messages through your automations.

Features & Capabilities

Once your setup is complete, you can begin communicating directly with your clients through your dashboard or on the go via the OfferingTree Business mobile app.

Two-Way Inbox & Message Management

Individual Conversations: Communicate 1:1 with clients directly from your inbox.
Conversations-Only Filter: Clean up your inbox by filtering out automated messages (such as class reminders or system sends) so you can focus strictly on client replies.
Message Search: Search past text content across all conversations to find key details quickly.
Automations Integration: Trigger automated text messages through your workflows. See below how to add texts to an automation.

Text Message Blasts

Send a single text message to a group of clients at once, just like an email newsletter.

Targeted Audience Options: Send to all opted-in clients, individually selected contacts, a saved client segment, specific tags (include/exclude), or the roster of a class/event series.
Scheduling: Choose to send immediately or schedule for a future date and time. Scheduled blasts can be edited or canceled anytime before they go out.
1:1 Reply Handling: When a client replies to a blast, their response lands in your inbox as an individual 1:1 conversation rather than a group thread.
Automatic Opt-Out Protection: Clients who have opted out of text messaging are automatically excluded from all sends, regardless of the audience selected.

Adding Text Messages to Automations

With the Conversational Text Messaging add-on, you can integrate SMS steps directly into your automated campaign flows to send timely, hands-off messages based on client actions.

How to Add an SMS Step to a Flow

Navigate to the Automations section in your dashboard and select an existing campaign flow or click to create a new one.
Locate the point in your flow sequence where you want the message to trigger, and click the + to add a step.
Choose Send Text Message (or SMS) from the list of available action types alongside standard actions like emails or delays.
By default, the step sends to Contact in Automation. Choose what should happen if a contact doesn't have a valid phone number on file:
- Skip this step: Skips sending the text message and moves the contact directly to the next step in the automation flow.
- End this automation: Immediately stops and exits the contact from the automation sequence.
Write your text content in the message editor. You can personalize the text using merge tags (such as %FIRSTNAME% or %NEXTAPPOINTMENTDATE%).
Check the estimated text segment usage preview for the step, then click Save Step to commit your changes to the flow.

Key Setup Options & Rules

Missing Phone Number Fallback: Choose between skipping the step to keep contacts moving through the flow or ending the automation altogether for contacts without a phone number.
Live Segment Counter: The counter under the text input calculates characters in real time, showing you exactly how many text segments your message will use before you save.
1:1 Conversation Continuity: If a contact replies to an automated text message, their response will land directly in your Text Messaging Inbox as an individual conversation so you can follow up manually.

Quotas & Usage Tracking

Shared Quota: Text Blasts use your business's existing text messaging quota—there is no separate blast allotment required.
Segment Estimates: Before sending or scheduling a blast, you will see an estimated segment count based on your message length and recipient list size so there are no surprises against your monthly quota.
Dynamic Recalculation: For scheduled blasts, the final segment count is recalculated at the exact time of sending to accurately reflect your current audience size.
Learn more about Text Message Segment Quotas

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