Setting up an SMS number in Vetspire and Ways to Prevent Your Text Messages From Being Filtered

Purchasing a Number in Vetspire:

• An organization's administrative team will need to submit a request for the new location's local SMS number at least 15 days before going live.
• Organizational Admins need to submit a request for new locations' Toll-Free SMS numbers at least 45 days before going live. 
• Requests need to be submitted via ticket on https://support.vetspire.com/ 

 Vetspire Support utilizes alarms integrated with Twilio to promptly detect instances of message blocking. We diligently monitor these alarms. However, it is imperative for each organization to ensure compliance with the information provided herein. Failure to do so may lead to undelivered messages and potential suspension of the local location's number by Twilio.

Prevent Your SMS Messages From Being Blocked by Carriers:

• All reminders need to have the opt-out option by including "reply STOP to unsubscribe" somewhere in the message.
• If using macros as reminders, and these are sent consistently, the message "reply STOP to unsubscribe" will need to be included in that macro. 
• Text reminders should never be formatted like an email, with paragraphs and spaces between sentences.
• An SMS (text) is limited to 160 characters. Although longer messages appear to send in a singular message, but they are actually segmented. Messages that require 5 or more segments to send are at higher risk of being blocked by a cellular carrier. 
• Neither Vetspire nor Twilio can override a carrier's decision to mark a text as spam; we can only appeal that decision, so following the above guidelines is vital to helping prevent your messages from being reported as spam. 

How Does Text Unsubscribe Work: 

• Currently, when a client replies "Stop" to a message, Twilio will unsubscribe the text message recipient (client) from the Vetspire clinic number and this will not be reflected in Vetspire. (There is a requested future enhancement to have this decision be recorded in the client's chart.)
• If the client wants to start receiving text messages from the clinic again, they will have to text "start" to the number from which they unsubscribed.

Common link-shortening 

• Common link-shortening is not supported by Twilio (our third-party vendor) & US carriers. 
• Below is a list of a few of the most common link-shortening services; messages containing these URLs will be automatically blocked by certain carriers:
  • bit.ly
  • goo.gl
  • tinyurl.com
  • tiny.cc
  • is.gd
  • soo.gd
  • s2r.co
  • clicky.me
  • budurl.com
  • bc.vc
• We recommend sending the full-length link in your messages to prevent them from being filtered. Alternatively, these links can be sent via email. 

Cannabis/CBD-related Messaging

• SMS (text) or MMS (multi media) messages related to cannabis are not allowed to be sent in the United States, as federal law prohibit its sale, even though some states have legalized it. Similarly, messages related to CBD products are not permissible in the United States, as certain states prohibit its sale. There are no exceptions to this policy.
  • Trying to avoid this by placing spaces in the CBD will still be blocked. 
• Twilio, Vetspire's messaging provider, defines a cannabis-related message as "any message which relates to the marketing or sale of a cannabis product, regardless of whether or not those messages explicitly contain cannabis terms, images, or links to cannabis websites."

• If information on cannabis/CBD products needs to be sent to clients, please utilize email as an alternative form of communication for these messages, specifically.