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Texting without consent, and opt-outs

What Lupa does when you text a customer who has not agreed to texts, and what happens when a customer replies STOP.

Lupa checks a customer's consent before a text sent from Lupa Dash and before every automatic text. In Lupa Dash you get a warning and can still choose to send. Automatic texts are held back instead.

Text a customer whose consent is not recorded

When you open the text thread of a customer who is not Approved, a warning appears above the composer. It names the customer's state:

  • No SMS consent on file
  • Consent request still pending
  • Client prefers email
  • Client revoked SMS consent

The warning adds Sending may violate carrier compliance. Send a consent request first or override at your own TFV risk. The composer reads Compose with caution — consent not on file, and the send button reads Send anyway.

To ask for consent instead of sending:

  1. Choose Send opt-in request first.

Lupa emails the customer an opt-in request and confirms with SMS opt-in request sent. The customer needs an email address on file. Without one, Lupa says Client has no email on file — add one first.

To send the text anyway:

  1. Type your message.
  2. Choose Send anyway.

The text is sent. The customer's Consent history records Operator override send, the time, and "operator" followed by a short reference to your user account. Overriding consent is your business's risk with the carriers.

If no warning appears for a customer who is not approved. You are replying to them. When the latest message in the thread came in from the customer in the last 24 hours, you can reply without a warning. A logged inbound call to your number counts as a message from the customer. After 24 hours, or once you have sent the latest message, the warning comes back. Check the customer's badge before you reply: never text a customer whose badge is Revoked, even in reply to a message from them.

Texts from technicians. Let your technicians know which customers have not agreed to texts, so they email those customers instead.

If a customer agreed to texts on a paper form or in person, you can record it in Lupa.

To record consent given outside Lupa:

  1. Choose Clients and select the customer.
  2. Under SMS consent, choose Mark as approved.
  3. The dialog reads I have a consent record on file outside Lupa for this number. Type your acknowledgement in Type your acknowledgement.
  4. Choose Confirm approval.

Lupa confirms with Client marked as approved (operator manual stamp). The badge changes to Approved, and Consent history records Approved by operator (manual stamp) and shows what you typed as the acknowledgement.

The acknowledgement cannot be empty. Lupa does not check the wording, so what you type is your own statement that the consent record exists. Keep that record, because the carriers can ask for it.

Mark as approved is available unless the customer is already Approved.

Some texts are sent by Lupa rather than typed by you. These are not sent to a customer who is not Approved:

  • On-the-way texts. When a technician marks a visit on the way, the text is held back. Lupa emails the same message to the customer instead, if they have an email address.
  • Completion texts sent from Lupa Tech in a browser.
  • The follow-up text after a caller presses 1.

Each held-back text adds Outbound SMS blocked by gate to the customer's Consent history.

When a customer replies STOP

A customer can reply STOP to any text, at any time, from any state. Lupa records it immediately. Nobody in your office has to do anything.

  • The badge changes to Revoked.
  • Consent history records Revoked via STOP keyword.
  • Automatic texts to that customer stop.

Lupa does not send a reply of its own. Lupa recognises the single word STOP, in upper or lower case.

If a text is refused because the customer opted out. Customers can also opt out through their phone carrier. If a text is refused for that reason, it shows opted out in the thread, followed by a note that begins Not delivered — this number has opted out of text messages at the carrier. The customer's badge changes to Revoked, and Consent history records Revoked — carrier reported an opt-out. Do not resend. Call or email the customer instead.

If you text a revoked customer. The composer still offers Send anyway under the Client revoked SMS consent warning. Texting someone who opted out is the send most likely to get your number flagged, so don't do it.

If the customer replies START. Lupa does not act on START. It arrives in Comms as an ordinary message, and the badge stays Revoked. To start texting the customer again, choose Re-invite via email on their file, or Mark as approved if they gave you consent another way.

Stop texting a customer who has not asked

To stop texting a customer:

  1. Choose Clients and select the customer.
  2. Under SMS consent, choose one of these:
  3. Revoke, if the customer is Approved or Prefers email. Lupa confirms with SMS consent revoked.
  4. Cancel pending, if the customer is Pending. Lupa confirms with Pending consent request cancelled.

Either way the badge changes to Revoked and Consent history records Revoked by operator.

Invite a revoked customer back

To invite a revoked customer back:

  1. Choose Clients and select the customer.
  2. Under SMS consent, choose Re-invite via email.

Lupa sends a fresh opt-in email and the badge changes to Pending. Re-invite via email is greyed out when the customer has no email address. Lupa only invites a revoked customer back by email, never by text.