Text messages.

Turn on text messages and your business gets its own Canadian phone number. Leads who text it talk to your assistant, and you stay in control of what goes back.

Turning it on

Go to Settings → Sales Assistant → Text messages and choose Turn on text messages. Only the business owner can do this. Tenlo sets up a local number, in your area code when one is available.

Put the number on your website, ads and signs. Turning text messages off releases the number, and you may not get the same one back.

How a text conversation works

When someone texts your number:

1. Tenlo finds the lead by phone number, or creates a new one.
2. If that lead is in a follow-up sequence, the sequence stops.
3. The assistant drafts a reply from your Knowledge Base and the conversation so far.

The draft appears on the Follow-ups tab under Texts, and you get an email alert. Edit it if you like, then approve it. If you’ve turned on Send clean drafts automatically in the follow-up card, a clean reply goes out on its own. Replies the assistant isn’t sure about still wait for you.

Texts can also go out as part of a follow-up sequence. See Sending the check-in as a text.

The rules Tenlo applies

• Canadian numbers only. Tenlo doesn’t text US or other non-Canadian numbers.
• Quiet hours. No texts between 9pm and 9am in the lead’s time, worked out from their area code. A text approved during quiet hours waits until 9am.
• STOP means stop. A lead who replies STOP gets no more texts from your number, and their follow-up sequence ends. Replying START allows texts again.
• Consent. A text needs a recorded reason to contact the lead, valid for six months: their enquiry or their express consent.

Follow-up texts end with your business name, a short link to your sender details, and “Reply STOP to opt out”.

Monthly allowance

Your business can send 300 texts a month. Settings → Sales Assistant → Text messages shows how many you’ve used. Texts from people to you don’t count.

When you reach the allowance, texts wait until the 1st of next month. Nothing is billed for extra texts. There’s also a daily limit of 100 texts per business; texts over that wait until the next morning.