Introduction

SMS Text has been part of NAS for a while, but Newline ASP have made it more efficient and cost effective. For more information read on.

Where do you SMS / text from in NAS?

Trading analysis

Select date range, sellers & / or buyers trading criteria (sale days, types, sections, groups) and send SMS messages based on the results of the analysis. Allowing to you to target and market to customers interested in the specific areas you selected.

Customer Account

SMS Text messages can be sent and viewed in the customer account screen from the contacts menu at the top of the form. Select TEXT as the type of contact and the mobile number on the account you wish to send it from.

An audit of the messages sent can be viewed for this customers on the view SMS messages menu.

Sales Ledger

Texting can be a good reminder for outstanding money. Click the contacts button in see buyers record and send a text.

SMS Enhancements in NAS

SMS Expiry Timescale

Allows the user to set an expiry. Therefore, if broadband is down or there is some kind of network issue the user can que up the SMS message and delivery but know that if the network issue is not resolved within a certain time the SMS will not send after that time and will not use up credits for a message sent too late.

Short Name from SMS

Show the short name to describe the SMS sender on the recipient's mobile phone.

Show how many characters long the SMS is and therefore how many credits it will use.

NB: 1 credit is 160 characters including the Opt Out Message which is required by GDPR. It is universal SMS practice if the text exceeds 160 characters to charge 1 credit for every 153 characters, including the initial 160 is reduced to 153. 

Opt Out Message

The opt out message may be changed to your own choice of prefix text but MUST finish Txt END to 85525

Check for Valid Mobile Numbers

The SMS process now runs through a central control point allowing validation of mobile numbers using Azure�s latest mobile verification API. This will ensure you are only charged for sending SMS to valid mobile numbers.

SMS Report Summary

Many enhancements in the new SMS Report they are bullet pointed below and more detail can be found online in our knowledge base articles

Helpdesk : Newline ASP

• Message Grouping
• Delete Messages
• Customer Search
• Easier Reading of multiline messages
• Loading Improvements
• Live Update
• Delivery Status

SMS Report

There is a new SMS report which can be found in the contact management menu.

Date Range

Select a from and to range to see texts or groups of texts that have been sent during that time span.

Status

• Not Processed
• Expired
• Deleted
• Sent
• Delivered

Not Processed = An issue occurred, and the text is not ready to send

Expired = Did not send within timeout parameter and therefore has expired and will not be sent

Deleted = Newline support feature

Sent = Text message has been sent

Delivered = The user has the text message (do not know if they have read it)

Count

When viewing groups you can see how many messages the group contained.

Message

The drop-down arrow \ v expands the , message so you can easily see what was written in the text.

Groups

If you text many people in one go from the trading analysis this will create one group of texts to many recipients. Viewing Groups shows all the groups that have been sent. Unticking this shows the individual text within each group, plus more data about each specific recipient.

+ & -

You can expand group data for more information clicking the + or hide it clicking the -.

Delete Messages

This feature is for Newline technical support team.

Delete

Newline can delete specific customer texts one at a time if you have viewing groups unticked.

Delete Group

Newline can click the delete group button to delete an entire group of texts in one go, if you are viewing the report with viewing groups ticked.

Customer Filter

You can search by name or account number and filter the report to show a specific customer.

SMS Billing

The billing process is changing. The billing will now work that you will not need to buy bundles in advance but only pay for the SMS used after you use them. Newline ASP will invoice a month in arrears for SMS usage.

Summary

SMS Texting from NAS is easy and a great way to keep in contact with your customers directly to their mobile which is usually with them. You pay for what you use, after you have used it.