SMS and email consent: who you can message
Quotes, invoices, booking and job-ready messages go to anyone. Marketing (campaigns, automations, review invites) only goes to people who've opted in. STOP replies and bounces block everything.
Where it is
- Contact → Marketing section — Open a contact; the Email, SMS and Push switches are under Marketing.
- Marketing → Audiences → Suppressions — Everyone who unsubscribed, bounced or texted STOP.
Settings for this
- Integrations → Customer notifications → Automations — Which automatic customer messages are switched on.
- Settings → Customer portal — Customers can choose their own update channels in the portal.
Two kinds of message
Transactional messages are about something the customer asked for. They go out whether or not the customer has opted in to marketing:
- quotes, invoices, statements and documents you send;
- booking confirmations, job ready / collection, invoice pay links, quote approval reminders and portal invites;
- your replies to a conversation they started in the Inbox.
Marketing messages need the customer's consent for that channel (email, SMS or push):
- campaigns and marketing automations;
- review invites;
- AI follow-ups.
A marketing message to someone who hasn't opted in is skipped, not sent. The contact's Recent sends shows Skipped: no consent.
Everyone starts opted out
New contacts, whether added by hand, imported or created from a message, are not opted in to marketing. There's no setting to opt everyone in. Record consent when you actually have it:
- One contact: open them, expand Marketing and turn on Email, SMS or Push. It records the date and that it was set by hand.
- Many contacts: tick them on CRM → Contacts, press Bulk opt-in, pick the channel and the legal basis (explicit consent, legitimate interest, contract or legal obligation) and add a note.
- Forms and sign-ups record consent when the person ticks the box (Forms).
Opting out
- A customer who texts STOP (or STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT) is opted out of texts and added to the suppression list.
- Unsubscribe links in marketing emails opt them out of email.
- Hard bounces and numbers that can't take texts are suppressed automatically.
- You can opt people out yourself with the switch, Bulk opt-out or Suppress.
Suppressed addresses and numbers get nothing, not even transactional messages. See them in Marketing → Audiences → Suppressions. Consent and suppression are checked again at the moment of sending, so a STOP that arrives after a campaign is queued still stops it.
Customers' own choices
In the portal's My Profile → Notification Preferences, customers choose email and/or SMS for order and job updates, invoice notifications and ticket replies.
If something's not right
- A quote or invoice text didn't arrive: check the number is a mobile, and that it isn't on the suppression list (they may have texted STOP).
- A review invite or campaign skipped someone: they haven't opted in to that channel.
- There's no button to send an opt-in request. Ask the customer, then record their consent with the switch.