Getting your website ready for texting in the United States

Before a United States phone number can send text messages, the carriers review the business behind it. A large part of that review happens on your website. A reviewer opens the page where you collect phone numbers and checks that a person has to agree to receive texts before you send any, and then reads your privacy policy and terms to confirm they say what the carriers require. If any of that is missing, the registration is rejected and your number stays blocked.

This guide explains what the reviewer is looking for, how to turn the consent checkbox on for your enquiry forms in Gorilla Dash, and what to add to your privacy policy and terms pages. It goes with the US carrier registration guide, which covers the registration form itself.

What the reviewer is looking for

The carriers work from a fixed list of requirements. Four of them concern your website directly.

Step 1: put the consent checkbox on your website

Gorilla Dash records the answer against the person who submits the form, and websites whose enquiry forms are connected to Gorilla Dash can show the wording and the checkbox from a setting. The setting belongs to the tribe, because each tribe has its own contact form on your website. A tribe is one location, branch or business unit inside your organisation.

1. Select Tribes, open the tribe, then choose Settings and open the Privacy tab. Settings opens on General, so the SMS options are not visible until you switch tabs.
2. Scroll to the SMS Legal Message section and turn on Enable SMS Legal Message.
3. Set SMS Consent Mode to Opt-in. This shows a checkbox that starts empty, which is the only mode the carriers accept.
4. Paste your consent wording into SMS Legal Message. Use the wording in the next section as a starting point and replace the parts in square brackets.
5. Enter a Checkbox Label, for example I agree to receive text messages from [Business name].
6. Save the tribe, then open the tribe's contact page on your live website and confirm the wording and the empty checkbox appear above the submit button.

The setting is per tribe and there is no organisation-wide switch, so repeat these steps for every tribe whose contact form appears on your website. The reviewer may open the page for any tribe, and a single tribe without the checkbox is enough for a rejection. If you have many tribes, contact Gorilla Dash support and we can apply the same wording to all of them for you.

If the checkbox does not appear on your live form after you save, the form is not reading the setting, and your web developer needs to add the checkbox to the form directly. Give them the wording below and ask them to send the answer with the enquiry. The reviewer only sees what the live page shows, so this step is not finished until you can see the empty checkbox yourself.

Wording for the consent checkbox

The wording has to include every disclosure the carriers look for. The following text does, and you can copy it as it is. Replace the parts in square brackets with your own details and make sure both links open a public page.

If you only send account messages such as order updates and appointment reminders, and never offers, say so: replace "about your enquiry, your orders and occasional offers" with "about your enquiry, orders and appointments". What you describe here must match what you told us on the registration form, because the reviewer compares the two.

Step 2: add the required sentence to your privacy policy

Your privacy policy probably already explains what personal information you collect and how you use it. The carriers look for one specific commitment on top of that: a statement that mobile numbers and text message consent are not passed to anyone else for marketing. A general sentence such as "we may share your details with our partners" without this exception is a common reason for rejection, even when the rest of the policy is thorough.

Add a short section headed Text messages to your privacy policy, using this wording or your own version of it.

The privacy policy must be on your own website at an address anyone can open. A policy that lives inside a PDF, behind a login, or on a page that blocks automated visitors cannot be checked and counts as missing. If your privacy policy is hosted by a parent company or franchisor, that is acceptable as long as it is public and contains the sentence above.

Step 3: publish your SMS terms

The SMS terms describe the text message programme a person is agreeing to. They can be a page of their own or a clearly headed section of your existing terms and conditions. Either way the page must be public, and you will give its address on the registration form.

The terms need to cover the following points. The wording after the list covers all of them and can be copied.

• The name of your business and what kinds of messages you send.
• How often you send them, or a statement that frequency varies.
• That message and data rates may apply.
• How to stop: reply STOP.
• How to get help: reply HELP, or a support email address or phone number.
• That consent is not a condition of buying anything from you.
• A link to your privacy policy.

Step 4: describe it all on the registration form

Once the checkbox is live and both pages are published, go to the registration form in Gorilla Dash. Select Settings, then Communications, open the SMS tab and find US carrier registration. If a previous attempt was rejected, choose Review and resubmit; otherwise choose Start US registration.

• Website: your main website address.
• Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions: the full addresses of the two pages from steps 2 and 3, starting with https://.
• How people opt in to receiving them: a plain description of exactly what a person does to agree. Name the page the form is on, quote the checkbox wording, and say that the box is unticked until they tick it. The Insert a template that carriers accept button writes this for you from the details already on the form; edit it so it matches your website.

Describe every way you collect consent, and only the ways you really use. If people can also agree on a paper form at your counter, say what the form asks and where the completed forms are kept; a one-line mention of "verbal consent in person" without any detail is rejected. If your only method is the website form, say so and stop there.

Before you submit, use Check before submitting. Gorilla Dash opens both policy pages, reads your opt-in description and example messages, and lists anything a reviewer would object to, with the sentence to add. It is a prediction rather than the carriers' decision, and it cannot see whether the checkbox is actually on your form, so still check the live page yourself.

If the registration is rejected

A rejection shows as Action needed on the registration card, with the carriers' reason. The reason usually quotes an error number. This table explains the ones that relate to your website.

Correct whatever is named, then choose Review and resubmit. The same registration is re-checked, so there is no second fee. Approval after a resubmission usually takes a few days.

Checklist before you submit

• Your web developer has added the SMS consent checkbox to every form on the website that collects a mobile number, and the answer is sent through with the enquiry.
• Every tribe with a form on the website has Enable SMS Legal Message on and SMS Consent Mode set to Opt-in.
• The live form shows the wording and an empty checkbox, viewed in a private browser window.
• The wording names your business, mentions frequency, rates, STOP and HELP, and links to both pages.
• The privacy policy says mobile numbers and consent are not shared for marketing, and opens without a login.
• The SMS terms page exists, is public, and mentions nothing about affiliates or lead sharing.
• The registration form carries both page addresses and an opt-in description that names the form's page.
• Check before submitting reports no blockers.