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Setting up the SMS Platform

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Marcus N.
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Before you begin the setup process your CRM account will need to have signed up for the SMS Platform. To sign up, please contact sales@debtpaypro.com or call (630)394-6260.

Once you have signed up for the SMS Platform, you can begin the setup and configuration process.

Please Note: The SMS Platform is directly integrated with Twilio. If you do not have a Twilio account, you can Sign Up For Free.

For further information, please see the following articles

 

Create a Twilio Account

The first step when setting up the SMS platform is to buy a Twilio Account.

Please Note: You will need to purchase a full Twilio Account. The "Free Trial" version includes a $15 credit and can be used for testing purposes, but it can only send messages to verified numbers. During the sign up process you'll be asked to verify an initial phone number. Additionally, any messages sent using the Trial will include a portion that says "Sent from your Twilio Trial Account -". You would not want to actually use this on live clients.

After verifying, you'll create a project by giving it a name. Projects are a top level of objects in their system. Right now we support one set of Project API per company, so you could have one set of credentials per company within the account (This includes an option to activate credentials for all companies in the account). You'll then be taken to the Project dashboard. You can then click on "Show API Credentials" in the upper right-hand corner to setup the retrieve the SID and Auth Token.

When setting up the account you do not need to click "Get Started". This will take you to create a new phone number for SMS. It is not necessary to setup the first phone number this way. You can easily create the phone number from within the CRM and avoid doing anything further in the Twilio interface.

 

Link Twilio with Debt Pay Pro

Locate the Account SID and Auth Token from your Twilio account on the Project Dashboard, and input these credentials into the SMS Settings page inside Debt Pay Pro.

You''ll want to use the Account SID and Auth Token from the project. The SID and Auth Token available for phone numbers will NOT work with the integration.

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Now log into the CRM and go to the SMS page located in the admin tab (Admin Tab > Settings > SMS). Once there, plug in the Account SID and Auth Token. At this point, you can choose to save the information for all companies or for a specific company. Entering credentials for an individual company will override the "All Companies" credentials.

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Purchase Phone Numbers

Navigate to the SMS tab and select Manage Numbers.

To purchase a number, click Purchase a New Number. You can search by area code to find numbers in specific locations.

 

Synch Numbers from Twillio

To Sync a phone number that you've already created in Twilio, click Sync Numbers. When clicking this button it should pull all the active phone numbers from the attached Twilio account and set them as active.

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When clicking the Sync Numbers button the system will sync the credentials from the current User's company. So if the account has credentials for 'All Companies' in addition to credentials on the User's company; the system will only sync the numbers from the User's company, and not sync using the 'All Companies' credentials.

 

Editing Phone Numbers

When editing a Phone Number, you'll have the option to Activate or Deactivate phone numbers, give them a Friendly Name, as well as Assign Company/Users access to the numbers. You'll also see additional details about the phone number, such as the date it was purchased, or any SMS Campaigns that are using the phone number.

The Friendly Name allows you to name your Phone Numbers and will show up when selecting that phone number from other pages in the CRM interface.

To edit a Phone Number, click ...

When assigning Company/User access, you can choose to share with individual Users, entire companies or with everyone. In the following example video, we share it with everyone in the Debt Pay Pro company.

 

SMS Role Permissions

The SMS Platform includes several User Role permissions. Enabling or disabling these permissions will allow you to customize how your agents utilize the SMS Platform. Upon activating SMS you will need to go and edit user roles to provide access to the new features and module.

Contacts tab

  • Send ESign SMS

  • Send SMS

SMS tab

  • Create Template

  • Edit Template

  • Create Campaign

  • Edit Campaign

  • Purchase Number

  • Edit Number

Reports tab

  • SMS Report

Admin tab

  • Edit SMS Triggers

 

Troubleshooting

  • Phone Number is not syncing with DPP

    1. Log into Twilio.com and go to the Console's Numbers page.
    2. Click on the Phone number you'd like to sync with DPP
    3. Find the Messaging section and the "A MESSAGE COMES IN" option
    4. Select "Webhook" and paste in the URL:
      https://client.debtpaypro.com/post/twilio.php

       Capture.png

  • Error: Unable to create record: Permission to send an SMS has not been enabled for the region indicated by the 'To' number

    1. Log into Twilio.com and go to the Programmable SMS page.
    2. Click on Settings, then click Geo Permissions
    3. Enable the checkbox that corresponds to the region you are trying to send SMS messages to.
      Capture.png

  • Error: Message could not be sent. Error: [HTTP 401] Unable to create record: Authenticate
    If an SMS is not sent for any reason, say credentials are wrong or lack of funds, we get this error message. We cannot really differentiate what caused it.

    If we see that message, we have to

    1. check the AuthToken and SID.
    2. check funds on the Twilio account.

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