Text your buyers about their orders

Your buyers can choose to get a short text from your shop's own phone number when something on their order needs them. Texting is part of the Shop plan and the Atelier plan.

Once your shop's texting number is approved, your order form asks each buyer if they would like text updates. The box starts unchecked. A buyer who checks it types their mobile number, and from then on they get a short text from your shop's own number at four moments:

1. 1Their quote is ready, with the link to see it and pay.
2. 2A mockup or stitch proof is ready for them to approve, with the link.
3. 3A balance is due, with the link to pay it.
4. 4Their order is ready for pickup, or it is on its way, with the tracking link.

Every text starts with your shop's name and links to that buyer's own order page. The first text a buyer ever gets from your shop ends with "Reply STOP to stop texts."

Every update still goes by email too. Texts are an extra, never a replacement, so a buyer who does not check the box hears from you exactly as before.

Texts are only ever about that one order. Broidry never sends sale announcements or other marketing by text.

Orders that come in from Etsy, Square, Shopify, or Facebook never get texts, because those buyers never see the box on your order form.

Turning it on

1. 1Open your Inbox. The card called Text your buyers is at the top.
2. 2Press Set up texting.
3. 3Fill in your business details: your legal business name, what kind of business it is, your EIN if you have one, your street address, your website, and the name, email, and phone number of the person the phone carriers can contact. Broidry fills in what it already knows about your shop, so check each box and fix anything that is not right.
4. 4Press Get my texting number.

Broidry then gets your shop its own toll-free phone number and sends your details to the phone carriers for approval. The number is included in your plan.

The phone carriers approve every business that texts customers, which is why they need your business details. These details go to them, not to your buyers.

If you run your business on your own and have no EIN, choose "Sole proprietor (just me, no EIN)". Every other kind of business needs its 9-digit EIN, the number the IRS gave your business.

Only the shop owner can turn texting on. A teammate can see the card but not the Set up texting button.

While you wait for approval

The top of your Inbox turns amber and says Waiting for approval: your number is with the phone carriers. Twilio, the company that sends the texts, asks you to allow 3 to 5 days for review. Broidry checks on it every hour and turns texting on the moment it is approved. Your order form does not ask buyers about texts until then.

When the carriers approve your number, the line at the top of your Inbox turns green and shows your number, and you get a notification.

If the carriers do not approve it, the card at the top of your Inbox shows the reason they gave, with your business details open underneath. Fix them and press Send it again.

Texting a buyer from your computer or phone

Open the order and write in its messages, the same box you already use. If the buyer checked the texting box, your message goes to their phone as a text from your shop's number, and by email and on their order page too. A long message sends its first few lines and a link to read the rest. Each message you send this way counts as one text in your monthly allowance.

When a buyer texts back

A buyer's reply shows up in the messages on their order, exactly like a message they sent from their order page, and you get the same notification and email you get for any buyer message. Answer it right there, and your answer goes back to them by text.

A one-word reply like YES, OK, or HELP shows up there too, so when you ask "does this mockup look right?" and the buyer answers YES, you see it on the order.

If a buyer replies STOP, your shop stops texting that number, on that order and on every later order, even if your shop gets a new texting number later. A STOP never shows up as a message. If they reply START or YES, texts can go to them again.

How many texts your plan includes

1. 1Shop plan: 200 texts a month.
2. 2Atelier plan: 1,000 texts a month.
3. 3Free and Maker plans do not include texting. The card shows which plan includes it and a button to see the plans.

The green line at the top of your Inbox shows how many you have used, for example "143 of 200 texts used this month." Press Usage and settings to see the date the count starts over. Your Billing page shows the same count under Texts to buyers. Your month runs from the day you opened your shop, the same as your AI photo allowance.

If you use them all, updates go by email only until the count starts over. You get one notification when that happens. There is never a charge for going over.

When someone calls your texting number

Your texting number answers calls too, so a call is never lost and you never have to call anyone back. A caller hears a short greeting in your shop's name: nobody can pick up right now, leave a message after the tone, or hang up and we'll text you the fastest way to order.

The voicemail shows up in your Inbox as a conversation from the caller's number, with the words Broidry heard and a player to listen to it. If nothing could be made out, it says so and still has the player. Answer it right there, the same way you answer any question in your Inbox.

The caller gets one text from your shop's number with a link to your shop page and "Reply here with what you need." Their reply shows up in the same conversation in your Inbox. That text counts as one of the month's texts, never goes to a landline, and never goes to a number that replied STOP.

To stop answering calls, open your Inbox, press Usage and settings on the green Texting is on line, and switch off "Answer calls to this number". A caller then hears that the number is for texts only. Switch it back on at any time. While it is off, callers can't leave a voicemail and don't get a text. Only the shop owner can change the switch. A teammate sees it locked, with "Only the shop owner can change this." under it.

Turning texting off

At the top of your Inbox, press Usage and settings on the green Texting is on line, then press Turn off texting. While you are still waiting for approval, the amber line has What happens next instead, with the same Turn off texting button inside. Your shop's number is given back, and your order form stops offering texts. To text buyers again later, fill in your business details on the same card and wait for the carriers to approve a new number.

If you move to the Free or Maker plan, texting stops right away, and your shop keeps its approved number for 30 days, so you can move back to Shop or Atelier without waiting for approval again. After 30 days the number is given back and you get a notification.

On Atelier, the same number is also how you text your own shop assistant. The full guide is in Your shop assistant.