Customer Guide: Registration Form Best Practices
It’s imperative to complete the registration form with up to date and accurate information about your business and SMS use case. Third party compliance houses will validate your submission before issuing an approval on your application status.
Rejections can be costly and time consuming, so FluentStream has compiled tips and best practices to guide you through each field on the registration form. Our goal is to get your application approved as quickly as possible so you can focus on more important things, like communicating with your customers.
1. Your Name
The person completing this form should be an authorized user on your FluentStream account.
2. Your Email
This should be the corresponding email address for the authorized user on your FluentStream account.
3. Legal Company Name
The company name recorded exactly how it is filed with the IRS.
4. DBA or Brand Name
Name as it appears your FluentStream Invoice if different than the Legal Company Name. If you don’t have a DBA company name, you may leave this field blank.
5. Legal Form of Company
The legal form of the company is your brand entity type and should match how you file with the IRS. Use the flowchart below if you’re unsure. It’s important to note that the upstream carriers will not approve a campaign without an EIN. Any businesses operating as sole proprietors without an EIN can use toll free numbers to send SMS. Reach out to FluentStream for more information.
6. Country of Business Registration
For the majority of FluentStream customers, this Is USA.
7. Employer Identification Number (EIN)
Your company’s 9 digit EIN (Tax ID Number) should be consistent with your IRS registration.
8. Street Address, City, State, ZIP
Enter your company’s physical address as it’s recorded on IRS documents.
9. Website URL/Address
Your primary business website will be referenced and validated as part of the approval process. The compliance parties will reference your business’s web presence to ensure legitimacy and confirm customer communication methods.
If you do not have a website then you may use a social media page, however that page must be publicly viewable without requiring visitors to log in to view.
The link entered below needs to be active. Domain landing pages or “coming soon” pages will be rejected by the compliance houses.
10. Stock Symbol
If you chose “Public” for “Legal Form of Company”, your company's stock symbol and the stock exchange fields are required.
11. Business Vertical
Select the business vertical that best represents your industry. The business vertical is essentially the industry category your business falls into. Here are some common business verticals: Retail & eCommerce, Healthcare, Financial Services, Real Estate, Travel & Hospitality, Education, Transportation & Logistics, Non-Profit, Media & Entertainment, Technology, Government, Telecommunications, Professional Services, Automotive, etc.
12. Campaign Contact information
Enter the contact information for the designated person at your company who FluentStream should contract regarding 10DLC registration updates.
13. Campaign Name
A “campaign” is the use case of your outgoing SMS messages. Enter the general description of the SMS purpose as your campaign name.
For the majority of our customers, we recommend entering a “mixed use campaign” which allows for up to 5 use case types.
14. Use Case
Refer to the types of use cases provided by the Campaign Registry.
For customers using SMS for multiple purposes ex: customer care, customer notifications, internal messaging, and one-off customer communications should select “Mixed (low volume)” or “Mixed” depending on how many SMS messages are sent per month. Any account sending less than 2,000 mixed-use outbound messages per month is considered “Mixed (low volume)” and any account sending more than that should select “Mixed”.
15. Campaign Description
This field is used to give a clear and detailed description of the campaign's intent. The description should include what your business does (example: "we are a car repair shop") and the use case for sending messages (example: "that uses SMS to send notifications to customer that their repair is done").
It is important that the campaign description aligns with the sample message provided, otherwise the campaign will be rejected.
Campaign descriptions need to be 40 characters minimum. Short campaign descriptions such as "customer service" or "sending notifications" will be rejected outright.
16. Additional Campaign Details - Required Selections
When establishing a campaign with TCR, your company must show that your SMS outreach meets industry requirements and compliance standards. To reduce complexity for our customers, we’ve consolidated this section of the registration into a multi-choice checklist. To complete this section, please check each box if your company is in compliance with and / or consistently delivering these communications.
While not all fields are required, the fields we recommend below will greatly influence your registration success. We’ve provided examples and guidelines to help you confirm your business’ online presence is compliant.
Each required item and any selected optional items will be validated by the external vetting authorities. You may need to make changes to your company’s website or personnel workflows in order to adhere to 10DLC regulations.
The following messaging features listed below are required in order to receive approval.
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Subscriber Opt-in (required)
The customers you message must first provide consent to receiving SMS from your business. You will record your opt-in process in the Call to Action section below.Subscriber opt-in messages must contain the following required content:
"Thank you for contacting [Brand Name]. Please confirm your opt-in. Mobile numbers are for communication only and will not be shared with third parties. Message frequency may vary. Messaging/data rates may apply. Reply YES to confirm, STOP to opt out, or HELP for more information." -
Subscriber Opt-Out (required)
Customers must have a clear way to opt out of text messages once subscribed. Ensure the “opt-out” checkbox is clicked on your application.Subscriber opt out messages must contain the following content:
"You have opted-out of all messaging from [Brand Name]. No further messages will be sent." -
Subscriber Help (required)
Customers must have a way to obtain your support information when they reply HELP.Subscriber HELP messages must contain your brand name and at least one of the below content:
- Call-in phone number.
- Support email address.
- Website privacy policy.
Example: “You may contact [Brand Name] by calling [phone number] or emailing us at [support email address].”
A sample privacy policy statement is included here for your reference: "Mobile numbers are for communication purposes only and will not be shared with 3rd parties or used for marketing purposes. Message frequency may vary. Message and data rates may apply. You may reply STOP at any time to opt-out, or reply HELP for more information."
17. Sample SMS Messages
Provide a sample message that your company is sending, or would likely send, to your customers. The samples provided should align with the campaign description and details selected above. They must contain "Reply STOP to opt out, or HELP for more information.
18. Call to Action/ Message Flow
This is the section that receives the highest amount of campaign failure rates, so be sure to read the following content thoroughly and make any necessary changes to your business’ website or opt-in process.
The main objective of the Call to Action (or Message Flow) is to describe howyour customers opt-in to receive text messages from your business.
For the 10DLC application, explain how your customers provide consent to receiving messages using our templates below as a guideline. Note that the third-party vetting authorities will confirm any opt-in process that occurs online.
- Verbal Opt-In Examples
- “Customers state in person when at our service desk that they would like to receive SMS message updates. We then read them the privacy policy in full and ask again if they agree to the terms within. If they agree, we will make a note in their profile to reference later.”
- “While on the phone with our customers, we ask if they would like SMS updates on their order. If the customers agree, we then read the privacy policy in full. We then ask if they consent and, if they agree, we note their preference on their order sheet.”
- “While on the phone with the user, the agent asks the customer to confirm if they wish to receive additional information via SMS. If the user agrees, the agent sends the subscriber opt-in message stating the terms of the opt-in. If the customer confirms by replying YES, we note their preference in their file and continue SMS communication.”
- Consent Form Opt-In Examples
- “Customers sign up for SMS in our office via consent form, which contains our mobile communication privacy policy. They put in their phone number and check a box indicating they want SMS appointment reminders. We put the completed form in their file for future reference.”
- Website Opt-In Examples
- “Users opt-in on our webform [provide link]. They enter their phone number and check a box indicating they wish to receive SMS from our company." Important: A privacy policy must be located on the same page where customers enter their contact information. The phone number field cannot be a required field on your website form."
- “Patients fill out an appointment request form [provide link] and enter their phone number. They indicate via checkbox if they would like to receive appointment reminders via text and how to opt-out. Their preference is recorded on their customer profile. Note: a privacy policy must be located on the same page where the customers enter contact information so vetting third parties can locate it.
- Inbound SMS Opt-In Examples
- "Our phone number is advertised on our website. If a customer sees and texts it, we reply with the subscriber opt-in message, which is as follows:
Thanks for contacting [Brand Name]! Please confirm your opt-in. Mobile numbers are for communication only and will not be shared with third parties. Message frequency may vary. Messaging/data rates may apply. Reply YES to confirm, STOP to opt out, or HELP for more information.
If the customer replies YES, we continue the conversation.”
- "Our phone number is advertised on our website. If a customer sees and texts it, we reply with the subscriber opt-in message, which is as follows:
19. Telephone Numbers
List all phone numbers to be registered with your SMS campaign, including all ten digits of each phone number, omitting any parentheses and hyphens. Separate all phone numbers by a comma. You can find a list of numbers by logging into your FluentStream account.
20. Signature
Complete form with an electronic signature then submit your document by following the prompts in the form.