Text messaging has become a very important way for businesses to talk to their people, whether it’s employees or customers. As texting has evolved, more and more people now prefer texting over emailing or calling.
However, as texting has grown in popularity it’s starting to face an issue similar to emailing and calling: spam messages. Many businesses are sending too many unwanted texts and that's causing a lot of consumers, perhaps even yourself, to not trust messages from unrecognized numbers.
The solution to this spam issue is something called "10DLC registration." Big mobile carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile set this up to make sure businesses use texting the right way.
In this article you’ll learn how to get the local phone number associated with your Docket account registered as a 10DLC number.
If you haven’t checked out our FAQs About 10DLC Numbers yet, please click here.
Before You Start
Here are a few things to know before you continue:
- We strongly suggest having the Account Owner for your Docket account (if that’s not you) submit and oversee this registration request process. The individual who submits the initial form will need access to sensitive business information, like your EIN (Employer Identification Number).
- You must submit all the required information to us in order to be approved for a 10DLC number. Please see the list under “Required Items for Registration and Approval” in this article.
- You must be approved for a 10DLC number before you can use Docket’s text messaging feature.
- To see the current registration and approval process timeline, please click here.
Required Items for Registration and Approval
- You must have an EIN (Employer Identification Number).
- You must have a business website. If you don’t have one, an online social media account (like Facebook) could be considered as an alternative, but has a high likelihood of being denied.
- Your business website URL must contain your business name.
For example, “CleanCubeDumpsters.com” contains our business name (CleanCube) and would be approved. However, “RollOffDumpsters.com” doesn’t contain our business name (CleanCube) and won’t be approved. - Your legal business name and business address must be displayed on your website and match exactly what’s listed on your IRS or EIN paperwork.
For example, if your DBA is “CleanCube Dumpsters, LLC” your website must also say “CleanCube Dumpsters, LLC” and not just “CleanCube” or “CleanCube Dumpsters”.
Please Note: Punctuation and capitalization matters. We recommend copying your business name directly from your IRS or EIN paperwork. - You must have a support email address displayed on your website. This is usually located in a ‘Contact Us’ webpage.
- Your support email address MUST use a registered domain name.
For example, “cleancube@gmail.com” will not be approved. However, “questions@cleancube.com” will be approved. - Your information will not be shared or used for any other purpose outside of the 10DLC registration process.
How to Submit Your Information for Registration and Approval
There are two parts to submitting your information for registration and approval: selecting your Local Phone Number and requesting SMS campaign approval.
Once you’ve compiled the required information above, you can follow the below steps to select a local phone number and submit your information for approval.
Select Your Local Phone Number
The first part of submitting your information for registration and approval is choosing which phone number you’d like Docket to use.
If you’ve already set up a phone number in your Docket account, please skip to the next step under “Submit Your SMS Campaign Request for Approval”.
This phone number will be used to send and receive text messages to and from your customers and employees.
Follow these steps to select your local phone number:
- Click on Account at the very bottom of your left-hand menu.
- Click on Plan at the top of the page.
- Click on Messages right below.
- Click on “Add Phone Number for $0” at the bottom of the Local Phone Number card.
- Enter the area code you’d like this number to use.
- Review the list of available phone numbers and click Select next to the number you want to use.
- Click OK at the bottom to confirm your phone number selection.
- Assign this phone number to one of your employees using the drop-down that appears in the Local Phone Number card.
Submit Your SMS Campaign Request for Approval
Once you’ve selected the phone number you’d like to use, the next part is to submit your SMS campaign request form.
The information will be sent directly to our internal team for review and processing. Your information will not be shared or used for any other purpose outside of the 10DLC registration process.
Once you’ve selected your local phone number, a Time Sensitive Request prompt will appear.
It contains additional information from several 3rd party resources that explain the 10DLC initiative and applicable laws if you’d like to learn more about this topic.
When you’ve collected the required information listed at the top of this article and are ready to submit your application, follow the below steps:
- Click on the “Continue” button at the bottom of the Time Sensitive Request prompt.
- Fill in the fields on the form that appears next.
- Click on the “Continue” button at the bottom of the form to submit your information.
Once our team has received your request, they will review the information for accuracy and completeness.
If there is any missing or incorrect information, our team will reach out to the person listed on the form in order to confirm what’s needed.
Important Information Per Form Field
Email Field: This is where you’ll add your Support Email Address. It needs to appear on your business website, have a working inbox, and use a registered domain name (@cleancubedumpsters.com instead of @gmail.com).
Phone Number Field: This should be the direct contact number for you, the person filling in the form. Do not enter a general office number or an admin assistant’s number; this must be the direct contact number for the person filling in the form.
Tax Filing Business Name Field: This must match exactly what appears on your IRS or EIN paperwork. Punctuation and capitalization matters so we recommend copying your business name directly from your IRS or EIN paperwork.
Company Website or Online Social Presence Field: Your business name must appear on your website and match exactly what appears on your IRS or EIN paperwork.
- Please Note: A website URL that shows a 404 Error message, shows a ‘Not Secure’ message (such as “http” instead of “https” URLs), or appears to be a temporary landing page will not be approved.
Tax Number/ID/EIN Field: This must exactly match the number that appears on your IRS or EIN paperwork. It is not a social security number. The format should be ‘55-5555555’.
Business Address Fields: This must match exactly what appears on your IRS paperwork. Your business address must also be displayed on your website.
Call To Action & Opt-In Options: You must select at least one of the provided options, but you can select more than one if desired.
These options refer to how your customers will be able to opt into and out of text messaging with your business. (Remember that the reason 10DLC regulations were created in the first place is to minimize spam and protect consumer rights!)
- End users opt-in by providing their phone number to our company and verbally agree to receiving text messages.
Select this option if you provide your customers an opportunity to give your business their contact phone number verbally, either in person or over the phone.
This can be a brief conversation between an employee of your business and a customer where the employee lets the customer know they’ll be receiving text message updates from your business. - End users opt-in by filling out a form on our website, online ordering portal, or in-person and add their phone number to start receiving text messages.
Select this option if you have either a digital or physical form that your customers can fill out with their phone number. The form must state that customers will be receiving text messages by providing their phone number to your business.
Please Note: If you select this opt-in option, you must have both your Terms and Conditions and a Privacy Policy available on your website.
You will also need to send our team the URL where the form displays on your website. Please send an email to support@yourdocket.com with the URL and let them know it’s tied to your SMS campaign request.
TIP: If you have a Docket website the Contact form, Terms and Conditions, and Privacy Policy already exist for your customers. - End users opt-in by sending a text message to one of our business phone numbers.
Select this option if you provide your customers with a textable phone number. This could be an existing number or the local phone number you’ve previously set up in your Docket account.
Please Note: If you select this option you must have the phone number advertised as textable on your website. Something like “Text 555-555-5555 to opt into text message updates!” works great.
In addition, you must have both your Terms and Conditions and a Privacy Policy available on your website if you select this option.
If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team through the blue chat widget on the bottom left of your account or by sending an email to support@yourdocket.com!