The recipient did not receive my texts

Troubleshooting text message delivery

Issues that can impact SMS Text Delivery

Sometimes, when users send out text messages, the recipient says they have not received them. Users also wonder why they have not been responded to after sending an important text message to a lead or to their agent.

The Phone Number Can't Accept Texts

Reviewing our logs, there are many instances of SMS/MMS texts that are blocked for a variety of reasons, such as:

1. The phone number is for a landline phone that does not accept calls
2. The cell phone is turned off
3. The phone number is not valid

Carrier filtering

First, note that telecommunications carriers like AT&T and Verizon have implemented carrier filtering on SMS/MMS texts to:

1. Enforce rules or regulations about what types of messaging are allowed in that country or mobile network.
2. Protecting mobile subscribers from unwanted messaging such as spam, fraud, or abuse.

There is no standard practice for carrier filtering across all carriers. Filtering can range from a simple static list of prohibited terms to advanced machine learning systems that constantly adapt based on the messages passing through them. Regardless of the system, carriers keep their filtering systems closely guarded secrets. Due to the ambiguous nature of these filtering mechanisms, Brokerkit cannot say definitively how these systems work or why a particular message was filtered.

Steps to Troubleshoot:

1. If you are in the US (this does not apply in Canada), please make sure your account has verified texting configured and your phone number is linked to the verified texting use case as detailed here. Be sure to click submit again after adding a new number!
2. Check the phone number to determine whether it is a mobile number or not:
   1. Here is a tool to look up the type – wireless or not, and carrier of phone numbers: https://freecarrierlookup.com/.
   2. If the number is identified as wireless, meaning mobile, that number should be able to receive text messages.
3. We recommend that the initial outbound message not exceed 306 characters, which generally equates to two segments of text on most standard carriers.
4. Use the contact's first name to greet them using variables. "Hi Jane, this is Tom Thumb following up..." For more detail on variables, go here.
5. Do not use links in your initial outbound message. There is a high probability that carriers will not deliver an outbound message that includes a link. If you plan to send links, be sure to select that option in the verified texting use case described here (US Only).
6. Do not use "spammy" terms in your text like "CA$$H."
7. Keep the text clear and straightforward. Don't include repetitive phrasing. This might trigger spam filtering.
8. Change the message completely to see if that's something in the text body that was blocked
9. Decrease the number of recipients sent at once
10. Send the messages from a different phone number one of two ways:
    1. Send messages from a different Brokerkit user using their phone number.
    2. Go to the Brokerkit phone number page, release your number, and get a new one (click your name in the top right > Phone Number > Release to release your number).
11. If the above steps don't address the issue, please email us the recipient's phone number(s) and the timeframe to support@getbrokerkit.com. The Brokerkit Customer Success team will pull the logs for texts sent to that phone number to review and report back to you.