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FAQ: Message Center
FAQ: Message Center
Updated over a month ago

Below is a list of frequently asked questions about the Message Center. If your question isn’t addressed in this article, consider posting it on WellnessLiving’s Community Forum.

What is the difference between marketing and transactional notifications?

Transactional notifications are mostly automated notifications for things like booking reminders or purchase receipts. Marketing notifications are used for communication with clients, and these are the type that are used by the Message Center. The total amount of notifications your business sends for each type is tracked separately. For customers in the U.S. and Canada, transactional notifications are free, so your sent transactional notifications won’t affect your totals from marketing notifications sent by your business. For more information on plans and pricing, see Message Center: Subscription plans and SMS messaging.

Are there any policies that need to be followed when using Message Center?

Message Center works in partnership with Twilio. When using Message Center, all SMS messages sent by your business must adhere to the Twilio Acceptable Use Policy and Twilio Messaging Policy. For more information, see Message Center acceptable use.

Can I try Message Center before purchasing additional messages?

All customers on the WellnessLiving Business plan can begin using Message Center with their 500 monthly messages, at no additional upfront cost. A fee of $0.05 applies to every additional text sent or received over the monthly limit.

What regions are Message Center available in?

Message Center is currently only available to customers in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK.

Why do I have to apply to use Message Center?

Compliance regulations in certain regions require a business to submit an application with supporting documentation in order to obtain and use a long code phone number. If your business is in one of these regions, you’ll have to send information about your business to WellnessLiving so that we can submit an application on your behalf. For more information, see Submitting a regulatory application for Message Center.

If you’re in one of these regions, you may also need to customize your automated notifications to comply with regulations. For example, if your region has spam-related rules that say that SMS messages from a business must include the business name and contact details, make sure to update your SMS notifications to include these details for all outgoing messages.

What are the differences between 1-way, 2-way, and conversational SMS?

1-way SMS allows you to send messages to clients, but clients can’t respond to these messages. This type of SMS can be used for messages that don’t require a response from the recipient, such as booking confirmations or purchase receipts. Automated marketing and automated notifications use 1-way SMS.

2-way SMS allows you to send messages to your clients and obtain their response in the form of preset text. For example, if a client is promoted on a wait list, you can send them a text that requests a preset response such as YES to confirm their appointment. Based on the client’s response, the WellnessLiving system will update their status on the wait list. Enabling the Message Center allows you to engage in 2-way SMS and conversational SMS.

Conversational SMS allows you to engage in end-to-end conversations with your clients. This way, you can provide them with all the information they need. For example, you can reach out to a client after they attend a session at your business and obtain their feedback on the session.

For more information, see Types of SMS messaging.

What are the differences in subscription plans?

For more information on plans and pricing, see Message Center: Subscription plans.

How many messages do I need and how do they work?

Each SMS message you send or receive via WellnessLiving counts as one message, including 1-way and 2-way SMS communication. For example, to send one SMS message to 500 clients twice a month, you would need 1,000 messages for that month. In contrast, each MMS message you send uses three messages from your monthly total, so you would need 6,000 messages for the same volume and frequency.

If my free plan already includes 500 messages, and I upgrade to a plan with 1000 messages, do the total number of messages increase to 1500?

Yes, if you already have 500 messages as part of the free Message Center subscription plan and then upgrade to another subscription plan, the number of messages in the new plan is added to your previous message limit.

How are my monthly messages distributed if my business has multiple locations?

If you're currently subscribed to our Business plan, you'll have 500 free messages per month per location associated to your business. For example, if your business has four locations, you'll have 2000 monthly messages to use between all your locations.

If you upgrade your subscription plan to include additional messages, the additional messages will be shared between all the locations associated to your business. For example, if your business upgrades to a SMS Message Center 1000 plan, you'll be entitled to 1,000 monthly messages to be shared between all locations. If you're currently subscribed to our Business plan, you'll have an additional 500 free messages per month per location.

I need additional messages; can I upgrade my plan?

Yes! You can upgrade your plan at any time from the Subscription plans page of Message Center. If you upgrade mid-month, you will be billed according to your new plan at the start of your next billing cycle. For more information on plans and pricing, see Message Center: Subscription plans.

What happens if I don’t use all my messages in a given month?

Your allotted monthly messages do not roll over, so make sure you choose a plan that meets your monthly SMS volume. For more information, see Message Center: Subscription plans.

Why is my SMS message being delivered as multiple messages?

If your SMS message is longer than 160 characters, it will be split into multiple segments. For more information, see SMS character limit.

If your SMS message contains any special characters (such as &, $, #), or SMS variables, your message may also be split into segments.

What is the character limit for SMS messages?

Each SMS message is limited to 160 characters and counts as one message. For more information, see SMS character limit.

Can I use special characters in an SMS message?

We don't recommend using special characters because this can potentially affect the character count of your SMS message. For more information, see SMS character limit.

Can I include a URL in an SMS message?

Yes. If you include a URL in an SMS message, it will automatically get shortened to use fewer SMS characters. For more information, see SMS character limit.

Can I restrict my staff members from accessing specific areas of Message Center?

Yes, you can set your staff member’s role permissions to provide or restrict access to specific areas of Message Center.

Can I assign conversations or messages to my staff members in the Message Center?

Yes, you can assign staff members to conversations in Message Center. When a staff member is assigned to a conversation, they’ll receive an alert whenever a client sends a new message in that conversation.

Can a staff member be notified when a new client message is delivered in the Message Center?

Yes, you can set up the Alert Center to notify staff members whenever a new client message is delivered in the Message Center. When this alert is enabled, a red circle with a number will appear next to Alerts in the Top Nav Bar that indicates the number of unread alerts. You can also configure alerts so that there's a sound whenever there's a new alert. For information, see Alert Center and Alert types.

What phone number is used to send my SMS messages?

When you start using Message Center, you'll be prompted to choose a local number that will be used to send SMS text messages to your clients. You must select one of the numbers suggested by the system and you can't use your business’s phone number or any personal number for this purpose.

Can a client contact my business using my Message Center phone number?

No, the phone number you’re assigned in the Message Center can only be used to send and receive SMS messages. If someone phones the number, they won’t be able to contact your business.

Can clients start conversations with my business via the Message Center?

No, a conversation must first be initiated by your business by sending the client an SMS message. This can be in the form of your staff members initiating a conversation, an automatic notification, or an automated marketing campaign. After a client has been contacted by these means, they can respond to that SMS message. Their response will be delivered to your Message Center inbox as a new message.

Can I send an SMS message to a group of clients in the Message Center?

No, the Message Center can only be used to send SMS messages to individual clients. You can contact a group of clients in a variety of other ways. For more information, see Contacting a group of clients.

Do I get charged for messages my clients send me?

All incoming SMS messages count as one message.

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