Email and text settings

Both live under Messages, which has seven tabs: Inbox, Emails sent, Texts sent, Calls, Email settings, Text settings and Call settings.

Email settings

• Preview an email: see exactly what a customer receives, with your business name and service wording. Pick any email: your private page link, route day heads-up, route started, you're next, on the way, delayed, appointment booked, appointment reminder, appointment moved, visit done, visit not done, or how did it go.

• From and replies: customers see your emails as from "[Your business] via Hoptide." Their replies come to you in Messages.

• Customer updates: turn these on or off for your whole business:

  • Email when a visit is done: one email when the visit is marked done.
  • Email on changes: appointment booked, route started, you're next, on the way, delayed, moved and not done.
  • Appointment reminders: choose The day before or a number of hours before the window, and the time to send.
  • Route day heads-up: the evening before a route day, at the time you choose, each customer on it hears "We're planning to be out tomorrow, for your [service]. We'll text you when we're on our way." No time is promised.
  • Follow-up after a visit: at 10 AM the day after a new customer's first appointment is done, they're asked "How did it go?" Their reply comes to Messages. Once per customer, never for route work like snow removal, and never after a visit partly done or not done.

• Your emails from Hoptide (for you, not customers):

  • Monday summary: last week's visits, new customers, questions and texts left.
  • Snow alerts: for snow removal, a 3 PM alert if snow is forecast.

The private page link email always goes out when you add a customer with an email address or click Resend email. Each customer can still turn their own done and changes emails off from their page. Click Save email settings; changes apply to emails sent from then on.

Texting

Texting is included on every paid plan: 500 texts a month on Hoptide, 1,000 on Hoptide with Answers and 2,500 on Hoptide with AI Calls. Before you can text customers, the phone carriers need a short registration, which takes about 5 minutes.

How texting works:

• Customers get the updates they already get by email, by text too.
• Only customers who turn texts on get them. Hoptide never texts anyone to ask.
• Texts come from a number that belongs to your business, and replies come to Messages.

Set it up:

1. Go to Messages > Text settings (or click Set up texting on the plan page).
2. Business type: answer whether your business has an EIN (federal tax ID), the nine-digit number the IRS gives a business, like 12-3456789. If you're not sure, choose I'm not sure.
3. Business details: the carriers check these against public records. Without an EIN, you register as a sole owner under your own name and address, in four short parts, starting with your full name and your website or public page.
4. Review and send to the carriers. Nothing turns on that day. Your details go to the phone carriers for approval.

What happens after you send

The phone carriers check every business before it can text from a phone number of your own. This is a US rule, not a Hoptide one, and it is why texting takes a few days to start.

• How long it takes. Usually one to five business days, sometimes a few hours. Hoptide checks every 30 minutes and emails you the moment the carriers answer. If it takes more than a week, Hoptide flags it and asks Twilio, the phone company Hoptide uses, on your behalf.
• What the carriers look at. The legal name, EIN and address you gave, checked against public records; the example texts and the consent wording Hoptide wrote for you; and a public page for your business. If you have no website, your Hoptide public page is what they open, so it is worth choosing how it looks first.
• Who they contact. Hoptide, not you. Approvals and questions come to Hoptide's team inbox, and Hoptide emails you in plain language. The carriers very rarely reach out to a business directly; if they do, it is to confirm the business exists.
• Where to watch it. Messages > Text settings shows where it stands: details sent, carriers reviewing, ready to text. Needs attention means something stopped and a Try again button appears; Hoptide is told at the same time.
• If they say no. The carriers give a reason, Hoptide shows it on Text settings, and you can correct the details and send them again. The most common reason is a legal name that doesn't match the IRS letter exactly.
• Meanwhile. Customers get every update by email and on their private page, exactly as before. Nothing is lost by the wait.

The number you get. A toll-free number that belongs to your business, for example (855) 473-4211. Customers who turn texts on get your updates from it and reply to it; replies land in Messages. Calls to it ring your phone when forwarding is on in Call settings.

Under Texting hours, set the window when customers can receive texts, then click Save texting hours.

Calls to your number

Customers sometimes call the number your texts come from. On every paid plan, those calls ring your phone, showing the caller's own number, so you know who it is. If nobody answers, the call reaches that phone's voicemail.

• Calls ring your business phone from Settings > Businesses, or another number you enter under Calls to your number in Messages > Call settings (for example your cell). Click Save call settings.
• Each plan includes 100 call minutes a month. On Hoptide with AI Calls, calls the AI transfers to you use the same minutes. Hoptide emails you at 80% and when they're used up.
• A call you are on is never cut off when the minutes run out. After that, until your renewal date, new callers hear "We can't come to the phone right now" and can leave a voicemail of up to two minutes. The same happens when a call put through to you isn't answered at all.
• Untick Put calls through to my phone if you'd rather callers always leave a voicemail. Hoptide never reads your phone number out to callers.

Call log and recordings

Messages > Calls lists every call to your number, newest first: who called, when, how the call was handled and for how long. Search by a customer's name, a phone number or something that was said, or show only one kind of call, such as voicemails. Press Listen and read what was said on a call to open its recording and transcript. Calls put through to your phone are recorded while Record calls put through to me is on (it starts on). Callers first hear "This call may be recorded." Recording starts when you answer, and you can listen for 30 days. Calls up to 30 minutes long are also written out so you can read them; the written version stays after the recording is deleted. Untick the box in Call settings to stop recording.

Voicemails

When a caller leaves a voicemail with Hoptide, you get an email with who called and a written version of what they said. Open Messages > Calls to read it again or listen to the recording. Recordings are kept for 30 days; the written version stays. A business can receive up to 50 Hoptide voicemails a day, and 60 a month on Hoptide, 100 on Hoptide with Answers or 200 on Hoptide with AI Calls; after that, callers hear a short message pointing them to the contact details on their service page.