When you cannot pick up, the caller gets a text from your business number within seconds. How it works, what the text should say, and the carrier registration most owners do not know about.
Missed call text back is a simple feature. When someone calls your business and you cannot answer, they get a text message from your business number within a few seconds. The text says you saw the call and asks what they need, and the customer can reply by text and carry on the conversation from there.
For a contractor this matters because most calls come in while you are working. You are on a roof, under a sink or behind a mower when the phone rings in your pocket. A homeowner with a problem usually does not leave a voicemail. They go back to Google and call the next company on the list.
The feature runs on your business phone number, so it needs a phone system that can send texts. The usual setup works like this:
Nothing changes about how you answer calls. The text only goes out when a call is missed.
Keep the message short and make it sound like a person sent it. It should name the business, say you are on a job, and ask one question. Here is an example you can adapt:
"Hi, this is Mike from Oak Ridge Plumbing. Sorry I missed your call, I am on a job right now. What can I help you with? You can text me the details here."
Use your first name if you are the one who will reply, and ask what they need so the reply gives you something to work with. Leave out links, coupons and long lists of services, because the only goal of the first text is to get an answer.
If someone in your office answers the phone during business hours, you can set a different message for evenings and weekends that says when you will call back.
Business texting in the United States goes through a carrier registration called A2P 10DLC. Your business and the kind of messages you send have to be registered before the carriers will reliably deliver texts from a local number. Texts from unregistered numbers can be filtered or blocked without any warning to you.
Registration asks for your legal business name, your EIN, your website and a description of the messages you plan to send. Approval can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, so it is worth starting early.
Replying to someone who just called you is a normal use of business texting. Promotional texts, such as a seasonal discount sent to your whole customer list, fall under different rules and need the customer's permission first.
Many landline and VoIP numbers can be text enabled without changing the number. Ask whichever phone system you choose to check yours before you switch anything, because the number on your truck and your Google listing should stay the same.
Missed call text back works on the calls your website, your Google Business Profile and your ads already bring in, so it makes the rest of your marketing go further. If you pay for any of those, a missed call with no follow up is a lead you paid for and then lost.
Missed call text back comes with every SiteHike plan. We register the number, you approve every message before it goes live, and we run it in HighLevel. You can read how the whole system works on our missed call text back and CRM page, or get a free audit to see what your website and Google listing are doing right now.
Start with a free audit of your site and your Google listing. It costs nothing and you are not signing up for anything.