You are responsible for any SMS messages you send, and you should make sure you understand your obligations. We strongly recommend that you read the ACMA's Key elements of the Spam Act, BEFORE you send SMS messages.
To ensure you comply with the Spam Act, when sending SMS messages you should consider the following three requirements...
Your messages must only be sent when you have consent. This may be express consent from the person you wish to contact – a direct indication that it is okay to send the message, or messages of that nature. It is also possible to infer consent based on a business or other relationship with the person and their conduct.
If you have an intake form or similar for new customers, it is in your best interests to include a section where the customer gives consent to receiving messages. Whilst it is usually reasonable to assume implied consent, having express consent is better as it protects you and your customers.
Your messages must contain clear information to allow the recipient to know where the message has come from. People need to know who is contacting them and how they can get in touch in return.
This will generally be the business itself that authorises the sending of the message, rather than the name of the person who actually hits the “send” button.
Important: Remember that if you Allow SMS Replies then your Sender ID is not used, and you must clearly identify you business in the message itself.
Your messages should contain an option to unsubscribe, allowing people to indicate that commercial messages should not be sent to them in future.
This could be as simple as a line in your message saying “To opt out, reply with STOP”. After a person indicates that they wish to unsubscribe, you have five working days to honour their request.
When you send a Bulk SMS with BizDiary any replies of "STOP" will automatically turn off the Bulk SMS option in the customer's preferences. However the system can only recognise this exact response, so we recommend that you check the preference after receiving any reply that indicates the customer does not wish to receive messages.
Important: Remember that if you DO NOT Allow SMS Replies then there will be no way for a recipient to reply directly to the message, so you must provide clear information about how they can contact you if they wish to unsubscribe.
see also...
© copyright 2005 - 2024 BizDiary Australia
ABN 43 585 340 573