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Common Short Codes
Best Practices Guidelines
General Principles
There are two key
underlying principles that need to be respected with regards to any
mobile service:
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Do not send
any unsolicited messages
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Provide
consumers with all necessary information re: our program, including
methods for opting-in and opting-out, help information, and any
other material information that is necessary for the consumer to
fully understand what he/she is signing up for.
If we keep these
principles in mind and provide consumers with a good user experience the
carriers will most likely not have any issues with our campaign.
The key thing to
keep in mind is that the carriers above everything want to avoid getting
a lot of complaints to their call centers or having to issue a lot of
credits. Therefore, it’s absolutely critical that we can prove that the
consumer has signed up for the service we’re providing him, and that he
fully understood what he signed up for.
Unsolicited Messages
Unsolicited
messages are not allowed. Period. This means that any consumer we’re
sending a message to should have given his prior approval before we send
him a message. The approval can be obtained through various means. See
opt-in below for more details.
It is critical to
understand that the consumer’s approval only pertains to the specific
service that is being offered and is not a blanket approval to send him
anything unrelated. Hence, the use of list brokerage is highly
discouraged by the carriers and will need to be disclosed in the short
code approval form.
Advertising and Promotion
The recent
‘Jamster’ debacle has put the spotlight on advertising and promotion.
Jamster is a ringtone company and was promoting their service using 30’
TV ads, claiming that consumers could receive a ‘free’ ringtone, but
failing to clearly specify that they would have to sign up for a monthly
subscription service of $5.99 in order to get the ‘free’ ringtone. This
is considered misleading advertising by the carriers and hence
forbidden.
Any advertising
and promotion needs to clearly communicate all material terms and
conditions, such as :
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Is this is
subscription service of a one-off service? What is the subscription
term and billing interval?
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What is it
going to cost the subscriber? In the case of subscription, the
monthly estimated price needs to be disclosed (example: ‘$5.99 per
month’, or ‘$1.99 per day (equivalent to $59.70 per month)’)
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How does the
consumer opt-in, opt-out, get help?
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Notice that
the charge will be billed on the consumer’s wireless bill, or
deducted from his prepaid balance.
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Notice that
‘standard messaging rates apply’ must be included.
Opt-in Management
We need to ensure
that all the consumers we are sending text messages to have agreed to
accept those text messages. In addition, if a consumer complains to a
carrier, we will need to provide proof to the carrier that the consumer
has indeed given his approval.
The best way to
ensure that this is the case is by having the consumer send an MO
message from his handset to the short code. This MO message will leave a
trace in the carrier’s network, Quios’ servers, and our servers,
providing immediate and verifiable proof to all parties that the
consumer has indeed given his consent. For this reason, we highly
encourage we to develop an MO based opt-in approval process.
Selling opt-in
lists to third parties is highly discouraged. If we plan on doing so, we
need to follow very strict guidelines, as detailed by the MMA (see
exhibit E) and obtain prior carrier approval.
the case of
premium campaigns, we will need to implement a ‘double opt-in’
mechanism. The first opt-in can be web based (e.g. registration on a web
site), but we highly recommend that the second opt-in be mobile based
(e.g. the consumer sending an MO message with ‘Y’ or ‘YES’, etc. to
confirm his opt-in). During the opt-in process all key terms and
conditions need to be fully disclosed, including:
·
Pricing
·
Identity of the program sponsor (i.e. Organization that markets the
program)
·
Short description of the service
·
Notice that the charge will be billed on the consumer’s cell phone bill
or deducted from the prepaid balance.
·
Opt-out and Help information
In certain cases,
carriers may waive the double opt-in requirement or allow we to have a
double opt-in that is entirely web based (by sending a PIN code to the
phone, which then needs to be entered back on the web site). However, we
recommend we implement a mobile opt-in as part of the double opt-in
process to ensure that there is a trace, verifiable by all parties, of
the consumer opting in, just in case of future disputes.
In case the
consumer has been inactive for 6 months, the opt-in should expire. We
can send the consumer a final warning about the nascent expiration, but
if the consumer doesn’t react, we are no longer allowed to send him any
more messages once the opt-in period has expired. The opt-in should also
expire when the consumer ports his phone number to a different carrier.
Finally, none of the opt-in messages should result in premium charges to
the cell phone bill.
Opt-out Management
It is critical
that the consumer have the ability to request we stop sending messages
to him. This needs to be accomplished by using any of the following
keywords: STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, END, UNSUBSCRIBE. All of the above
keywords need to have the effect that the consumer’s phone number is
removed from our database and no more messages are sent to him. We can
send him one more non-premium message to confirm opt-out, but that’s it.
Also, if we provide multiple services on the same short code, a STOP
request will opt the consumer out of the most recently used service.
Alternatively we
could also present the customer with a choice of services he could
terminate. Finally, if the consumer follows the keyword with ALL (e.g.
STOP ALL) the consumer should be opted out of
ALL services
provided under that short code. None of these messages should be premium
billed. All of the keywords need to be supported, regardless of case
used, and regardless of what follows the keyword (e.g. STOP, sToP, stop,
Stop123!, etc. should all have the same effect)
Subscription Services
Subscription
services could be a massive source of consumer complaints, and hence are
subject to a lot of carrier restrictions. Remember that carriers do not
want consumers to call their call center and ask for refunds.
A subscription
service is a service that will continue to bill the consumer on a
regular basis until the consumer takes the initiate to stop the billing.
In order for our
subscription service to be approved by all carriers, we recommend to
follow these guidelines:
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Clearly
identify service as subscription service and specify the billing
interval
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Contact
details for the program sponsor
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Opt-out
details
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Ideally, the
subscription period should be one month. Shorter subscriptions will
be refused by some carriers, as will longer subscriptions. All
carriers will accept monthly subscriptions. If we decide to offer a
shorter subscription service, we should specify the pricing on a
monthly basis (example: if we offer a daily horoscope at 99c per
day, we should inform the user that the monthly cost is $30.69).
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At the end of
the subscription period, we should send an SMS (which can be premium
billed) to the consumer reminding him that the subscription is
auto-extended. Opt-out instructions should be included in the
message.
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Once a
consumer opts-out, no further Premium SMS message should be sent.
Providing Help and Support
It is very
important that we provide our consumers with all of the information and
assistance they need. Therefore, we need to add support information
(either website link, email address, or 800 phone number) during the
opt-in process. In addition, we recommend (and some carriers require) we
set up a HELP keyword. When consumers text HELP to our short code, we
should provide them with free information including:
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Identity and
contact details for the program sponsor
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Opt-out
details
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Short
description of the service
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Pricing terms
In case we are
offering multiple services on the same short code, the HELP response
should be associated with the LAST service used by the consumer.
Alternatively we could provide the consumer with a multiple choice
question asking him what program he would like to receive help
information on.
None of the
messages should be premium billed.
Common Short Codes:
Review | Usage |
Best Practices |
