An SMS compliance checklist for service businesses

A service business that texts U.S. customers should be able to tick twenty boxes across six areas: carrier registration, consent, message content, timing, opt-outs, and records. Most failures come from four of them: texting before registering, treating a booking as marketing consent, ignoring plain-language opt-outs, and keeping no record of what customers agreed to. This checklist is practical guidance, not legal advice.

Registration

• Your texting number is registered for business messaging (A2P 10DLC for local numbers, verification for toll-free).
• The registered description matches what you actually send, with real sample messages.
• Your business details in the registration match your legal records.

See the A2P 10DLC registration guide.

Consent

• Reminder consent is collected with plain wording, as an unticked box or a clear yes.
• Marketing consent, if you send marketing, is collected separately, in writing, and is not a condition of purchase.
• You only send what each person agreed to.

Content

• Every message identifies your business.
• Reminders contain no promotions.
• No sensitive details (health, account numbers) in texts.
• Links point to your own domain.

Timing

• Messages you start are sent only within your quiet-hours window, in the customer's timezone.
• The window matches the strictest state you text into.
• A frequency cap limits how often one person can be texted.

Opt-outs

• STOP and its common variations stop everything, immediately.
• Plain-language requests ("please stop texting me") are honoured too.
• Opt-outs apply to the number across every conversation.
• HELP is answered with your business name and how to reach you.

Records

• Each consent is stored with its wording, date and source.
• Each opt-out is stored with its date and how it arrived.
• You can export the history for a number if asked.

Frequently asked questions

Which item matters most?

Registration, because unregistered messages are filtered before anything else matters. Then opt-outs, because ignoring them carries the most risk.

Do replies to customers need consent?

A reply to someone who just wrote to you is generally treated as a conversation they started. Keep it about what they asked.

How often should we review this?

When you add a new kind of message, and at least once a year.

What Frontiva does here

In Frontiva, reminder consent is an unticked box at booking with the exact wording saved on the contact; every outbound message passes one check for consent, opt-out, quiet hours, purpose and frequency; STOP is recorded against the number; and marketing sends are refused until marketing consent can be captured. The automations page describes the check. See keeping a consent record for texting.