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OPERATIONS & COMMUNICATIONS · 12

SMS campaigns

SMS is still the shortest path to a person: almost always read, and read almost immediately. Which is exactly why it must not be abused — every message has to earn its place.

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THE MESSAGE'S PATH

What happens between the event and the customer's phone

Six steps where a message can fail to arrive, arrive twice or reach the wrong person.

sms.vmtech.rs
Event: booking confirmed
LIVE
delivered
An event in the system trigger
Number check +381 60 ···
Consent and timing service message
The text is assembled 1 message
Sending accepted by the operator
Delivery report delivered
THE MESSAGE'S PATH
  1. An event in the systemThe message is triggered by an action — a booking, a payment, a dispatch — not a manual send
  2. Number checkThe format is normalised to international, and obviously invalid numbers are dropped before sending
  3. Consent and timingPromotional messages need consent and sensible hours; service messages go when the event happens
  4. The text is assembledName, date and link come from the data; length is counted allowing for Cyrillic
  5. SendingThe operator accepts the message; resending the same event does not create a duplicate
  6. Delivery reportDelivered, failed or unreachable — the status returns to the customer record
A FAMILIAR PICTURE

Why SMS sometimes works and sometimes annoys

When messages are sent by hand

  • The appointment reminder is sent when someone remembers — or never
  • The blast goes to the whole list, including people who already bought or opted out
  • The message arrives at 23:40 because “that is when there was time to send it”
  • The text is cut off mid-sentence or goes as three messages because of Cyrillic
  • Whether it arrived is unknown until the customer calls to ask

When SMS is part of the process

  • The reminder goes out automatically a day ahead, regardless of how busy the desk is
  • Segments come from data: who is booked, who never collected an order, who has not visited
  • Sending is limited to reasonable hours, while service messages go immediately
  • Length is calculated in advance: you can see whether it is one message or three
  • Delivery status returns to the system and unreachable numbers are flagged
SCOPE OF WORK

What the SMS work covers

Choosing the operator

Picking a provider by coverage, price per message and support for a sender name.

Sender name

Registering an alphanumeric sender so the message comes from the company, not a strange number.

Service messages

Booking confirmations, reminders, tracking numbers and verification codes — driven by events.

Segment campaigns

Recipients selected from data rather than the whole list, respecting consent and opt-outs.

Consent and opt-out

Consent stored with its date and source, and a clear way to stop promotional messages.

Templates and length

Templates with data substitution and character counting: Latin and Cyrillic count differently.

Delivery reports

The status of each message in the customer record and a campaign summary with cost.

Spend control

Sending limits and an alert when spend moves outside its usual range.

TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE

What sending is made of

Operator APISending messages and receiving delivery statuses
Send queueMessages go out one at a time and survive an operator outage
Number normalisationConverting to international format and discarding obviously invalid numbers
Consent registerWho agreed to what and when — and when they opted out
Segment countingCyrillic takes more space: length is calculated before sending, not on the invoice
Send logPer-customer message history: what went out, when and with what status

The operator contract and the cost of messages sit with your company. We do not send promotional messages without the recipient's consent: it breaks the rules and leads straight to complaints.

QUESTIONS

What people usually ask

Why is one message sometimes billed as three?

Encoding. Latin characters pack tighter, Cyrillic takes twice the space, so a text that fits one message in Latin splits into several in Cyrillic. We show the length calculation before sending — sometimes rewording a sentence cuts the cost by two thirds.

Can we send promotions to our own customer base?

Only to people who consented, and with a way to opt out. Service messages — a booking confirmation, an order status, a code — are a different category: they are expected and need no separate permission. We keep those flows apart so complaints about promotions do not disrupt the important messages.

What is cheaper, SMS or messenger messages?

Messengers are cheaper but require the person to have the app and accept messages from a company. SMS costs more but reaches everyone and does not depend on the internet. In practice they are combined: try the messenger first and fall back to SMS if it is not delivered. Costs drop without losing reach.

Can we send verification codes?

Yes, and it is the scenario most sensitive to speed: the code has to arrive within seconds or the person abandons the action. Those messages go through a separate priority flow, with attempt limits and a short code lifetime so it cannot be reused later.

How do we know a campaign paid off?

By linking the message to an action: the link in the text is tagged, so you see who clicked and what they bought. We compare the campaign's cost against the orders from its recipients. Without that link you are left with “delivered” and “read”, which support no decision.

Related capabilities

Business automation The events that trigger SMS Email campaigns When you need a longer message Delivery automation Tracking numbers and statuses Messaging automation Cheaper when the app is there

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