Business SMS and Texting
AI Phone System · Reach customers anywhere
Business SMS lets your company send and receive text messages from your business phone number, not from an employee's personal cell. Customers text the same number they call, and your team reads and answers those messages in the Voxtell mobile and web apps. Texting and picture messages (MMS) are included in the AI Phone System plan.
What it does
Many customers would rather text than call. Business SMS gives them a way to do that without your team giving out personal cell numbers. Your business number becomes textable: customers send a message, and anyone on your team can see it and reply from the Voxtell mobile app or web app.
That shared visibility is the difference between business texting and personal texting. When conversations happen on personal phones, the business has no record of them. If the employee is out sick or leaves the company, the conversation leaves too. With Voxtell, customer texts live on the business number, where the team can see them and pick up where a coworker left off.
You can also send and receive pictures with MMS. A photo of a finished job, a menu, or a product often answers a question faster than a phone call, and the customer can look at it on their own time.
How it works in Voxtell
SMS and MMS are included in the AI Phone System plan at $25 per user per month billed annually, or $32 monthly. There is no separate texting app to buy or learn: messages live in the same Voxtell mobile and web apps your team already uses for calls, so a conversation that starts as a text can continue as a call on the same number.
Setup is white glove. Our team in Orlando configures the system with you, including migrating your existing business number, so customers keep texting and calling the number they already know. You tell us how your team wants to handle messages, and we set it up together. Support after launch comes from the same in-house team.
Texting works alongside the rest of the plan. The AI Receptionist answers calls in English and Spanish with 100 AI minutes per account each month included, call recording with transcripts keeps a record of phone conversations, and voicemail to email catches anything you miss. Text is one more way customers reach the same business number.
How businesses use it
Restaurants
During a dinner rush, nobody can hold a phone to their ear. A pizzeria takes catering questions and large-order confirmations by text between waves of orders. The manager and the front counter both see the thread, so the answer does not depend on who picked up the first message.
Realty
Agents confirm showings and answer listing questions by text from the office number instead of their personal cells. When an agent is out, a colleague sees the conversation and keeps the showing on track. The client never has to start over with a new person and a new number.
Pet grooming
A grooming shop texts owners when their dog is ready for pickup, sometimes with a photo of the fresh haircut. Owners reply with schedule changes instead of calling during the busiest hours, and the front desk answers between appointments.
Vehicle wrap shops
A wrap shop sends proof photos by MMS and gets approval in writing before the vinyl goes on. Questions about color and placement get settled in the thread, so there is a record of what the customer approved.
RV resorts
Guests text the front office about arrival times, site questions, and late checkouts. Staff answer from the web app at the desk or the mobile app on a golf cart, and every message stays on the resort's number instead of someone's personal phone.
Logistics
A logistics company keeps customer updates on business numbers across every location, so dispatchers and office staff see the same conversations. When a customer texts about a delivery, whoever is available answers, not just whoever got the first message.
Best practices
- Tell customers they can text you. Put the word textable next to your phone number on your website, Google listing, invoices, and voicemail greeting.
- Ask before you text. Get a customer's OK during a call or at checkout before you start sending messages, and stop if they ask you to.
- Keep business texting on the business number. Conversations on personal cells disappear when an employee is out or moves on.
- Treat texts like ringing phones. Decide who watches incoming messages during business hours so replies come back in minutes, not days.
- Send a picture when a picture answers faster. A photo of a proof, a finished job, or a menu saves both sides a phone call.
- Keep messages short and sign them. A first name and the business name tells the customer who they are talking to.
Common questions
Related features
All featuresSee Business SMS and Texting working for your business
Book a demo and we will set it up around your actual call flow. White glove, from the first hello.