B
Benjamin Schieken
Currently, LC Phone System and DND compliance do not comply with TCPA law and are harming companies' ability to communicate with active customers. In addition, it's hurting customer experiences because it's confusing. Here are three ways that LC protocol is inconsistent with TCPA law, company, and user expectations:
  1. A company has a 10-day compliance window in which to cease sending SMS messages to a client who opts out. Problem: GHL marks the contact as a permanent DND immediately and in real time upon receipt of an opt-out request.
  2. A company has the right to send a clarification message to the recipient to confirm their opt-out. This is especially important in 1:1 transactional messages, where they are essential to the product experience. The user may not realize the implications of the opt-out, and the company has the right to communicate that while seeking confirmation. Problem: GHL does not allow this even though it's within the rights of TCPA law and consistent with a proper user experience.
  3. Most importantly, if a contact opts out of SMS and then becomes a customer again in the future or re-engages (i.e., buys something, signs up/registers), by law, it's considered a fresh consent. The company is allowed to send the user SMS messages (unless they opt out again), even if they've opted out previously. Problem: This is not possible in GHL - if a user who has a prior contact has opted out of SMS and it's marked DND, when they register again, provide their phone number again, and consent to receiving SMS from the company again, we still cannot send them SMS because it is permanently marked as DND, unless the user opens an email requesting that they find our phone number in their SMS history and send us a proactive message to "Start" again. This is terrible.
We are trying to be compliant and operate within the expectations and legal parameters of TCPA law, but HighLevel is preventing us from communicating with our users legally and respectfully to create the user experience our customers are seeking and provide essential transactional SMS messages that power the product experience (thing password resets, magic links, timely alerts, etc...