SMS setup guide

Before you start

US carriers require every business that texts patients from a local 10-digit number to register its brand and messaging campaign first. This one-time process, known as A2P 10DLC registration, verifies who you are and what you send. Second Door submits the information to The Campaign Registry on your organization's behalf.

Approval typically takes a few days to a few weeks. Texting stays off until it's approved, and turns on automatically once it is.

Your phone service is never interrupted. Your numbers stay yours, with your phone company. Calls, voicemail, and call routing stay exactly as they are today. Only texting is affected.

What you'll need

Collect these before you open the form:

• Your legal business name, business type, and EIN
• Your practice's website URL
• Your organization's physical business address
• The name, email, phone, and role of the person authorized to manage SMS messaging for your organization

If you don't see SMS in your settings, reach out to support@seconddoorhealth.com.

Complete your campaign registration

1. In Second Door, go to Settings > Integrations > SMS

2. In the Campaign Registration section, fill in the three groups of fields: Business Information, Business Address, and Authorized Representative. Read the following tips before you submit:

   1. Legal Business Name. If your practice operates under a name different from its legal entity, enter both, formatted as your legal entity name, then "dba," then the name patients know you by. Reviewers check your registered name against your website, and a name they can't connect to the practice on that site slows approval down.

   2. EIN. Enter it exactly as it appears on your IRS documentation, including the hyphen (XX-XXXXXXX).

   3. Website URL. Use your practice's live site. Reviewers visit it as part of approval.

   4. Job Position. Enter the representative's role in the organization. Add their exact title in Job Title if it differs; that field is optional.

   5. Use your organization's physical business address. A mistyped EIN or address is the most common reason a registration doesn't get approved, so check both before you submit.

3. When everything is filled in, click Submit Brand Registration.

4. Return to this page to check on the status. You'll also receive an email notification with status updates from Second Door.

That's everything you need to do. Second Door completes the rest of the registration for you, including the campaign details and the consent, privacy, and terms information carriers require.

(Limited Access) Text from a number your patients already know

Once your registration is approved, your texts send from a number Second Door provides you. You can instead have Second Door carry texting on a number your practice already uses, so patients see a number they recognize. 

This is called hosting, NOT porting. Here's the difference:

• Hosting: Your phone number stays exactly where it is, with your current phone company. You keep the same account with them, and calls to that number, your voicemail, and your call routing don't change in any way. The only thing that changes is that text messages to and from that number are carried by Second Door.
• Porting is moving a phone number from one phone company to another. The number leaves your current provider and lives somewhere else. That is not what's happening here. Second Door does not port your numbers, and you are not changing phone companies.

Hosting a number cannot interrupt your phone service. Voice and text are handled separately, and this only touches text. If your practice loses the ability to take calls on that number, hosting isn't the reason.

Before you request hosting, check the following

• Your SMS registration is approved.
• Your organization has a phone number set.
• The number you want to host is eligible:
  • Landlines without texting through another provider are usually eligible.
  • Cell phone numbers are never eligible.
  • Numbers that already have texting through another provider are sometimes eligible, but take extra work. Ask support before you start.

How to request hosting for a number

We recommend hosting your organization number only. You can host location numbers as well, but every number is verified separately, with its own phone call.

1. Go to Settings > SMS and find the Phone Numbers section.
2. Turn on Enable for texting for the number you want to host. Ineligible numbers are flagged in this list.
3. Click Start hosting request.
4. Start verification for that number. A one-time passcode appears on screen, and Second Door calls the number.
5. Answer the call and enter the passcode on the keypad.
6. Refresh the page. The number shows as enabled for hosting within a few seconds.

Have someone at that phone before you start verification. You get three attempts at the passcode. After three failed attempts the number locks, and the process has to be reset before you can try again.

Verification calls can't get through a phone tree. If the number you're verifying routes to a menu, set it to ring straight through before you start, then restore your phone tree afterward.