The key to using any of the powerful texting features in the Communications tab of a Gloo Workspace account is the account's phone number!
This article is designed to help you understand the best practices and industry guidelines so that your messages continue to be sent and your phone number does not get blocked by carriers.
While Gloo accounts are able to make use of several different kinds of phone numbers, in the vast majority of cases toll free phone numbers are the best option. We make claiming a toll free number easy to do in your account, but as part of that process we will need to submit that number out to a federally regulated third party for verification.
What is happening in the industry and what are we doing about it?
With text messaging being such a personal and effective form of communication, it makes it susceptible to spamming and ill-intended usage. This means that carriers and federal regulators are cracking down in order to protect consumers. This is good news! And it also means there are some implications and regulations you need to be aware of to ensure you are able to get your toll free phone number verified and ready to send text messages.
As a service to you, every new account phone number that is claimed will be initiated into our Toll-Free Number Verification process. When you claim your phone number, you submit information like contact information, an address, and a website for your organization. Federal regulations require us to submit this information to our texting provider in order to have your number verified for spam prevention. This Toll-Free Number Verification process generally takes 48-72 hours to complete after initially claiming your phone number. During this time, you will not be able to send or receive any messages using your Gloo phone number.
Submitting for Verification
When you claim your toll free phone number, you will be required to fill in some information that we will submit to our provider on your behalf. Below is a list of the information you'll need to submit, along with some tips to speed up the process.
Organization Name
This needs to be the official name of your organization, as it appears on your website. Do not use any shorthand names, nicknames, or acronyms. If your church is called Cornerstone Church, then that should be the name of your account.
This can be especially tricky when claiming a number for a Subaccount. If you name the account something extremely generic like "Youth Ministry," there is a very high likelihood your verification will be denied. Instead, name it something more specific like "Cornerstone Church Youth Ministry."
Organization Website
An issue with the listed website is one of the most common reasons for verification denial. Here are all of the criteria for an acceptable website:
You can submit either an official website or a public social media page like Facebook or Instagram.
If submitting a social media page, it must be a page for the organization and not an individual account. For example, Pastor Joe from Cornerstone Church can submit Cornerstone Church's official Facebook page, but he cannot submit his personal Facebook page.
Your website must be publicly accessible and active. This means it cannot be a private Facebook page.
Your website must be in English.
Your website should ideally include the organization's name and detailed information about its locations, services or mission, and staff.
Your website must be secure (using https, not http).
Organization Address
This must be the real physical address of your church, and can ideally be connected with the church on your website or on something searchable like Google Maps. Personal addresses will often result in a verification denial.
Primary Contact Name
This must be a real person, ideally someone that can be explicitly tied to your organization through your website. Do not use something generic here like "Cornerstone Church," "Youth Pastor," or "Tech Team," as these will most likely result in a verification denial.
Primary Contact Email
This must be a real email associated with the primary contact. Ideally, this email should use the church's official email domain. If Joe is the primary contacts and the pastor of Cornerstone Church, then the ideal email would be something like "joe@cornerstonechurch.org."
However, if you don't have an official email domain, an email that is visually tied to the church can also work- for example "cornerstonechurch@gmail.com."
Try not to use an extremely generic email like "joe123@gmail.com," as this will most likely result in a verification denial.
Primary Contact Phone Number
This must be a real phone number that is associated with the primary contact you have listed for your account.
Waiting for Verification
Once you have claimed your number and submitted it for verification, you will see a blue dot next to your number in the bottom left part of your account. This means we are waiting to hear back from our provider.
If you receive an email and/or see a purple or red dot next to your number, this means there was an issue with the information you submitted and we will need to make a correction before your number is verified. Please reach out to the support team by clicking the chat bubble in the bottom right corner of your screen so that we can help correct the issue. You will be given some pointers in that process on what to correct, but ultimately Gloo Support will need to resubmit the number on your behalf- you are not able to do this on your own.
Once the number has been verified by our provider (which typically takes 24-72 hours), you will be notified via email and when you sign into your account you'll see a green dot next to your number, which means everything is ready to go!
