How texts and emails are sent: your number, SMS credits and delivery
Which number your texts come from, how SMS credits and your monthly bundle work, delivery, and why a message wasn't sent.
FullColumn sends your salon's texts and emails for you: there's no SMS or email account to set up or connect. Texts use the SMS credits in your plan, emails are free, and every message is kept in Messages with whether it went. Settings → Reminders & SMS → Texts & email shows the number your texts come from, the address your emails come from and this month's credits.
Which number your texts come from
Texts always come from a phone number, never a name, so clients can reply to them. Texts to … numbers come from in Settings → Reminders & SMS shows which:
- Your own number: clients see it on every text and can reply to it; replies show up in Messages.
- Shared number: a number shared by salons on FullColumn. Clients can still reply, and their replies come back to you. Ask FullColumn support if you'd like your own number.
Because a shared number won't mean anything to your clients, campaign and automatic marketing texts start with your salon's name ("Halo Hair: Hi Sarah…") unless the message already says it. Your confirmation and reminder wording names your salon too, through {business}.
Who your emails come from
Emails show your salon's name as the sender, from a FullColumn address (Emails come from shows it), and when a client replies, the reply goes to the email address in Settings → Business. Without one there, your emails still go but replies can't reach you, so add it (Emails come from warns you when it's missing).
Each email has your salon's name at the top, the message (links are clickable) and your address and phone number at the bottom.
How SMS credits are counted
A text of up to 160 characters is one SMS part. A longer text is split into parts of 153 characters each. An emoji, or a character outside the standard text alphabet, makes the limit 70 characters (67 a part). A few symbols, like € and square brackets, count as two characters.
A part usually uses one credit; texts to a country where they cost more use more credits a part, and SMS credits in Settings → Reminders & SMS says what a text to your own country uses. Curly quotes and long dashes typed on phones are swapped for plain ones before sending, so they don't push a text into the 70-character kind.
Emails don't use credits.
Your monthly SMS bundle and extra texts
SMS credits in Settings → Reminders & SMS shows what you've used, like "120 of 250 credits used this month", and any free credits FullColumn has given you this month.
- On the free trial, you have 50 texts in total. Once they're used, texts stop (appointment messages too) until you choose a plan.
- On a plan, texts use the month's bundle you chose, then extra texts at 10c each (plus GST for Australian salons), added to your next bill.
- Your limit on extra texts starts at $50 a month. Once it's reached, campaigns, automatic marketing and feedback requests stop until next month, but confirmations, reminders, form links and other appointment messages always go.
The bundle and the limit are changed in Settings → Plan & billing by people with See and change the FullColumn plan, SMS bundle and billing (owners) (your plan and SMS bundle). The Today page warns people who can connect SMS when 90% of the month's texts are used.
Shortening links in texts
Shorten links in Settings → Reminders & SMS (on to start with) shortens the links in your texts where possible, so they fit in fewer parts and use fewer credits. The counts on screen measure the full link, so a text can use fewer credits than they suggest.
Texting clients in other countries
Country code for local numbers (set from your country when you signed up: 61 for Australia, 64 for New Zealand) is how numbers typed without a + are read, so 0412 345 678 becomes +61 412 345 678. A client with a mobile from another country needs it saved with its + and country code, like +64 21 123 4567.
FullColumn can't text every country yet. A text to a number where it can't is kept in Messages as Not sent – texts to … numbers aren't available yet; emails still go. Texts to some countries use more credits a part.
Sending yourself a test text or email
In Settings → Reminders & SMS → Texts & email, under Send a test, enter your mobile and press Text me, or your email and press Email me. Save any changes first. The test says "This is a test text from …" and uses one SMS credit. Sending a test needs Connect Stripe and SMS, and change payment settings. A test goes even while your salon is setting up.
Message statuses in Messages
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Queued | Waiting to go, usually only for a moment. Retrying means a first try didn't go and it's trying again. If FullColumn can't send it yet (say, there's no number to text that country from yet), it waits here and goes as soon as it can, for up to a day. |
| Sending… | On its way. |
| Sent | Handed over for delivery. |
| Delivered | The phone network confirmed the text arrived. |
| Failed | It didn't go, or might not have: the reason is shown under it. |
| Not sent | Kept in the log without going: the reason is shown under it. |
Why a message wasn't sent
| The log says | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Not sent – the appointment changed after this was queued… | It was about an appointment that has since moved, been cancelled or given to another client | Nothing: the change sends its own message if you chose to tell them |
| Not sent – it was more than a day late… | Sending was held up (say, while your salon was read-only) | Retry if it's still needed |
| Not sent – the salon was still setting up… | It was for a client, or anyone else outside your team, before you started sending to clients | Nothing, or Retry once you've started sending to clients |
| Not sent – this client has opted out of texts | The client replied STOP or doesn't want marketing texts | See STOP replies |
| Not sent – this number has opted out of texts | Another client on the same mobile opted out | See STOP replies |
| Not sent – this email address has opted out of marketing | Someone on that email unsubscribed | See STOP replies |
| Not sent – this client has said no to feedback requests | A feedback request to a client whose Feedback requests is off | See feedback requests |
| Not sent – this number has said no to feedback requests | Another client on the same mobile said no to feedback requests | See feedback requests |
| Not sent – this email address has said no to feedback requests | Someone on that email said no to feedback requests | See feedback requests |
| That isn't a valid mobile number | The number on the client card can't be texted | Fix it (with + and country code if overseas) and Retry |
| Not sent – texts to … numbers aren't available yet | FullColumn can't text that country yet | Email the client instead |
| Not sent – the free trial's texts are used up… | The trial's 50 texts are gone | Choose a plan |
| Not sent – this month's SMS limit is reached… | A marketing text or feedback request past your limit | Raise the limit in Plan & billing |
| Not sent – FullColumn has paused marketing texts for this salon… | Your marketing texts are paused; appointment texts still go | Contact FullColumn support |
| Not sent – your FullColumn subscription isn't active… | The plan has ended | Plan & billing |
| The carrier couldn't deliver this text | The phone network couldn't deliver it (a wrong or disconnected number) | Check the number with the client |
Texts marked Not confirmed
Very occasionally a text is handed over but no answer comes back, so FullColumn can't tell whether it went. Rather than risk the client getting it twice, it isn't sent again by itself: it's marked Not confirmed – the SMS service didn't answer, so this text may or may not have gone. Check with the client before sending it again. Emails can be marked Not confirmed the same way. Check with the client, then press Retry if they didn't get it.
Sending a failed message again
A failed message has a Retry button in Messages. It sends the message again straight away, as it was, and a text uses credits again. A campaign or automatic message is sent again only by someone who can send campaigns: others don't see Retry on one, and on a Front desk device it asks for your password. Before that, FullColumn tries again by itself when a try didn't go through (an email up to three times).
Which messages go first
Confirmations, reminders and other appointment messages always go before campaigns, automatic marketing and feedback requests, and get the month's credits first. A big campaign goes out gradually; Messages → Campaigns shows how far it's got.
Messages while your salon is setting up
A salon that chose to set up when it imported from its old booking system only sends texts and emails to its team's own mobile numbers and email addresses and the salon's own, and the rest are kept in Messages as Not sent. Start sending to clients in Settings → Reminders & SMS once you've switched over from your old booking system (trying FullColumn before you switch over).
Messages while your salon is read-only
When your free trial ends without a plan, or your plan ends or goes unpaid, your salon is read-only: no texts or emails go to clients, and reminders and automatic messages aren't prepared. Once the plan is sorted out, sending starts again; anything that waited more than a day is marked Not sent rather than arriving late (your plan and billing).
Common questions
Can texts show my salon's name instead of a number?
No. Texts only come from phone numbers, so clients can reply and the sender is always a real number. Marketing texts start with your salon's name instead.
Do unused credits carry over to next month?
No. Each month starts again with your bundle, and free credits from FullColumn are for the month they're given.
Can I use my own SMS or email account?
No, and you don't need one: FullColumn sends every salon's texts and emails.
Why did a client get a text from a number they don't know?
If you're on the shared number, texts come from that. Your confirmations, reminders and marketing texts name your salon, and replies still reach you in Messages.