Email, texts & calls
Text a customer
Send a text from the order or the Messages page — to one number or several, with pictures and files — and what stops a text from going.
- 3 min read
- Checked against MoveBoard
- For sales, dispatchers, owners & admins
You can text a customer from the order window's conversation or from the Messages page. Both send the same way.
From the order
- In the conversation, choose the Message tab.
- To shows the order's phone numbers as chips. Texts go to every number that is on — press a chip to leave it out, or Add phone number for another.
- Type the text. Variable and Template help you fill it in.
- Press Send as SMS.
If your words contain variables, the button reads Preview and send SMS and opens Preview and Send SMS first, filled in for this order — check it, then send.
Send as message posts the same words in the customer's portal instead. If the order has no phone, the composer says No phone on the order — a portal message still goes.
Tick Also send as message to send the text and the portal message with one press of Send as SMS — for that one message only. If one of the two doesn't go, MoveBoard tells you which, and the button to press to try that one again.
Pictures and files
Add Photos & documents (up to 10 files, 5 MB each). JPEG, PNG and GIF pictures go as picture messages. Other files go as links under Attachment links (7 days): after your text — the links stop working after 7 days.
When a text can't go
Send as SMS is grey, and pointing at it says why:
- There is no phone number to text — add a mobile number on the Customer card.
- Customer has been unsubscribed — the customer's last text to you was a stop word (STOP, CANCEL, END…).
- This number cannot be texted — or another reason MoveBoard was given.
Under a number that can never take a text, the composer shows This number can't receive texts — an impossible number, or one the phone company rejected as not a phone. Fix the number on the Customer card and it can be texted again.
A text can also be held back when you press send. The reason is shown, for example:
- … has opted out of texts — they replied STOP. Only the customer can undo that, by texting START.
- texts are switched off on this order / for this customer — turn SMS status back on in the Customer card's Status.
- SMS feature is turned off for the company — texting is off in Settings › Communication › Text messages.
- the texting balance is used up — top up in Settings › Payments & billing › Balance & usage. See Texting balance.
What happens next
The text appears in the conversation, marked as yours. Its delivery status — delivered, never arrived, failed — shows in the Messages page's SMS tab; a text that failed has Resend in its actions. The additional contact gets a copy when their texts switch is on.
Related guides
- Email, texts & callsThe Messages pageEvery customer conversation in one place — unread first — with the reply box, templates and AI help, plus the SMS log and an overview of what MoveBoard sends by itself.
- Email, texts & callsTexting rules and opt-outsWho MoveBoard won't text and why — customers who replied STOP, numbers that can't receive texts, switched-off contacts — and the consent line on your website forms.
- Email, texts & callsTexting balance and auto-rechargeThe prepaid balance that pays for your texts (and the AI receptionist) — top it up, keep it topped up automatically, and what happens at $0 or when a card is declined.
- Email, texts & callsAI writing helpLet the AI suggest a reply, draft a message, polish what you typed, change its tone or length, fix spelling, translate a customer's message — and undo any of it.
- Email, texts & callsMessages to the additional contactWhat the second person on a move — a spouse, an assistant, a relocation manager — receives, how to switch their copies on or off, and why their links never sign them in as the customer.
- OrdersThe Customer cardWho the customer is and how to reach them — names, email, phones, best contact, the additional contact, the message switches and the account.
Still stuck? A person will help.
Open a ticket from Support inside MoveBoard, or email us — we usually reply within one business day.