The three consent states you have to track
- No consent: you may return a call they initiated, nothing more.
- Transactional consent: appointment confirmations, arrival notices, invoices.
- Marketing consent: promotions, reactivation campaigns, seasonal offers.
How to capture consent properly
The opt-in must be visible, unbundled from other agreements, and specific about who is texting and why. Pre-checked boxes and consent buried in terms of service do not hold up.
Store what was shown, when, and from what page or form. If you cannot reproduce the exact disclosure a person agreed to, you effectively cannot prove consent.
Honoring opt-outs and do-not-call requests
STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE and any plain-language version must stop messaging immediately from every number in your account, not just the one that received it.
A verbal "don't call me again" is a do-not-call request. It should be recorded on the lead as permanently as a written opt-out, and it should survive any future import.
Why this affects deliverability, not just liability
Carriers filter based on complaint rates and opt-out rates. Messaging people who never consented does not just create legal exposure — it degrades delivery for the confirmations your customers actually want.
Registered messaging campaigns are evaluated on the same behavior, so consent hygiene directly protects your ability to send anything at all.
Operational rules that keep you clean
- Never import a purchased list into an SMS-enabled record set.
- Keep the most restrictive consent state when merging duplicates.
- Separate transactional and marketing sends technically, not just by intent.
- Include business identity and opt-out language where required.
- Audit consent state on any list before a campaign runs.