Text your grooming clients and read their replies

The Messages inbox

Messages lists a thread for each client who has texted with your shop, newest first, with an unread count, and the inbox icon at the top of every page shows a dot until you read them. Open a thread and you see the whole conversation: the reminders, pickup texts and thank-yous FurSlot sent, each labelled, and every reply the client wrote back. Search by name or number, or switch to Unread to see only the threads waiting for you.

To start a conversation, press Text a client and search. Only clients with a mobile number appear, the send box opens only for clients who said yes to texts, and a message can run to 480 characters.

How a reply finds your shop

Every FurSlot shop texts from one registered FurSlot number, so each reply has to be matched to a shop. FurSlot files it under the shop that last texted that number. If no shop has texted it yet, the reply goes to the one shop with that number on its client list, and if several shops have it, FurSlot drops the reply rather than show it to a shop it may not belong to.

A reply from a number that is not on any of your clients shows as the bare phone number. You can read it, but you can answer only after you add the number to a client who has agreed to texts.

What your texts look like

A text you write in Messages goes out starting with FurSlot and ending with your shop's name in brackets. Carriers register a texting number to one business, and every message from it has to say who it is from. The reminders and other automatic texts use fixed wording you can read on the Texting page, each naming FurSlot and your shop and ending with the opt-out line.

The Texting page also shows how many texts you have left this month, how many clients agreed to texts, the texts sent recently, and a button that sends a real test text to your phone by the same route a reminder takes.

What texting costs

Each plan includes a monthly allowance, counted in carrier segments: Solo 200, Pro 500 and Team 1,500. A text you send from Messages uses it the same way a reminder does, and a long message can count as two segments or more, while replies from clients cost nothing.

Past the allowance, texts keep going at 2 cents a segment, added to your next FurSlot invoice, and there are no packs to buy. Texting pauses while an account is locked for an unpaid plan. You can compare the allowances on the pricing page.

Consent comes first

FurSlot texts only clients who agreed. They tick the unticked box on your booking page or on the intake form, or you tick it on their page when they tell you yes. A reply of STOP, or a word like quit or unsubscribe, turns texts off for that number at every shop it appears under, and START turns them back on. A client who replies CANCEL stops their texts and keeps the appointment, and FurSlot emails you so you can check with them. The texting program page has the exact consent wording.

Texts that go from your own phone instead

Some buttons in FurSlot open a text on your own phone instead of sending through FurSlot: the intake and agreement links, the visit report, the waitlist offer and the on-my-way message for mobile groomers, and the text icon on each dog's card in In the Shop. Those go from your number, so they use none of the allowance and do not show in Messages.

What Messages does not do

• No texting from your own business number. Texts come from FurSlot's number.
• No bulk texts or campaigns to your whole list. Appointment messages are all the texting program allows.
• No pictures. Messages carry text only.
• No texts to a client who has not agreed, so reach them by phone or email.
• No scheduled texts. A message you send goes out right away.

Texting clients through FurSlot

Can clients text back?

Yes. A reply to any FurSlot text, whether a reminder or a message you sent, lands in that client's thread in Messages, and the inbox icon shows a dot until you read it, and replies take nothing from your allowance.

Do texts come from my number?

No. Every shop texts from FurSlot's one registered number, and each text names FurSlot and your shop. The buttons that open your own phone, such as the visit report or the intake link, send from your number instead.

How much does each text cost?

Your plan includes 200 to 1,500 text segments a month, depending on the plan, shared by reminders and the texts you send from Messages. Past that, each segment is 2 cents on your next invoice, and replies are free.

Can I text a client who has not agreed to texts?

Not from FurSlot. The send box opens only in a thread for a client who said yes, and FurSlot refuses the text otherwise. Send them the intake form, which has an optional box for agreeing to texts, or give them a call.

What happens when a client replies STOP?

Texts to that number stop at every shop that has it, and the thread tells you the client has said no to texts. Email reminders carry on. If the client replies START later, texts come back on for the shops their STOP switched off.