Bulk SMS messaging

With Contact Center AI Platform, you can send an SMS message to a list of end-user phone numbers in a CSV file. Two possible use cases for a bulk outbound SMS are real-time notifications and marketing promotions.

An end-user can respond to the message and initiate a support session with an agent.

Permissions

To send bulk SMS messages, your user must be assigned a role with the Campaigns Manager permission—for example, the Admin role. For more information, see User roles and permissions.

Send bulk SMS messages

To send bulk SMS messages, follow these steps:

  1. Create a CSV file containing the phone numbers that you want to include in your bulk outbound SMS messaging. This file must include a Phone number column containing the phone numbers to send SMS messages to. All other columns are ignored.

  2. In the CCAI Platform portal, click Settings > Campaigns. If you don't see the Settings menu, click Menu.

  3. Click the SMS tab.

  4. For Step 1: Upload CSV, drag a CSV file into the field, or browse for the file.

  5. For Step 2: Select an outbound phone number, click the Select a phone number field, and then click the outbound phone number for your SMS messages.

  6. For Step 3: Enter a message, enter your message in the text field.

  7. Click Send. After your SMS messages are sent, the Sending SMS is finished dialog appears. An email is also sent to the user who sent the bulk SMS messages.

  8. Click Send SMS to return to the Send SMS in bulk dialog.

End-user experience

If an end-user responds to the bulk SMS message, a support session begins with an agent. The agent and end-user can see the full chat history, including the original SMS message.

Limit the time between bulk SMS messages

You can set the amount of time after a set of bulk SMS messages has been sent before the next set of bulk SMS messages can be sent. You can do this to limit the number of SMS messages that your end-users receive from you so they don't feel like you're sending them spam messages.

To limit the time between bulk SMS messages, do the following:

  1. In the CCAI Platform portal, click Settings > Chat. If you don't see the Settings menu, click Menu.

  2. Go to the SMS Expiration & Timeout Global Settings pane.

  3. For Queue selecting state Chat Expiration, enter the number of minutes that you want. This is the amount of time that must expire after a set of bulk SMS messages has been sent before the next set of bulk SMS messages can be sent.

  4. Click Save SMS Expiration and Timeout.