A couple of days ago we were shocked to receive notice of a pending lawsuit against TFS for sending out an unsolicited text message to a transport company promoting some of our services on www.TFSMall.com. The number we had texted information too was listed as a business number with the FMCSA and so was available in the public domain for use by other businesses wanting to contact them. When you sign up with the FMCSA, you sign a document called an OP1 that says that you accept that your phone number will be distributed to other organizations for them to contact you via either calls, email, or text.
We have and will always be proud of our level of transparency that we have with both our clients, potential clients, vendors and business partners when it comes to information we utilize for in-house marketing and also what we post on our websites. We have all the relevant disclaimers on our websites and email communications; we want you all to learn and benefit from all of our experiences.
- Never use your personal cellphone number for business. You will be amazed at how many different locations your number will start appearing online and how many calls and texts you will receive. If you are on a tight budget as a new business, there are a variety of cost effective options available to you. Google Voice for example, will set you up with a free telephone number that will forward to your cell number. You can even use their app to dial out from that free number, via your cellphone service. There is no cost associated with a google voice phone number. If you need help setting this up our team would be happy to help.
- If you are going to be emailing or texting potential business partners, always include in your signature an option to “unsubscribe”. All email software has an option for setting up a signature, so you can include an unsubscribe option there so that you do not have to keep on typing it in. Again our team can help you with this if needed.
- When sending out emails or texts to a large number of recipients use software that is designed to do the job. www.constantcontact.com and www.mailchimp.com are examples of email marketing software. www.skipio.com and www.eztexting.com are examples of text marketing software. FYI there may be costs associated with using these applications so make sure you do your due diligence. If you need help please let us know.
When it comes to the crunch, as a business owner, there are always things that will come along that you will have to deal with that you were not expecting. Take them in your stride, take a deep breath and be sure to always work with credible, well organized companies, and build a team that you can trust and rely on!