Setting up Twilio account
With Twilio SMS integration, you can send text messages to customers directly within the app. SMS is great for sending out important alerts, and can be up to ten times better than email at getting attention from your customers for important alerts such as dispatch notifications or to request a call back.
To get started, you'll need to sign up for a Twilio account, and add some credits.
Next, grab your API Credentials from the General Settings page on the Twilio site.
Specifically, you'll need your Account SID & Auth Token.
You might also want to set a custom "from" number too . You can either use the one you're issued with, or select a custom number (or even some text!). You can even configure these to accept replies, but that's out with the context of this article, and Twilio's your best contact to help out with this.
Connecting Twilio Account with The Layer
Next, head over to The Layer, and select the Company Settings page (Settings > Company Setup).
Here, you'll be able to enter the details we just set up in Twilio.
Once you have entered the details for the API, then hit Save.
The connection can then be tested by sending a sample SMS from the Customer Record.
Sending SMS on The Layer
From a customer record select New Task and then SMS to send a SMS on The Layer.
You can then select the destination for the SMS and load any pre saved SMS templates. However you can also enter free text if you do not wish to load a template. Also enter the Due Date that you wish the message to be sent.
To check that the message has correctly sent and that you have successfully linked Twilio with The Layer then check the SMS Queue.
The SMS Queue is in company settings.
This will show a log of all messages sent and the delivery outcome of the message.
Creating SMS Templates
As well as entering free text for SMS messages you are also able to create and save templates. You can create as many templates for SMS messaging as you require and these are very easy to produce as they require no HTML.
Go to settings and locate SMS templates.
Here you will see listed all the SMS templates that have already been created.
From this screen you can add a new SMS template by clicking on New SMS Template.
You can then enter the title of the SMS and any message that you wish to add to this template.
Once you have entered the information then click Save. This template will then be added to the All SMS Templates and can then be preloaded when drafting an SMS message in The Layer.