Twilio Troubleshooting

Of recent times, mobile phone providers have been tightening their rules for blocking spam SMS/TXT messages, as a result, for a lot of NZ Vodafone customers of your centre/service may not receive your Bulk Communication > SMS/TXT messages that you send via Discover/Twilio.

We have discussed this with Twilio and they can offer to have your services whitelisted. Important Rules for applying for "whitelisting"

Please note: this enables you to send 1-way (outbound) SMS traffic only: recipients will not be able to reach you with replies.

You can only use your SMS/TXT communication for transactional messaging only, such as PIN notifications, Emergency Notices or account-related alerts. No marketing or promotional type traffic is allowed.

In order to be eligible for this option you must:

• Receive explicit opt-in from your parents/contacts/customers (end-users) before you send any messages to them. This means the ALL the parents, contacts, staff, must specifically agree to receive messages from you, for example by checking a box on your website or on your Enrolment Agreement Form.
• Provide all of the information requested below. This is necessary to apply for whitelisting of your traffic to NZ.
• Acknowledge that Twilio reserves the right to remove your traffic from the whitelisted connection if we receive complaints related to your traffic from Vodafone or from end users, or if the messages you send to users do not match the use case you describe here.

Requested Information (all fields are required):

Company Name:
Twilio Account Manager (or "none" if you do not currently have one):
Twilio Account SID:
Type Of SMS Service (no marketing/promo traffic allowed): e.g. Appointment reminders, PIN, Emergency Closure notifications, etc
Service Description:
· Example: Providing order tracking/shipment updates by SMS
How Does the End User Initiate Service:
· Example: End user provides mobile number when completing Child Enrolment Form and checks a box to indicate they want to receive priority updates by SMS/TXT.
Your company's Customer Care email address: e.g. customercare@yourwebsite.example or most likely your Centre Administrators email address
Your company's Customer Care call number: must be 0800 for New Zealand
Web URL for your end-user Terms & Conditions: e.g. www.yourwebsite.com/terms-and-conditions , you should add to these about granting permission to receive SMS/TXT
· Note: If your Terms and Conditions cannot be viewed online, please provide a copy in PDF format.

Please note we need all of the above information for you to be eligible to apply.

So, what do I have to do?

You will need to update your Enrolment Agreements and your Terms & Conditions to have parents, contacts & staff agree to receive SMS/TXT messages from you for the purposes of essential communication (no marketing or promotional message will be sent by SMS/TXT). 

Submit request to Twilio - From your Twilio account screen, click on the right dropdown menu and select "Submit a Ticket" for "Applying for Whitelist for Vodafone NZ"

Within the Message body of your request you will want to copy the above "Requested Information", complete/fill-in with your details.

In Discover

When sending SMS/TXT you need to ensure you are not sending promotional or marketing messages via this service. Ensure you are only selecting to send to the relevant recipients.

A Suggestion

To help control your administration when sending messages - In your Centre/Service Settings you may wish to create a Category for "SMS/TXT Granted" (or similar), then you can add this category to children where you have received permission for the Contacts to receive SMS/TXT.

Then when running the Bulk Comms > sending an SMS/TXT you must add that to your Categories selection.