Texting and your AI front desk

Your Crevio phone number can text as well as take calls. With texting on, Crevio can work like a front desk for your business. It answers texts, books appointments, takes messages for you, texts back people whose call you missed, and follows up with new leads while they’re still interested. You can set this up by asking Crevio in the chat, or in Settings > AI Assistant > Phone, under Texting.

​

Turn texting on

You need a phone number first. If you don’t have one, see Get a phone number. You can switch on the features below while you wait. They start working once texting is on.

​

Answer texts

Ask Crevio to “answer texts on our number.” From then on, Crevio replies to everyone who texts your number, usually within a few seconds. It can:

• Answer questions using what you’ve told it about your business. These are the same instructions it follows when it answers calls, so include your services, hours and prices.
• Look up an order. It finds orders placed with the phone number the person is texting from. For any other order, they need to give the order number and the email they ordered with.
• Book an appointment. It checks your open times, offers a few, and books the one the person picks once they give their name and email. They get a confirmation email. It can only book services you’ve set up for booking. To set one up, ask Crevio, for example “let people book a free 30-minute consultation.”
• Take a message. When someone wants a person to get back to them, or asks something Crevio can’t answer, it passes the message to you and you get a notification right away. Messages that can’t wait are marked urgent.

Texts people send to your number don’t appear in your chat with Crevio. To read a conversation, ask Crevio, for example “show me my texts with +1 415 555 0142.”

​

Calls get the same help

When Crevio answers a call to your number, it can also check open times, book appointments and take messages. After each call it answers, you get a notification with a short summary of the call.

​

Text back missed calls

Ask Crevio to “text back callers I miss.” When a call to your number rings your own phone and nobody picks up, Crevio texts the caller right away:

Hi, this is (your business name). Sorry we missed your call! How can we help? You can reply right here.

If Crevio also answers texts, it takes the conversation from there. This only works when your calls are forwarded to you (Forward every call in Send calls to a person). When Crevio answers your calls itself, no call is missed, so there’s nothing to text back.

​

Text new leads

Ask Crevio to “text new leads.” When someone new fills in one of your forms and leaves a phone number, Crevio texts them within a minute or so. If they don’t answer, it checks in again a day later, and one last time two days after that. Each text is written for that person, based on what they told you. Like every text you send first, these go out between 8am and 9pm in the person’s local time. The texts stop as soon as the person replies, books an appointment, or opts out. You can also ask Crevio to stop texting someone; a text still waiting to go out, such as one held until morning, is cancelled too. Someone whose first contact with you was booking an appointment isn’t texted at all.

​

Invite past customers back

Ask Crevio to text a group of past customers, for example “text everyone tagged past-clients that we have openings next week.” Choose the people by tag or by naming them. You write the first text with Crevio, and it can greet each person by first name. If someone doesn’t answer, Crevio sends one short follow-up 3 days later, then stops.

​

Who can be texted

A text that invites people back is a marketing text. The law requires each person’s written permission before you send one, such as ticking a box that says they agree to marketing texts. Crevio skips everyone it has no written permission for. It also skips people who opted out and numbers it can’t text. It then tells you how many people were skipped and why. It won’t record permission on your word to get around this. To collect permission from future buyers, go to Settings > Advanced > Checkout Configuration and turn on Show phone number input and Ask for call & text consent. Buyers who tick the box can be texted. If people agreed in writing some other way, such as a sign-up form that said you would text them, tell Crevio how and when, and it records that.

​

See how it went

Ask Crevio “how did the texts to past-clients go?” It tells you how many people replied, booked, opted out, or haven’t answered yet.

​

Send a single text

You can ask Crevio to text one person, for example “text Jana that her order shipped.” The rules depend on whether they’ve been in touch:

• They texted your number in the last 24 hours. Crevio can reply right away.
• You’re texting first. The person must have agreed to hear from you, for example by giving you their number for a booking or order update. For a marketing text, that agreement must be in writing. Crevio sends these texts only between 8am and 9pm in the person’s local time. Outside those hours, the text waits until 8am. Crevio texts a person first at most 3 times a day.

The first text your number sends to anyone starts with your business name and ends with “Reply STOP to opt out.” Crevio adds this for you.

​

Opting out

Anyone can reply STOP to stop your texts. UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END and QUIT work too. When Crevio answers your texts, asking in their own words, like “please stop texting me,” works as well. Once someone opts out, Crevio never texts or calls that number again, and any follow-up texts to them stop. If they reply START, they can be texted again. Crevio doesn’t answer a text that only says HELP.

​

What it costs

Each text Crevio sends costs 1 credit per part. A text up to 160 characters is one part. Emoji and some special characters lower that to 70 characters per part. A longer text is sent in several parts, and each part costs a credit. Texts people send you are free. Writing replies and follow-up texts is AI work, so it uses a small amount of credits as well. Your phone number’s monthly cost doesn’t change when you turn on texting.

​

What it can’t do

• Text numbers in other countries. Your number can only text phone numbers in its own country. This is by design.
• Book paid services. Crevio can only book appointments that are free to book. For a paid service, it takes a message so you can send the person a booking link.
• Make up answers. Crevio won’t state hours, prices or policies you haven’t told it. It says it doesn’t know and offers to take a message.
• Text everyone at once. One send to past customers reaches up to 1,000 people.
• Keep a conversation going forever. Crevio replies to up to 30 texts a day from the same person.

​

If something goes wrong

If you still need help, contact support with your phone number and the number you were trying to text.

​

Related