SMS is quickly emerging as a preferred form of marketing and customer service for consumer companies across the United States. As long as companies follow the laws in the “Telephone Consumer Protection Act”( TCPA), which, for example, enforces policies such as requiring consumers to opt-in to text messages, SMS and MMS is allowed for direct consumer communication. But for cannabis or CBD companies, SMS communication has been a little more complicated. Despite legalization, cannabis companies still face numerous issues from telecom providers.
The problems with SMS for cannabis companies
Cannabis is federally illegal and, while CBD is federally legal, it is still illegal in some states, so many carriers have imposed restrictions on SMS and MMS messaging related to these products. For example, Twilio forbids messages related to cannabis and CBD products, defining these messages as “any message which relates to the marketing or sale of a cannabis product, regardless of whether or not those messages explicitly contain cannabis terms, images, or links to cannabis websites”.
So, how can cannabis companies take advantage of the benefits of SMS communication?
Use Clerk to send SMS to customers in Slack
Clerk is an SMS service built entirely for Slack, taking advantage of Slack’s incredible features combined with the convenience of text messaging. The cannabis industry can use Clerk to send SMS to customers in Slack as long as they follow certain guidelines set forth by the Telephone Carriers, TCPA and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), which is an organization representing the U.S. wireless communications industry.
The CTIA has set forth many best practices and recommendations for SMS that telecommunications companies require. While the CTIA is not federal law, if you don’t follow their guidelines, your text messages may not get delivered. The best practices include double opt-ins, easy opt-outs, and terms of service reflecting text messaging policies. Anything that is illegal in the jurisdiction where the message recipient lives will NOT be delivered. Any message which relates to the marketing or sale of a cannabis product might also get blocked by the carriers.
Cannabis Curbside PickupHow cannabis companies are using SMS
While following appropriate guidelines, cannabis companies are using Clerk to send SMS to customers through Slack for customer support. Clerk can be used to send bulk SMS and individual SMS, which greatly increases its use cases.
We have companies that use it for curbside pickup communication (especially useful this past year during the pandemic). It can be used for order confirmations. Companies are using it for customer support and customer questions, which can be addressed in real-time with two-way text communication in Slack.
Clerk not only enables companies to send customer SMS, it also gives them the convenience and features of Slack applied to their text messaging. Companies can use channels, workflows, and the search features of Slack, all applied to their customer text messaging.
Give your cannabis company an edge with customer SMS
Have you had an interruption in service? We want to hear from you. With Clerk, Slack, and following the guidelines, you can have all the benefits of real-time, organized, direct customer communication. Learn more about the benefits of SMS text from Slack with Clerk.