What is 10DLC, and does your shop need to register?
If you text customers from a business number through an app or software, US carriers want to know who you are. Here's what that means and what to have ready.
2 min read
The short answer
10DLC means 10-digit long code: a regular local phone number used to send business texts through software. US carriers ask every business that does this to register its brand and what it texts about. Unregistered texts can be blocked or filtered. You'll need your legal business name, tax ID, website, how customers agree to get texts, and a few sample messages.
It's about how you send, not how much. If your texts go out through a business texting app, your field service software or a website tool using a regular local number, the carriers expect you to be registered. If you text customers one at a time from your own cell phone, this doesn't apply to you.
What you'll need to register
Your texting provider handles the form, but they'll ask you for these. Get them exactly right. Most rejections are a name or number that doesn't match.
Your legal business name. Exactly as it's on your IRS paperwork.
Your tax ID. Your EIN. Sole owners without one have a separate, smaller path.
Your website. It should name your business and say how customers can get texts from you.
What you text about. Appointment reminders, estimates, follow-ups, customer service.
How people agree. A box on your booking form, or the customer texting you first.
Two or three sample texts. Real ones, with your business name in them.
How long 10DLC registration takes
Registering your brand can be quick. Approving what you text about can take days, sometimes a couple of weeks, especially if something doesn't match. Start before you need it, not the week you switch on reminders. There are small fees, set by the carriers and your provider, so ask your provider what yours are.
Texts that get through
Registration gets you in the door. How you write each text keeps you there. Carriers watch for messages that look like spam.
A reminder that follows the rules
Hi Dana, it's Rosa from Linden Hollow Plumbing. Reminder: we'll be there Thursday between 8 and 10 for the water heater. Reply C to confirm or R to reschedule. Reply STOP to opt out.
Texting people who never agreed to hear from you
Leaving out your business name
Link shorteners and all-caps sales pitches
Once you're registered
The hard part isn't the rules, it's sending the right text every time: the reminder the night before, the follow-up on a quote, the call back after a missed call. Each one has to come from your shop, in your words, to someone who said yes.
By hand5 steps
See the missed call
Look up who it was
Write a text that sounds like you
Add your name and shop
Send it from the business number
For every missed call, between jobs.
vs
Set up onceWaiting on you
You missed a call from (713) 555-0142 at 7:12. Here's a text back, from your shop.
Hi, it's Rosa from Linden Hollow Plumbing. Sorry I missed your call, I was on a job. What's going on, and is now a good time to talk?
Every missed call gets a text back drafted right away. You read it and send it.
Ten-digit long code. It's a regular local phone number, like the one on your truck, used to send business texts through software instead of a short code like 55555.
For business texts sent through software on a local number to US phones, the carriers require it. Unregistered texts can be filtered or blocked, and customers never see them.
Not for texting customers one at a time from your personal cell. Registration is for texts sent through an app, software or a website tool on a business number.
Usually a mismatch: a business name that isn't exactly the legal one, a website that doesn't show your business, or no clear way for customers to agree to texts. Fix the mismatch and your provider can submit it again.
