Setting Up SMS
Text messages reach people that email doesn't. Appointment reminders, a note that results are ready, a win-back sequence — all of it lands better as a text, and setting SMS up is what makes your reminders and sequences actually send.
Before your organization can send a text in the US, the carriers require you to register your business and say what you'll be sending. This is called A2P 10DLC, it applies to everyone sending business texts regardless of platform, and Ready Practice runs it for you from Settings → Messaging (SMS). You never touch a carrier portal.
What you'll need before you start
Registration is checked by a real reviewer against public records, so accuracy matters more than speed. Have these to hand:
- Legal business name and EIN / Tax ID, exactly as registered — not your trading name
- Business type — LLC, corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, non-profit or co-operative
- Business address
- A website with a privacy policy and terms
- A contact person — name, job title, email and phone
Carriers check that the business behind the texts is real, and a site with no privacy policy and no terms is the most common rejection. If you don't have those pages yet, add them before you submit — the Website Builder can put them up in minutes, and it's faster than a rejected registration and a re-review.
Telling the carriers what you'll send
Two parts of the form decide whether your registration is approved, and both are about consent.
How clients opt in. Describe honestly how someone ends up on your list — they tick a box when booking, they sign a form at the front desk, they reply to join. Carriers are checking that people asked to hear from you. A vague answer here reads as a list bought from somewhere.
Sample messages. You give two examples of what you'll actually send. Write real ones. "Hi {name}, this is a reminder of your appointment at Riverside Health tomorrow at 2pm. Reply STOP to opt out." is what gets approved; a placeholder does not.
What happens after you submit
Ready Practice registers your business, submits your campaign, and provisions a number — you'll watch the status move through Submitted for review → Registering business → Approving campaign → Active. Once it's Active, reminders and marketing sequences send from that number.
We pick a local number for you by default. If you already have a number your clients know, you can port it instead — you'll need your current carrier, the account number and the account PIN or passcode from that carrier.
If the registration comes back as Needs changes, the fix is almost always the website or the opt-in description. Update the details and re-submit; you don't start over.
What it costs
- A one-time registration — roughly $2–4 to register the business plus about $15 for campaign review
- $2 per month to keep your registered number active
- About $0.02 per text
All of it appears itemized on your monthly SMS usage. There's no separate invoice and no markup hidden in the message price.
Next steps
Once SMS is active, your appointment reminders start going out by text — see Rescheduling, Cancellations & Waitlist for what sends and when.
To use it for growth, see the Growth Suite. Sequences send by text once a number is live.
If the status sits on Needs changes, check your website has reachable privacy and terms pages, and that your opt-in description says specifically where consent is collected.