How to Handle SMS Consent Collection

Properly obtaining and considering SMS consent is crucial from both a compliance and customer support perspective. Outlined below are steps for how to implement SMS consent collection and utilization (accounting for implementation with Tellescope's native form builder or with an external form builder like Formsort or a custom built form).

Initial Steps Within Tellescope

1. Within Tellescope, navigate to Settings > Organization.
2. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click the 'ADD' button to add a custom field to all patients' profiles.
3. Click the pencil icon on the field to edit. Name the field smsConsent. Input type should be 'Select'. List one option that is 'TRUE'. Click the 'SAVE' button.
   

Steps for SMS collection with Tellescope's form builder

If you have an existing patient intake form, you would complete the following steps in that form. If not, you would want to create a new form.

Form Setup

1. Within the desired intake form, navigate to the Logic tab.
2. Add a New Field with the type of 'Question Group'.
   
3. Within the question group, add two questions:
   1. Question: What's your phone number?
      Type: Phone Number
      Update Patient Profile: Phone Number
      
   2. Question: Do you agree to receive SMS Communications from [COMPANY NAME]?
      Description (Recommended Language): By checking the box below you agree to receive text messages in regards to the customer care services provided to you by [COMPANY NAME]. This will be supplementary to other methods of communications about your services and is not a requirement in order for you to receive the services. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency may vary. You can always text STOP to discontinue receiving messages, and START to resubscribe.
      Type: Multiple Choice
      Is Optional: Enabled
      Answer Option: YES, I agree to receive SMS communications
      

Steps for SMS collection with an external/custom form builder

The exact steps for sms consent collection can vary depending on the form builder, but the following should act as general steps to follow.

1. Create a field/question for phone number collection.
2. Create an optional field/question for sms consent collection. This will typically be a checkbox. It's important to note that consent should be optional and not forced. Additionally, you must include a brief description clearly outlining the consent terms.
3. In the event that a patient agrees to receive sms messages, the following answer information should be sent to Tellescope in the form response payload:
   {
    "key": "ts_enduser_smsConsent",
    "value": "TRUE",
   }
4. If the patient does not agree to receive sms messages, this answer can be excluded from the form response payload completely.

Note: For more information regarding variable mapping to Tellescope fields, reference this guide. For more specifics regarding the exact payload structure, reference our API documentation.

Final Steps for Trigger and Journey Setup

Trigger Setup

1. Navigate to Journeys > Triggers and click the 'ADD TRIGGER' button.
2. Title the trigger 'SMS Consent'. Select the trigger Event of 'Form Submitted'. Select the name of the intake form in which you included the sms consent collection question.
3. Click the 'ADD CONDITION' button.
   1. In the left question input, enter the SMS consent question title exactly as it appears in the form: Do you agree to receive SMS Communications from [COMPANY NAME]?
   2. Set the condition dropdown to 'Equals'
   3. In the right value input, enter the answer option exactly as it appears in the question: YES, I agree to receive SMS communications
      
4. Set the trigger Action to 'Set Fields'. Select smsConsent from the Field dropdown. Type the value 'TRUE' in the 'Set field to' input. Click the 'SAVE' button.
   
   
   

Journey Setup

This journey setup is assuming all other requirements are met for your specific use case and you have created a trigger to add patients to an existing or new journey.

1. Within and existing journey or a new journey, add a starting step with the Action type 'Set Patient Status' and assign a status relevant to the journey.
2. From this step there will be two branches, one for patients who have consented to sms and one for patients who have not.
   1. Consent Branch: Add a new step and connect it to the initial step. Click the 'ADD CONDITION' button. Select 'smsConsent' from the key dropdown. Set the condition dropdown to 'Equals'. Set the value input to 'TRUE'.
      
   2. NO Consent Branch: Add a new step and connect it to the initial step. Click the 'ADD CONDITION' button. Select 'smsConsent' from the key dropdown. Set the condition dropdown to 'Is Not Set'.
      
3. From this point you can include steps for sending SMS messages in the Consent Branch and limit the NO consent branch to email communications only. Patients will be filtered appropriately based on their SMS consent preference.
   

Common Pitfalls to be Mindful of

Throughout this process, it's important to keep in mind that these fields are case sensitive and need to match exactly. The inclusion of a leading or trailing space in any of the fields outlined above could prevent this workflow from working properly.