Changes to 10DLC and How is Affects Brokers

You may have noticed that more messages than usual have been getting blocked in TLMessenger. This is happening due to some policy changes with 10DLC that is targeting brokers and sales agents in all industries. While these changes are frustrating, our team is working hard to help you navigate through them. 

What is 10DLC and what changes are being made?

10DLC stands for 10 Digit Long Code and has helped expand the use of texting for businesses. A 10DLC-registered number allows businesses to send a large volume of texts as well as receive texts and calls to that number. Texting has become a vital tool for insurance brokers, allowing them to send and receive documentation, as well as provide support to their customers. 

However, recent changes have been made, making 10DLC registration no longer available to brokers. While we are allowing our clients to maintain their access to TLMessenger, there can be a $10,000 fine for messages that are marked as spam by the carrier, so you should ensure that your team members are using best practices while sending texts.

What you can do to mitigate the issue

While we cannot prevent messages from being blocked, we still encourage you to use these best practices while sending texts. This may help messages go through more often. 

Keep messages conversational

We have seen that form messages tend to get blocked more often than hand-typed messages. This means we recommend moving away from canned messages for the time being. Try sending short, conversational messages while texting customers and be sure to introduce yourself. 

Don’t copy and paste messages

When you copy and paste messages from programs like Microsoft Word, it will paste over formatting from the document. That formatting is likely to be flagged as spam, since it looks like a computer or bot wrote it. 

Send short links with context

When you just send a link to a customer, the carrier will flag the message as spam. Instead, you should tell the customer what the link leads to. This helps both the carrier and customer see that the message is valid and from a real person. 

We understand that this change in workflow can be frustrating when you depend on texting to communicate with your customers. While TLD is limited in what we can do to assist, we are staying in contact with our Telco to stay up to date on any other changes. Our goal is to help your business move forward successfully with these new changes.