A common question our Member Experience team receives is, "Can I get a shortcode for my account?"
We can work with our carrier to register a shortcode for your use, but we do not recommend shortcodes due to their extensive registration process, limited acceptable use cases, and how resource-intensive they are.
Instead, we recommend a 10-digit phone number in your account so you can build personal connections with your people.
The testing and research we have conducted found that folks in a church setting are more accepting and trusting of a local, 10-digit phone number than a shortcode.
Sending your messages from your 10-digit local number helps build trust and relationships with your people with 2-way communication.
After all, 45% of text messages are responded to, and the long code is the only way for people to respond back to you in a personal way!
Shortcodes were designed for companies to be able to send text messages to large groups of people without being filtered by phone carriers.
Because of this, oftentimes, shortcodes can have a stigma that they are spammy or sales-y. Additionally, we want our platform to help build personal connections with your people.
The true power of text messaging is to interact with people in a personal and intimate way.
The goal is to reach people and build relationships outside of our church walls. To keep the conversation going... You need to have a local phone number for your people to interact with.
There are other great benefits to having a 10-digit phone number:
You can have meaningful two-way communication.
Gathering guest information.
Providing targeted, relevant content.
Alert notifications and simple reminders.
They can save that number in their contacts so that when they get a message from you, it will show up as such, not as some random number.
A 10-digit number means that you can have easy-to-use and unique Keywords.
Shortcodes have to share Keywords because other people and churches are sharing the same shortcode.
Have questions or need help? Send us an email at support@textinchurch.com or chat with us from the Resources tab of your account.
