Yes, you can and you should text-enable your landline number. Many people over the past few years have asked if you can you text from a landline and answers varied from yes, you can if you are a large company with it's own internal IT department that can work with third party APIs to no, you cannot as it would be too expensive.
Texting a landline is now possible with the wide adoption of texting software designed specifically for consumers and businesses. Gone are the days where you had to fill out a long form, exchange a few emails, followed by scheduling for a phone call with a rep through a couple more emails just to figure out how much it would cost you for landline texting. With business texting services designed speficially for consumers and businesses, texting from a landline is easy and affordable. Your customers will no longer be wondering if they can text your landline.
Normally when you send a text to landline, the text message disappears into the void and the sender will not know if the text message was received because phone service carriers are slow to update their records on the phone numbers. The recipient will surely not be aware of the text message that was sent to their landline number as it went to the void.
Texting a landline is no different than texting a mobile phone. When a landline number is text-enabled, the messages are routed to a texting app. The process of text-enabling a landline number is a lot simpler that it sounds. All you have to do is simply sign up to a text messaging service and verify your phone number to provision the number for 10 Digit Long Code (10 DLC) messaging. 10 DLC number is a local 10-digit phone number that can receive text messages by text-enabling it through Texty Pro. 10 DLC messaging is the new standard for text messaging in the US and applies to all text messages sent and received over the 10 digit phone numbers including landline and VoIP numbers.
When a customer texts a landline, the business's text messaging service will reply automatically on the behalf of the business to greet the customer and collect necessary information such as the name of the customer. This optional auto reply feature reduces the time it takes for the customer to get a reply which increases the chances of winning their business. When the business is ready, they can reply directly to the customers with conversational text messaging that will increase customer engagement and satisfaction.
Now that we've gone over questions like "can you text from a landline" and "what happens when you text a landline", let's talk about how you can send and receive text messages using a landline number. First, you need to provision your landline number for 10DLC messaging. Texty Pro subscription starts at less than $1 a day and are designed to be simple, affordable and built to scale as your business grows.
Follow the 3 steps below to text from a landline:
For businesses, sending text messages to phone numbers from a computer is far more convenient than texting from a mobile phone. It's far more convenient to type on a keyboard than thumb typing on a small mobile phone, especially if dealing with many text messages every hour. There are other benefits to texting from a computer using a texting app such as being able to reply automatically for new text messages or if a text message is received during off hours.
After signing up to a text messaging service, log in to the texting interface to view or send text messages to a mobile phone number from a computer. Once you are logged in, you'll be able text from a landline to a cell phone.
To consumers, texting a landline is no different than texting a mobile phone number. Consumers do not have to download any special apps to text a landline. It's as simple as opening their default text messaging app on their mobile phone, enter the landline number, compose a message, and press send. One of the many benefits of landline texting is that you can automatically reply to text messages that you receive for the first time by enabling a feature called First Time Auto Reply. With this feature enabled, you're able to automatically greet and even collect information such as name and the reason for texting. This is a very helpful feature for businesses as the customer texting the business landline number is not left wondering if they will receive a reply.
Retrieving a text message sent to your landline is done by logging in to the business texting service you signed up for. You can access the texting service from any web-enabled computer or through the mobile app. Once logged in, you’ll be able to see and respond to every text message that was sent to your landline.
A push notification is sent to your computer or your mobile phone whenever you receive a text message on your landline number - just like when you receive a message on WhatsApp. When receive a notification about the text message you received on your landline number, open the texting software on the web using any computer with an internet connection or the mobile app. If the landline number is text-enabled through Texty Pro, not only will they receive a notification on the web app on a computer or mobile app on both iOS and Android, you'll have the option to also forward all incoming messages to a mobile phone number and emails.
Leave a private note that is only visible to yourself directly inside the SMS conversation is not only possible with Texty Pro, it is highly encouraged. As a business user that is texting with a landline, you'll be able to leave a private note on customer requests for you to revisit, add updates for future reference, or mention a specific team member if you are texting from the same landline with other team members. To add a privatenote, click on the white text input box where you would normally click to compose a message and click on the privatenote toggle to leave a private note. The text input box will change to a yellow color that looks like a sticky note to help avoid texting the note to the recipient instead of writing the private note to yourself.
Texting from a landline number offers many benefits, but one of the greatest is the open rate. This is particularly crucial when contacting customers as a business or organization. Traditionally, outreach involved calls and emails. However, emails now have a relatively low open rate of 20%. In contrast, text messages boast an impressive open rate of 98%.
How can a landline send a text? You can start by signing up to Texty Pro - business texting service to text from a landline number from a computer or any mobile device. Texty Pro is the preferred text messaging service to send and receive landline text messages. Try the best text to landline service for 14 days free or learn more by reading our ultimate guide to texting.
Schedule a 30 minute live demo to meet with one of our team members to discuss how our business text messaging service can benefit your business or organization.