You will need to register for 10DLC if your business has POPP’s Hosted IP Phone System (aka Cloud VoIP Phone System) and you have (or will have) phone system users enabled for text messaging using the MaX UC desktop/mobile app.

• If your business doesn’t have this product or texting-enabled users, this does not pertain to you.
• If you have texting, but do not wish to go through with the registration process, you can reply to the Text Messaging - Action Required email that you received from POPP (or email helpline@popp.com) and request that the texting capability be removed from your system.

As stated above, the cellular carriers are requiring business text messaging traffic to be registered by 3/31/23 and have indicated that unregistered traffic may be blocked.

Industry-wide, the 10DLC registration is heavily aimed at enterprise texting platforms that can send out large volumes of automated text messages. An example might be a restaurant's reservation platform that sends out automated reservation reminders and weekly deals.

While texting from MaX UC is strictly person-to-person and likely occurs in relatively low volume, because it originates from a business and from a 10-digit number, it is required to be registered all the same.

The process to register is as follows:

1. Client completes the Text Messaging Registration form sent from POPP.

Registration forms have been emailed to the primary contact on the account. If you need another copy of the form, contact POPP at 763-797-7900.

Within the form, you will set up a Brand and a Campaign:

• Brand: The Brand is the business entity that any given texting-enabled phone number is associated with. You will need to supply some basic information about your business.
• Campaign: The Campaign details the type of text messages the phone number intends to send. You will need to supply information and samples including who you are sending text messages to and why.
• Best Practices: You will also need to affirm that you are following best practices (see below).

Important: The form includes example answers to help guide you in your responses.  Answer each question honestly and completely. Incomplete or vague responses may add delays to the process. Businesses found to be providing incorrect information on their registration form may have their campaigns suspended.

2. Client replies to the original email that was sent with the Text Messaging Registration form questions answered in the body of the email.
3. POPP will submit the registration on your behalf to the carriers. You may be contacted by POPP or the cellular carriers with additional questions. The carriers will evaluate your submission.
4. Once approved, POPP will associate your texting-enabled phone numbers to your Brand and Campaign and then POPP will contact you once completed.

In general, businesses must ensure they are not sending text messages to anyone who has not already given  them permission to do so, called opting-in. Additionally, businesses must respect the wishes of anyone who informs you that they no longer want to receive your business text messages, called opting-out.

• Opt-in: You will be required to affirm that you have a system for collecting opt-ins.
  • If your business has an official form on your website where your customers provide their phone number and check a box indicating their willingness to receive your text messages (or something similar), that’s a good example of an opt-in. On the form, describe that process. The opt-in must be clear and conspicuous, and not obscured deep within your Terms of Service. If you are currently sending proactive text messages without first getting an opt-in, you must create an opt-in process.

• • If you are like many businesses who simply use texting to casually converse with your customers, then you should ensure that your employees are trained to only respond to customer-originated text messages, and only with responsive information. In other words, if your employees receive a text from a customer, they may respond to the text and converse with the customer until the conclusion of that interaction. However, they should not be texting that same customer later on with “special offers” or other information the customer did not request and is not expecting.

• Opt-out: You will be required to affirm that you honor opt-out requests.
  
  • If your business receives a text message from customers with STOP or you otherwise receive a request from a client to discontinue receiving your text messages (verbally, over the phone, etc), your employees should be trained to honor the request and ensure that the customer is removed from your opt-in list and no longer receives any future text messages.

The registration form includes some example verbiage for how to describe your opt-out process.

• Help: You will be required to affirm that you manage help requests.
  • If your business receives a request in the form of HELP, or a similar indication of confusion on the part of the customer, your employees should be trained to respond with a message of how the person can contact you by another means other than texting, e.g., your website, an email address, or phone number.

The registration form includes some example verbiage for how to describe requests for HELP.

Be sure that the information you provide during registration is complete and accurate, and includes a detailed description of your use case and sample messages. Carriers use automated content-based filtering to check campaigns, so if the messages you send violate the guidelines listed below or don’t adhere to the use case you provided during registration, your campaign may be suspended.

Your content may be subject to review, so knowing what types of content to avoid will keep your messages from being flagged. Here are the content types to avoid:

• Promotional messages with toll-free numbers
• Fraud or scam messages that involve wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain
• Deceptive marketing messages that do not meet the standard held by the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Truth in Advertising rules
• S.H.A.F.T. (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco) content
• Sensitive content such as:
  • Betting-related content — game bet, lucky draw, etc.
  • Debt restructuring/refinancing offers
  • Debt relief offers
  • Payday loan offers
  • Home loan offers
  • Education loan offers
  • Insurance quotes (unsolicited)
  • Earn money from home job offers

In extreme cases, carriers might decide to block a brand or a campaign. 

Please be sure to complete the registration form accurately and in a timely manner as carrier vetting can take several days and incomplete forms will only delay the process. The information provided herein is designed to help reduce the chances of POPP clients’ having their Brand and Campaign registrations denied and/or their text messages getting blocked. This content should not be considered legal advice or a substitute for qualified legal counsel. Please understand that these requirements are being instituted by the cellular carriers and not POPP.

The first thing you need to do is honestly evaluate the types of calls you’re placing. Ask yourself “am I placing a large quantity of calls that the recipients are not expecting and/or do not want to receive?” If the answer to that question is “yes,” then unfortunately the marking of Spam on your calls is probably valid. You may have an amazing product or service, but it ultimately comes down to whether the people you are calling are receptive to receiving your unsolicited calls. If a high percentage of people hang up on you, or ask not to be called again, then a high percentage of them are also probably marking your calls as Spam.   

You can follow the steps below which may help. But as long as you continue to place large quantities of unsolicited and unwanted calls, any resolution that removes the Spam label on your calls will probably be short lived as people will continue to block your calls or mark your calls as Spam. 

If you are confident that your calling does not qualify as Spam, then follow the steps below to work to remove the Spam designation from your calls. 

 https://www.freecallerregistry.com/fcr/ and https://www.calltransparency.com/  These registries are the closest thing to a centralized system of verified/legitimate business phone numbers and information is shared to some extent between multiple Spam detection companies (First Orion, HIYA, TNSI, and many major carriers).   

However, registration will not make your outbound caller ID permanently immune to being marked as Spam if a significant number of people that you are calling continue to mark your calls as Spam. 

Note: Registrations must be done by the business entity, not POPP. 

You may be able to register your business numbers with these carriers as “legitimate” and/or notify them that they have incorrectly flagged your calls as Spam. If your customer informs you that your call showed up as Spam on their phone, ask them who their phone carrier is. 

• AT&T - https://hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
• Verizon - https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/
• T-Mobile - https://callreporting.t-mobile.com/. This site also offers a way for businesses to create a free account and upload all of their business numbers to avoid mis-categorization.
• Comcast - https://xfinityspamfeedback.com/xfinity/
• Lumen - https://www.lumen.com/en-us/contact-us-support/robocall-mitigation.html
• Many other fixed-line providers - https://www.nomorobo.com/contact

If the far-end carrier that is marking your calls as Spam is not listed above, you will need contact that carrier directly to determine their process for getting the Spam designation removed.   

Note:  Requests to register your phone numbers and report calls that were mis-categorized as Spam must come from the business entity, not POPP. Furthermore, POPP does not have any additional “back-channel” means to contact these carriers beyond what is listed above. Nor can we escalate issues if you do not get a satisfactory response.

This listing provides Google with all the important details about your business, helps verify the legitimacy of your business, and impacts what gets displayed for caller ID, specifically when calling Android cell phones and potentially other carriers who integrate with Google. You can setup a listing here: https://www.google.com/business/ 

Note: Registrations must be done by the business entity, not POPP. 

Use a legitimate/valid outbound caller ID phone number and business name so that people can easily identify you.

Ensure that the number you present for outbound caller ID is answered if someone tries to call you back. 

Do not call people repeatedly, especially if they indicate that they are not interested in your services. 

If you call someone and reach their voicemail or they use a call screening service (like Google Assistant), leave them a clear message about who you are and why you were calling. If you simply hang up, it increases the chances they will flag the call as Spam.

Follow the FTCs rules for telemarketing https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/national-do-not-call-registry-faqs

If after taking all of the steps above, your calls continue to get marked as Spam, you may need to consider other means (e-mail, texting, social media, direct mail marketing) to connect with your prospects and customers – especially if a significant amount of your calling is telemarketing or another form of unsolicited and unwanted calling.