Client - SMS

Modified on Tue, 28 Jun, 2022 at 11:27 AM

The SMS button on the Client screen can be used to send a single SMS to your Client. You can send an SMS to a Client if you:

- Have an account created with a 3rd party SMS provider, and

- Your client has a valid mobile number entered into Chintaro.

This solution details how to:

Create and send an SMS to an individual Client
Create a bulk SMS message to send to multiple clients
Set up an account with a 3rd party SMS provider
Handle issues you may encounter with sending SMS's

Create and send an SMS to an individual Client

To send a Client an SMS, open the Client screen and click the SMS button in the Client screen functions at the top of the screen. The SMS Client pop up box will appear:

Field	Description
Create Client Note?	Ticking this box will automatically record a Client Note with the contents of the SMS. The Create Client Note box can set to ticked as a default via the Create Client Note preference, in System Maintenance> Preferences> Tenancies Rent> Create Client Note.
Mobile Number	Will default from the Client Record. The mobile number can be overwritten in this field if you do not want to send the SMS to the Mobile Number listed in Chintaro.
Note Title	The title of the note which will appear in the Client Notes Note Title section.
Message	The text you want to send your Client in to the Message field. NOTE: You are limited to a maximum of 160 characters per SMS which is a limit set by Telecommunications Providers.
Sender	Is who the SMS will appear from when the Client receives it. This will usually be your Organisation’s name and is limited by the telecommunication providers to 11 characters. The default for the Sender Name can be set in System Maintenance> Preferences> SMS.

When you are ready, click Send SMS .When clicking Send SMS, a pop up box will advise you that the SMS was successfully sent, and a Client Note was created if you had the Create Client Note box selected.

Create a bulk SMS message to send to multiple clients

To send an SMS in bulk to your Clients, from the Home Screen, click Clients, then click Client SMS and the SMS Clients screen will open:

Begin by sorting and/or filtering the screen so that it displays only the Clients you want to send the email to (EG by Property, Primary Tenant, Tags, etc). For more information on sorting and filtering columns in Chintaro screens, click this link.

Then, enter the message you want to send your Clients in the Message field. As you begin to type, you'll see the number of characters left decrease - 160 characters is a limit set by the telecommunications companies.

The Sender field can be updated by your System Administrator in System Maintenance> Preferences> SMS and should be your organisation's acronym.

You have the option to choose to Create a Client Note to add to each Client screen to record a note that the SMS was sent, and if you choose to add a note, enter a brief description in the Note Title section.

When you're ready to send the SMS, select who you would like to send it to, by clicking either Select ALL, Select NONE to remove the ticks in the Include boxes, or individually select which Clients to include by ticking their Include boxes on the left hand side of the screen.

Once you have selected your Clients, click the

button and Chintaro will advise you that the SMS’s have successfully/ unsuccessfully sent and client Notes will be created if you selected the Create Client Notebox to be ticked.

Set up an account with a 3rd party SMS provider

If you are trying to send an SMS through Chintaro and you get an error message, it is probably because your SMS account is not set up correctly. You will need to set up an account with a Third Party SMS Provider to use the SMS functionality in Chintaro. SMS Providers that are compatible with Chintaro are as follows:

3^RD PARTY SMS PROVIDER	WEBSITE
SMS Global	www.smsglobal.com
SMS Broadcast	www.smsbroadcast.com.au
Direct SMS	www.directsms.com.au
Burst SMS	http://www.burstsms.com.au/ http://www.burstsms.co.nz
Telstra Integrated Messaging	www.tim.telstra.com
My Net Fone	www.mynetphone.com.au/
Message Media	www.messagemedia.com.au
Bulletin Messenger	www.bulletin.net/

For more information on Setting Up SMS Functionality, please click this link or contact support@chintaro.com.au.

Handle issues you may encounter with sending SMS's

If your SMS message is cut short to around 70 characters please check for special characters rather than plain text. The most common special characters that can cause a problem are:

The curly apostrophe (or single quote)
If you prepare your message in a word document you may find that your apostrophes are the curly type which is a special character from an SMS point of view. As a precaution, if you paste text with apostrophes into the SMS text pane, always delete and replace them within the textbox and they will be replaced with the correct 'straight' type.
The M dash (or long hyphen)
If you type two successive dashes in a word document it may replace the plain dash with the M dash. Always replace these with a normal plain dash in your SMS to ensure your full message is sent.

Your SMS provider may have more information about other special characters to avoid.