Ask for consent before texting

With consent to text on, the first text your team sends a family who hasn't agreed yet goes out as a consent request. Your message waits in the chat and sends as soon as they reply YES. Each family's consent, and how they gave it, is kept on their profile.

Before you start

• Organization admins turn consent to text on and off, on the Consent tab in the organization's settings. Everyone texts as usual once it's on.

Turn on consent to text

1. Click Settings, then Organizations.
2. Click your organization.
3. Open the Consent tab.
4. Turn on Require consent before texting.
5. Choose what happens to your existing contacts:
   • Count recent contacts as consented: contacts who texted with you in the last 12 months are recorded as "texting before consent was required". Check the box that confirms your organization has their consent. Everyone else is asked the next time your team texts them.
   • Ask everyone: every contact gets the consent request the next time your team texts them.
6. Click Turn on.

The tab then shows when consent was turned on and by whom. Under What contacts get you see the two texts BloomText sends: the Consent request, and the Confirmation after they reply YES. BloomText always adds your organization's name, how to agree and how to opt out, marked with a lock. By default the sentence in between names the team that's texting. To reword it, click Edit on either text, change the sentence and click Save. Reset to default puts the default back.

Text a family who hasn't agreed yet

1. Open the family's chat, or start one, and write your message as usual.
2. Click Send.
3. BloomText texts the consent request first. Your message stays in the chat under Waiting for consent from and the family's name.
4. When the family replies YES, the chat shows Consent received from and their name, and your message goes out after the confirmation.
5. To check a family's consent, open their profile. Consent shows their status, such as Consented or Waiting for YES, and how and when they agreed. Consent history lists every request, reply and change, with who made it and when.

Good to know

• A family who texts you first counts as consented.
• If a family agreed in person, by phone or in writing, click Record consent on their profile, choose how they agreed and add a note.
• Campaigns work as usual. A recipient who hasn't agreed gets the consent request, and the campaign shows them as Waiting for consent until they reply YES.
• When you import patients while consent is on, you can check These patients agreed to get texts from your organization. Check it only if everyone in the file agreed. BloomText records your name, the date and the file name as their consent.
• For a secure chat, the default request says your team has sent them "a secure message".
• A family's first text to your number gets your contact card, so they can save it. When that first text is their YES, the card comes right after the confirmation.
• With keywords on, a team that mentions its keywords in the welcome text gets them in the confirmation too.
• Families who texted STOP stay opted out. See When a patient replies STOP.
• Export CSV on the Consent tab downloads every consent request, reply, recorded consent and opt-out, for your records.
• Turning consent off sends every waiting message right away. Families keep the consent they gave.

Related

• Answer keywords and track requests
• When a patient replies STOP
• Import patients