Sending SMS/Text Messages

This video walks through the various ways you can send SMS messages through Shaker.

Note: You need to create your Shaker phone number to send text messages. Read this article for instructions on choosing a phone number.

Individual messages

To send an unscheduled message or individual updates, you can initiate messages from the contact tab.

Find the contact you want to text
Click the small SMS icon under their name to draft your message
You can draft a new message from scratch or select one of your templates.
Once sent, replies to your message can be found in your Shaker inbox. You will also receive an email notification when you receive a reply to a text message sent from Shaker. If you are using the Shaker Agent mobile app you can also receive push notifications and respond via your phone.

Messages can be triggered to contacts in your database in two ways.

See the related linked articles liked above for help configuring triggered messages from deals or workflows.

From time to time, you may receive an error when attempting to send a text message. Here are the most common reasons for text messages to fail.

Broken merge fields. If you are using a message template or a field replacement such as ##{{contact.firstname}} it is required that the field be set up exactly as seen with two curly brackets on each side. If bolded, the entire field must be bold including the braces. To confirm, open the message template you are using in settings and ensure the field has the correct syntax.
Duplicate recipients. If you are messaging more than one client contact with the same phone number you may receive an error. To correct this, remove one of the contacts with the duplicate phone number.
Group message limit. The max amount of contacts on a thread is four. For messages with more than four recipients, we recommend utilizing email.