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Text Notifications: What They Are and When to Use Them
A text notification is a short automated SMS a business sends when something happens: a booking is confirmed, an order ships, a payment is due. It works on any phone with a signal. No app, no internet. That’s why it still gets used for things that can’t wait.
Where it works
- Appointment confirmations and reminders
- Order and delivery updates
- Payment due dates and receipts
- Support updates (“we got your request,” “it’s fixed”)
- Verification codes and login alerts
- Shift changes for staff
What a good one looks like
Hi Sara, your appointment is tomorrow at 3 PM. Reply C to confirm or R to reschedule.
It has a name, one fact and one next step. If you need more than that, send an email.
SMS, push or email?
Use SMS when the message is urgent and the customer may not have your app. Use push for people who are already in your app, since it’s free. Use email when there’s detail to share. SMS costs money per message, so don’t spend it on things nobody needs to see right now.
Rules
Get consent before you text, and keep a record of it. Honor STOP replies. Don’t send very early or very late (US carrier guidance is roughly 8 AM to 9 PM local time). Register your numbers or sender names where the law asks for it, such as 10DLC in the US or sender and template registration in India. And don’t over-send, because too many messages is the quickest way to lose people. This isn’t legal advice, so check your own region’s rules.
Sending them from Salesforce
The simplest approach is to let an event trigger the text. A record changes, a Flow runs, a template message goes out with the customer’s name filled in, and the result is logged on the same record. Check opt-in status before it sends.
MessageBlink is a Salesforce-native app for SMS and WhatsApp that works this way. It supports Flow triggers, two-way replies and message history on each record. It doesn’t support MMS. Compliance still depends on your consent practices and number registration.