Overview
With Boulevard Messages, your business can deliver a premium, personal client communication experience through every step of the appointment journey through:
Dedicated phone number (with Caller ID & optional call forwarding)
Centralized “Messages” inbox with conversation history
Client notification texts (reminders, confirmations, rating requests, receipts, auto-responses)
To use the above, your location needs a dedicated phone number, unique to your location. All inbound and outbound texts from your location will go through this number, providing a consistent and clear way to communicate with your clients.
Text Messaging Compliance and Regulations
Text messages sent through a dedicated phone number are subject to regulations set by the Campaign Registry (TCR), an independent reputation authority. Registration with TCR required for all application-to-person (A2P) text messaging traffic on 10-digit long code (10DLC) business phone numbers.
As part of your Boulevard account setup, we are required to register all business phone numbers with TCR to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations. Carriers will not accept or deliver messages sent from unregistered business phone numbers.
We begin this process once you have submitted your dedicated phone number setup. See below for steps to create a number.
Here's more information on TCR registration and compliance requirements. Please ensure you've met all of these requirements to ensure seamless registration.
Setting up a dedicated phone number
To get started, you need to create a dedicated phone number for your location. You can set this up from the Messages tab, Client Notifications page in Location settings, or Marketing.
To set up a dedicated number, a user at your location must have the Register phone number and View messages privileges.
From the messages tab:
Click Messages from the navigation menu. When you’re ready, click Get started.
You'll see a popup asking for some key information, used to register your new number with TCR.
Input your location’s desired area code. This is the area code for your new texting number. If you see an error message that no numbers are available in your desired area code, you can enter a different one that applies to your town/city.
Confirm your company information.
Confirm your website has a compliant Privacy Policy.
Indicate whether your website has a self-booking overlay.
Before proceeding, ensure your website meets all TCR registration requirements before proceeding, and click "Create number".
Note: If you'd like to use your existing landline for Boulevard Messages, do not go through the above process—instead, reach out to support. Boulevard can host landlines and VoIP numbers only.
Once you've submitted your number creation request, we'll start the process to register your number with TCR and let you know in your dashboard when your number has been approved and you can start texting.
If your TCR registration fails, you will be notified through a banner in your dashboard, and via email, with steps to resolve. More info on TCR registration process here.
In the meantime, we’ve set some defaults for your Message settings, including call forwarding from your new booking line phone number to your business phone. You can edit these settings by selecting Manage > Details and scrolling to the Messages section.
Once your number is ready, a ‘1’ indicator on the Messages tab will appear, and you can start texting your clients by selecting Messages. Now you’re good to go!
Setting Up Multiple Locations
Each dedicated phone number is unique to a single location at your business.
If you want to set up a dedicated phone number for multiple locations under your dashboard, simply access the location dashboard for another locations and select Messages, and follow the same steps above.