(Internal) Enabling SMS for a Gem team (for TSEs or Engineers)

History

Prior to May 2023, we used to be able to turn on SMS for Gem teams without any pre-work. This would enable the feature for the team and Gem Admins were able to turn on the feature for individual users, which would automatically provision a phone number with Twilio (our SMS service provider) so they can begin sending out SMS sequences immediately.

This has since changed and our customers are now required to go through a registration process with The Campaign Registry (TCR), which is done through Twilio, and get verified before we are able to turn on SMS for them. The main objective is to prevent spam and being registered with TCR lets Twilio and our recipients know our customers’ SMS messages are legit.

Overview

We will help our customers go through the TCR registration process. To do this, we’ll collect information from them via Google Forms, then provide Twilio with the details. Twilio and TCR will review the information provided to make sure both (1) the company and (2) their use-case is legit and if the customer is verified successfully, you’ll be able to enable SMS for their Gem team.

Standards

Gem Standards

• Using SMS in Gem is meant for recruiting only and not any other purpose (ex. Marketing, advertising, etc.)
• We do not provide legal advice to our customers, but it is OK to say something like “I have seen X work in the past”. If there is any doubt, talk to Matt (Gem Legal).
• Twilio and TCR regulations are changing all the time. Double check to make sure that there aren’t any new steps required. (changes typically come in the form of an email to Mike, or Twilio Admins).

TCR Standards

• Candidates must be given the choice to opt-in to receiving text messages. The customer will be asked to provide a screenshot of their website or a job application as evidence of this.
• Something about a candidate privacy policy?

Procedure

Part 1: Collect information from the customer

This portion is typically completed via partnership between CSMs and Support. The conversation typically begins with the customer informing the CSM that they want texting and Support will provide the link to the appropriate form to either the CSM or customer.

• Use the following template with the customer. It will provide context on TCR, as well as set expectations on the process: Click Here
• Within the template, you will need to select the proper questionnaire form to send to the customer. Both forms are identical, but there is a question where they will need to upload a screenshot to Google Drive, so non-Google teams will be directed to Dropbox instead :
• Google: https://forms.gle/JJ2XzQrKrDa1HVxh6
• Non-Google: https://forms.gle/d3Kgkpq8fwvjXdyc6
• Once the customer has filled out the form, their responses will funnel into the following sheets:
• Google: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NgBB3EfmA6V8bjv0uVRAMRhzWlpBw9_lS_zJbtImJdM/edit?gid=726942276#gid=726942276
• Non-Google: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1__zb-jf1T8Y0DuSdL4eX3o9zM2g4jF_zvGWXmda3pek/edit?usp=sharing
• CSMs use the following sheet to keep track of the status of their customers. Fill it in: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10b4XF9qCL7LdmoGEXQXpkF7qt3y5jZidOGnC_v926go/edit?gid=1121737302#gid=1121737302

Part 2: Working in Twilio

Verify there is a Twilio subaccount for the customer

All SMS customers need a subaccount under our own account in Twilio. This step covers searching for them and what to do if they aren’t there.

1. Log into the Twilio console using the “Twilio Admin Account” credentials from 1Password for username alyssa.p.hacker@gem.com.
1. Twilio Console Login: https://console.twilio.com/?frameUrl=%2Fconsole%3Fx-target-region%3Dus1
2. In the top-left corner, click on the“Gem” dropdown and select “View subaccounts”.
3. Start by searching for the customer to see if they already exist so you can work on them. For completeness, use the search bar to search for both:
1. Customer’s company name (ex. Acme Industries)
2. Their domain (ex. acme.com)
4. If the customer is not listed, send a message to the CRM team via Slack and request that they provision a subaccount for the customer. Provide the customer’s company name and domain in #gem-crm-team. Here is an example of a request: https://zensourcer.slack.com/archives/C05L20Z9X1U/p1722439599117359

Register the customer’s team as a Twilio brand

Here, we register our customer with twilio as a brand. This creates a “company profile” for our customer on Twilio’s side.

This step will require some waiting time, as there is a step that relies on the customer clicking on an identity verification link that Twilio will send them.

Note: Have the customer’s responses to the TCR questionnaire ready.

• Google: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NgBB3EfmA6V8bjv0uVRAMRhzWlpBw9_lS_zJbtImJdM/edit?gid=726942276#gid=726942276
• Non-Google: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1__zb-jf1T8Y0DuSdL4eX3o9zM2g4jF_zvGWXmda3pek/edit?usp=sharing

1. From the subaccount menu , click on the hyperlink for the customer’s“Account Name”. This will take you into the customer’s subaccount settings. Verify that you are in the right place by looking at the upper-left corner of the screen. You should see the customer’s account name, not “Gem” or any other customer’s name.
2. In theleft-hand navigation bar, click on the “Messaging” dropdown, select “Regulatory Compliance”, then choose “Brands”.
3. On the following screen, click “Register new brand”.
4. Twilio will ask you to “Create Customer Profile”. Here, you will need to use the information the customer provided when filling out our questionnaire form.
1. Note: Some fields may match up perfectly while some others could use a bit of editing or cleanup. Some may also be used multiple times. Fill them in to the best of your ability and if you have any questions, ask Adam or Brian.
5. For “Brand Representative” , use the customer-provided email address. This will send an email to the customer/user and they’ll have 7 days to click on the link in the email to verify their identity.
6. For the Brand Type , choose the “Low Volume Standard” option since this is applicable to almost all of our customers.
7. Once you finish, we should see whether or not the customer’s brand has been successfully approved and registered fairly quickly, though this can take a few moments. Under the A2P Brands page for the subaccount OR the Brand Name page, look for “Registration status = Registered” with a green dot.
8. Next, you will need to wait for the customer to click on the verification link that Twilio sent them from #5. Once they do this, the brand will move to the “Verified” state.

You will not be able to proceed until the brand status is “Verified”.

Submit the TCR registration for our customer to Twilio

In this step, we will provide information about the customer’s “campaign” (why they need SMS, examples, etc.) in order to register them with TCR.

1. Go back to the “Brands” page and select the now-verified brand you created..
2. Click “Register a campaign”.
3. For “Available A2P Campaign use cases” , select “Low Volume Mixed”.
4. Under “Messaging Service” , select “Create new messaging service”.
5. Fill out the rest of the form using the same responses from the questionnaire that the customer filled out.
1. Note: Historically, the portion where text message samples are submitted need the most reformatting due to the various ways our customers may submit their answers. Do what you can here to clean things up.
6. Finish and submit.

Part 3: Evaluation by Twilio and TCR

By large, this part is a waiting game. The campaign registration you submitted in the previous section will be reviewed by Twilio and TCR.

If the customer provided good answers, this process is usually quick (about a week), but the expectation is it can take 8-10 weeks.

If we fail the evaluation, Twilio will email you (not the customer) and provide information about what they didn’t like. From there, you will need to work with the customer to satisfy Twilio’s requests.

If you pass the evaluation, the “Campaign status” will show as “Verified” and you can proceed to the next part.

Part 4: Enable SMS for the customer from Gem

In this portion, we’ll create the connection between Twilio and the customer’s Gem team on our backend, then officially enable SMS for them.

1. Go to the Gem Support Dashboard for the customer and look under the “Advanced” tab.
2. Scroll down to “Twilio Settings” to find the following fields:
1. Account SID - Go to the customer’s subaccount landing page to find “Account SID” towards the bottom. Copy and paste it into the Gem Support Dashboard.
2. Auth key - On the same subaccount page in Twilio, copy the “Auth Token” field and paste it into the Gem Support Dashboard.
3. In a separate tab, go to the customer’s subaccount and head back to their “Campaigns” page. (Make sure you are in the right subaccount!)
4. Click on theCampaign SID to open the page up.
5. Find the field titled “Linked Messaging Service” and copy it. Head back to the Gem Support Dashboard and paste this into the “Messaging Service SID” field.
6. Once the fields above have been saved, go to the “Modules” tab of the Support Dashboard.
7. Find “SMS Messages” and toggle it to “Enable”. If you see “Pending setup”, that means the Messaging Service SID has not been saved yet, go back to make sure it is filled in.

At this point, SMS is officially turned on for the team.

Part 5: Provisioning phone numbers

The final step is to provision phone numbers for the customer’s users. This will be the number that Twilio assigns and where their text messages will be sent from.

There are two options:

• Normal - A Gem Admin on the customer’s team provisions phone numbers, which can now be done from the Team Settings dashboard. This process is fully automated via Twilio’s API and the numbers will be added to the “Connected Phone Numbers” under the customer’s Twilio campaign page. No help from us is needed here.
• Advanced - Some customers may request a specific area code for their phone numbers. If this comes up, file a bug using the wrench icon in Gem to create a request for our engineers.

Create subaccount

Enter friendly name = Customer account name, click Create subaccount

Register a brand

Is the business entity you’re registering located in the US and/or Canada?

Does the business you’re registering have a tax ID (Ex. US EIN)?

Would you like to register a Secondary customer profile? - Always YES

Legal business name - Google it to make sure there isn’t an “Inc.” or something at the end of it.

Business Type - Look at form response

Business Registration Number - Input EIN from form response

Business Industry - Pick best match

Website Url

Business Regions of Operations - Look at form response

Save and continue

Business Address

Try “Select from existing address” first, if not, enter a new one.

Save and continue

Notification Settings

Email address - Use twilioreg@gem.com

Authorized Representatives

This will be on the customer’s side, fill in their details

Check in box for I confirm that my nominated authorized representatives agree to be contacted by Twilio.

Save and continue

Review settings. Big things to check for:

Authorized representative

Set notification emails to twilioreg

Once done, check in “I declare that the information provided is accurate.” box

click “Submit for review”

Submit Brand

If public, input ticker symbol. Google them to make sure you set the right stock exchange (ex. NYSE)

What type of brand do you need?

Set to low-volume standard brand ($4 one-time fee)

Check in “I agree the above information is correct.”

Click Register

(Internal) SMS registration (for CSMs)

Original resource in Dropbox

• History
• Overview
• Standards
• Procedure
• Part 1: Collect information from the customer
• Part 2: Working in Twilio
• Part 3: Evaluation by Twilio and TCR
• Part 4: Enable SMS for the customer from Gem
• Part 5: Provisioning phone numbers