Transactional SMS: order notices, confirmations and alerts your customers expect

The short answer: a transactional SMS is a notice triggered by something the customer did or has going on with you: an order, an appointment, a payment, a delivery. It sells nothing, it informs, and the customer is expecting it. Keep it short, say who is sending and what the customer needs to do, and send it from the SMS page in Meu Interweb or automatically from your own system through the API. It reaches any mobile phone, even with no internet and no apps.

What counts as transactional

Type of notice	When it goes out	Examples
Confirmation	Right after an order, booking or appointment	order received, appointment booked, table reserved
Order status	At each change the customer cares about	ready for collection, on its way, delivered
Payment	When the customer pays or has to pay	payment received, invoice issued, payment reminder
Service alert	When something changes without the customer asking	planned outage, new opening hours, maintenance
Security	When the customer signs in or confirms an action	verification codes, sign-in notice

A promotion is not transactional, even when it goes to existing customers. Add an offer to an order notice and the message becomes advertising. Keep the two apart, in separate sends.

Ready-to-copy messages

In the examples, the parts in square brackets, such as [COMPANY], [PHONE] or [DATE], are there for you to replace with your own details before sending.

Situation	Message
Order received	[COMPANY]: we have received your order no. [NUMBER]. We will text you when it is ready. Questions: [PHONE].
Ready for collection	Hi Ana, your order has arrived. You can collect it until Saturday, 8am to 5pm. [COMPANY], [ADDRESS].
Out for delivery	Your order no. 4521 goes out for delivery today. Collection code: 7731. [COMPANY]
Delivered	[COMPANY]: order no. [NUMBER] was delivered today at [TIME]. Any problem? Call [PHONE].
Appointment confirmed	[COMPANY]: your appointment is confirmed for [DATE] at [TIME]. To reschedule, call [PHONE].
Day before the appointment	Hi Carlos, a reminder that your appointment is tomorrow at 9:30am. To reschedule, call the clinic on [PHONE].
Payment received	[COMPANY]: we have received your payment of [AMOUNT]. Thank you. Your receipt is at [WEBSITE].
Planned outage	[COMPANY]: the service will be down on [DATE], from [TIME] to [TIME], for maintenance. We apologise.
New opening hours	[COMPANY]: from [DATE] we are open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. Information: [PHONE].
Repair ready	[COMPANY]: your device has been repaired. You can collect it from tomorrow. Ref.: [NUMBER].

How to write a good notice

1	Who is sending, right at the start. Open with your company name, even with a Sender ID, so the customer knows at once where it comes from.

2	What happened, in one sentence. “Your order has arrived” says more than a paragraph of pleasantries.

3	The detail the customer needs. Order number, date, time, place or code. Only what helps them act.

4	The next step and a contact. A phone number, an e-mail address or your website. Named senders cannot receive replies, so never ask the customer to reply to the SMS.

5	Nothing extra. No advertising and no sensitive data: never passwords, full card numbers or health details.

Sending by hand or automatically

How you send	What it is for
SMS page in Meu Interweb, to one number	One-off notices: a customer's order is ready, an appointment has moved.
SMS page, to a list or group, with a date and time	The same notice to many people: a planned outage, new opening hours.
API	Notices your website or system creates on its own: every new order, every payment received. See how to send SMS through the API.

On the page, before you send, you see how many parts the message has and how many credits it will use. Afterwards, in the history, the status “Sent” means the message has gone out to the mobile operator; it does not mean it has been read.

On an order notice, the name matters. With a Sender ID, the customer sees your company name instead of a number and recognises the notice before opening it. The free NETMSG sender is fine to start with, but it does not show your name.

Automatic notices need a brake. If your system sends an SMS at every status change, make sure it never sends the same notice twice or sends notices in the middle of the night. Each part uses one credit, and a customer who gets three identical texts stops taking them seriously.

Want to text your customers at every order, appointment or payment? Start with 1,000 credits.

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