SMS alert compliance: how opt-in works at Welco
SMS alert compliance at Welco rests on one rule: we text only people who asked for it themselves. A business can invite its staff, but each person joins on their own page, ticks an unchecked box and replies YES before any alert arrives. STOP, HELP and START work at any time.
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Who Welco texts, and who it never texts
Welco sends alerts from machines and systems to the staff who look after them. Operators, technicians, admins and on-call teams are the people on the other end.
Welco never texts the public. No customers, patients, students, leads or tenants, and no marketing or sales texts of any kind. Our acceptable use policy sets out the rules every account agrees to.
These are the same consent rules US carriers apply to 10DLC and toll-free senders. Welco sends from verified toll-free numbers, and our carrier compliance page shows how each phone meets them.
How a person opts in to alert texts
The person who agrees is always the person who gets the texts. An admin can invite staff but can never turn texts on for them.
The business signs up and is verified
A business creates a Welco account and we verify it before it can send. The account owner's optional, unchecked box covers only their own phone.
The business invites a staff member
The admin sends an invite by email or shares a join link. No text is sent at this step, and the admin screen has no field that turns texting on.
The staff member joins on their own page
They open their join page, see who invited them and what alerts to expect, enter their own mobile number and tick an unchecked box. See the example join page.
Welco sends one confirmation text
The text asks them to reply YES and explains STOP and HELP. If they never reply, Welco sends that phone nothing else.
The person replies YES
Welco confirms by text, and only then do alerts start.
STOP, HELP and START work at any time
STOP ends every Welco text to that phone. HELP gets help, and START opts them back in.
The consent box on the join page
Each staff member sees this box on their own join page. It starts unticked, and only they can tick it. Welco puts the name of the inviting business in place of [Company].
I agree to receive alert text messages from Welco for [Company] at the phone number above. Message frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. See our SMS Terms and Privacy Policy.The consent box at sign-up
The account owner sees this box on the sign-up form. It is unchecked by default and optional, and it covers only the owner's own phone.
I agree to receive alert text messages from Welco at the phone number above. Message frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of using Welco. See our SMS Terms and Privacy Policy.The confirmation text
Welco sends this once, only after the person submits their join page.
Welco: You asked to get [Company] system alerts at this number. Reply YES to confirm. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.Replies, word for word
These are the exact replies Welco sends, the same for every business.
YES
- Welco replies
Welco: You're confirmed for [Company] alerts. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.
STOP
- Welco replies
Welco: You're unsubscribed and will get no more texts from Welco. Reply START to rejoin.
HELP
- Welco replies
Welco Alerts: system alert texts for your team. Help: hello@welco.ai. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out.
START
- Welco replies
Welco: You're subscribed again. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.
STOP, HELP and START
These reply words work on every Welco text, at any time.
- STOP ends all Welco texts to that number. No rule, sender or account owner can override it.
- HELP gets the person help. They can also email hello@welco.ai.
- START opts the number back in after a STOP.
- STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, REVOKE and OPTOUT count as STOP. The stop words page has the full list.
- The confirmation text explains STOP and HELP before the first alert ever arrives.
If an on-call phone opts out
A phone that replied STOP misses every alert after that, even urgent ones. Check delivery reports if someone stops getting texts. The person has to opt back in themselves, which is how it should be. See how the STOP keyword works across mobile networks.
Our alerts-only policy
Every text Welco sends is a system alert: an alarm, a failure, a voicemail on an urgent line. Message frequency depends on how often your systems raise alerts.
Welco numbers are alerts-only and never shared with marketing senders. No spam and no ads get through: texts with blocked words are held, not sent.
Each text starts with Welco: and ends with Reply STOP to opt out. so the person always knows who is texting and how to leave.
An account that breaks these rules gets a written warning each time, and the third warning closes it with no refund. The SMS terms and privacy policy give the full details.
The opt-in record Welco keeps
For every phone, Welco keeps a record of the number, the date it joined and its YES reply. Each STOP and START is recorded the same way, with its date.
We keep these consent and opt-out records for 4 years, the time limit for claims under the TCPA. If a carrier or an auditor asks how a person agreed, the record answers it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a manager type in a staff member's number for them?
What happens if a staff member never replies YES?
Who pays for the confirmation and reply texts?
Will people who opt in ever get marketing from Welco?
Invite your team and let each person opt in
Sign up, verify your business, then send invites. Every phone joins on its own.
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