Tellem.ai Service Alerts — how verbal SMS consent is collected

Tellem.ai LLC manages the opt-in mechanism and is the sole creator and controller of all SMS templates. Participating service businesses provide only factual appointment information — customer name, appointment time, technician, ETA — and cannot create, edit, append, or send free-form or marketing messages. The message templates are locked server-side; a service business attempting to alter one is refused. Every message identifies Tellem.ai Service Alerts and the participating service business associated with the appointment, so the recipient can identify both the program operator and the business connected to the appointment.

Said before the recipient’s mobile number is collected, on a new appointment. Providing the number afterward is the consent event — there is no separate yes/no question. Versioned; the version used is stamped onto the consent record.

“Tellem.ai LLC would like to send you informational text updates through Tellem.ai Service Alerts about your appointment with [Business Name], including confirmations, arrival times, ETA updates, delays, and completion notices. Message frequency varies, and message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. Consent is not required to purchase or receive service.”

Said at the next contact with a recipient whose number was already on file before this consent process existed — one sentence, no script recitation:

“Tellem.ai LLC will start sending you informational text updates through Tellem.ai Service Alerts about your appointments with [Business Name], including confirmations, arrival times, ETA updates, delays, and completion notices, at this number going forward. Message frequency varies, and message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. Consent is not required to purchase or receive service, and you can stop these messages at any time.”

Two simulated calls, one per wording, showing where each falls in a normal interaction.

New appointment — the purpose statement

Existing number — the continuing-updates notice

There is no yes/no question in either wording, so nothing is “declined” — the number simply isn’t provided (new appointment) or the notice simply isn’t confirmed (existing number), and the appointment proceeds without SMS. Consent is optional and is never a condition of purchase or service.

Participating service-business representatives must:

• State the purpose statement in full, substituting the business’s name for [Business Name], before asking a new customer for their mobile number.
• For a number already on file before this consent process existed, deliver the continuing-updates notice in full at the next contact with that customer instead.
• Confirm in Tellem that the wording was said — there is no separate yes/no response to collect for either wording.
• Record the confirmation in Tellem during the interaction it happened in.
• Never infer consent from a phone number, a booking, accepting general terms, or prior service.
• Do not trigger SMS unless Tellem has stored a dated consent record.
• Do not edit templates, add promotional language, or send free-form messages.
• Tell the customer an enrollment confirmation will be sent and they may reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help.

The representative confirms in Tellem, at the moment of the interaction, that the applicable wording was delivered. The consent record is written against that appointment, so it is tied to the job on which it was collected. That consent then covers the customer’s future appointments with the same service business until they reply STOP — Tellem does not ask them to opt in again, and does not create a second record. No message is sent to any number without a stored, dated consent record naming both the recipient and the service business.

Before any SMS is queued or sent, Tellem checks that a dated consent record exists for the recipient and participating service business and that no applicable STOP suppression is active. If either requirement is not satisfied, Tellem blocks the message. Participating service businesses cannot override the consent check, suppression control, or standardized message templates.

Tellem does not operate a public form that enrolls a telephone number entered on its own. An imported number is stored as an undated “notice pending” marker — not consent — and stays un-texted until a representative delivers the continuing-updates notice above and confirms it in Tellem.

• Mobile number, in E.164 format
• The service business the consent was given to
• The appointment the consent was collected for
• Consent method — verbal (imported numbers instead carry import, with no date, until confirmed)
• Date and time of capture — null for an imported, notice-pending number, and never treated as consent while null
• Source — operator attested, recorded by the service business
• The version of the disclosure wording that was used, so the exact words the customer heard are reconstructable years later
• What the customer did, recorded in words — not a conclusion that consent exists — and null for a notice-pending marker
• The representative who recorded it
• The Terms and Privacy Policy versions in force at capture

Tellem separately maintains opt-out, suppression, HELP, and messaging-compliance records. Opt-in data and consent are not shared with third parties, and are not sold, rented, or used for marketing or promotional purposes.

An enrollment confirmation is sent immediately after a new verbal consent record is created and before Tellem sends appointment messages under that consent. This is the recipient’s receipt for a consent method they otherwise have no record of, and it puts a working STOP in their hands before any appointment traffic begins:

Tellem.ai Service Alerts: You’re enrolled for [Business Name] appointment texts. Msg frequency varies. Msg&data rates may apply. HELP=help, STOP=opt out.

A customer who books again with the same service business is already enrolled: no new consent record is created, and no second confirmation is sent.

Reply STOP to any Tellem.ai Service Alerts message to stop all SMS from the toll-free number that sent it. Tellem records the opt-out in an internal suppression list and prevents further message attempts from that number, across every service business sharing it. Reply HELP for the program help response:

Tellem.ai Service Alerts: Appointment-text help: support@tellem.ai or (845) 377-6588. Msg&data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out.

Every production message carries STOP and HELP instructions. The first message to a given recipient additionally carries “Msg&data rates may apply.” To resume messages after opting out, the recipient completes a supported opt-in process. Help is also available at support@tellem.ai or (845) 377-6588.