Send SMS notifications to customers via Add-On Mart (Twilio)

There’s a simple way to set up SMS notifications for your customers when you need to remind them about billing or other important events. SMS notifications have high deliverability, so they allow you to notify customers promptly and reliably. They also tend to elicit a faster customer response than email, making them a good option for enforcing the payment collection process. For example, when an invoice due date is approaching, the customer automatically receives an SMS notification reminding them to make payment.

Now, the possibility to send SMS notifications is available via the Add-on Mart and is based on Twilio. Integrations with other SMS providers are intended in the future.

The integration will work with any PortaBilling version with no need for a full system update. Simply sign up for an account with the SMS provider and subscribe to the corresponding Add-on Mart module, and the integration will be set up by our PortaOne engineers. Then you can automatically notify your customers via SMS about events you define on the customer class level, e.g., the credit limit is exceeded, the invoice becomes overdue, etc.

Sending SMS via Add-On Mart utilizes modern REST APIs, offered by CPaaS providers like Twilio. Such a connection can be set up very quickly, it is easy to troubleshoot, and there is little room for errors. This makes it a much simpler alternative to sending SMS notifications using SMPP protocol – such connections are difficult to set up and tedious to troubleshoot.

Add-On Mart architecture makes it very easy to add a module that uses another SMS provider that offers API (such as HTTP REST) for sending SMS. So, if you want to add an SMS provider of your choice to appear as an option in the near future, contact our sales team.

• Better customer service using SMS notifications.
• Reduced time for setting up SMS notifications to customers.

Once an event configured on the customer class level for SMS notifications happens, PortaBilling sends the customer's phone number along with the notification message body (specified in a template at the customer class level) to the Add-on Mart cloud infrastructure (AMCI). AMCI triggers an API request to the SMS provider via HTTPS and passes along the SMS details (message body and phone number). And then the SMS provider sends the corresponding SMS notification to your customer.

Prerequisites for configuring SMS notifications in PortaBilling:

• You have signed up for an account with the SMS provider (Twilio) and have the corresponding credentials (for Twilio, these are account SID and Auth token).
• You have an active Add-on Mart subscription for the corresponding SMS module.
• The Add-on Mart integration is activated by PortaOne engineers.

Once the integration is activated, you need to perform standard steps to configure notifications in PortaBilling:

1. Create a notification template and customize the SMS messages for specific events.
2. Assign this notification template to a customer class and select which events are important enough for SMS notifications.
3. Make sure that phone numbers are set for the customers of this customer class in the following field: Customer > Personal info > General info > Address info > Alt. phone.

See the How to manage customer class notifications handbook for more details.

If AMCI sends an API request with the SMS details, and the SMS provider is not reachable, AMCI doesn’t resend the request.