Any customer can stop your texts by replying STOP to your business number. Run a Call records it on the spot, blocks every text to that number — manual and automatic — and shows your team that the customer opted out.
How a customer opts out
The customer replies to any of your texts with one of these words, on its own:
| Reply | Result |
|---|---|
| STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT | Opted out of texts from your business. |
| START, YES, UNSTOP | Opted back in. Texts can reach them again. |
The word has to be the whole message. "My AC stopped working" or "Can we cancel Tuesday?" is treated as a normal reply and lands in your inbox like any other message.
Right after they reply, the customer gets a confirmation text:
- Opting out: You've been unsubscribed from Desert Valley HVAC. Reply START to resubscribe.
- Opting back in: You've been resubscribed to Desert Valley HVAC. Reply STOP anytime to opt out again.
(Your business name appears in place of Desert Valley HVAC.)
What your team sees
- The reply itself shows in the customer's conversation, marked [OPT-OUT] (or [OPT-IN]).
- An Opted out of texts badge appears next to the customer's phone number, both on their profile and at the top of their conversation in Conversations → Messages. Hover it to see the date they replied STOP.
- The Text button on their profile is greyed out.
What stops
Once a number has opted out, Run a Call won't send it any text:
- Messages your team types in Conversations or on the customer's page. The send fails with Recipient has opted out of text messages.
- Automatic texts — booking confirmations, reminders, on-my-way and arrival texts, invoice texts, review requests, and any texts from automations you built.
Emails and phone calls aren't affected. You can still email the customer or call them.
There's no button to opt a customer back in for them. Only the customer can, by texting START to your number. This protects your business: texting someone who opted out can bring carrier penalties and fines.
Customers with more than one contact
If a customer record has extra contacts (for example a property manager and an on-site tenant), an opt-out applies to the phone number that sent STOP. When that number belongs to one of the contacts, only that contact is opted out — the main customer can still receive texts.
Good to know
- They asked by phone or email to stop texts. Ask them to reply STOP to one of your texts, or stop texting them manually and turn off the relevant automatic texts in Automations.
- Best practice: keep texts about their appointments, jobs and invoices. Every outgoing text already starts with your business name, so customers know who is texting.