Two-way messaging stalls in the same place every time, which is the registration document. The question sitting right behind it is why a bulk send came back with an audience of almost nobody.
What is included, and what the Booster adds
Reminders, confirmations, cancellations and follow-ups already go out on your plan, one way. Communications Booster is what adds your own Australian mobile number, replies, extra credits a month and free inbound messages. Activating it does not hand the number over: your business is verified against its own registration record first, and that is the step people get stuck on.
- Open SMS and select Get your number.
- Enter the Legal Business Name, the ABN / ACN and the street address exactly as the registration document shows them.
- Under Business Registration Document, select Choose document and attach it.
- Tick both declarations, then select Submit for Verification.
Everything typed here has to match the document you attach, so use the legal name on the registration rather than your trading name. Review is usually decided within 1-3 business days and the number activates on its own once it is approved.
| Your entity | The document to attach |
|---|---|
| Sole trader or partnership | Your ABN Lookup record, printed to PDF |
| A company with an ACN | An ASIC company extract from ASIC Connect |
Trap
The document has to be dated within the last 12 months and uploaded as a PDF, JPEG or PNG under 5MB. A PO box is not accepted, and a street address that does not match the document character for character is what holds a submission up.
Bring the number your old software gave you
If your old booking software gave you an Australian mobile number starting with 04, it can often come with you, so clients keep texting the number they already know. It depends on your old provider agreeing to release it, and it usually takes 1 to 4 weeks.
- Open SMS and select Bring my number from my old software, beside Get your number.
- Choose the software that gave you the number, enter the number, and answer Is there a SIM card in a phone for this number? and Is your account with them still active?
- Tick the box to keep your old software active until the number is live, then select Bring my number.
- Verify your business with the steps above if you have not already, then send the email Petboost writes for you from the address on your old account: Copy email or Open in my email app, then I've sent it.
- When your old provider replies, paste the whole reply and select Send their reply.
The card then tracks the move from Business verified through Details sent to move the number to Number live in Petboost. A SIM in a phone, or an account that is no longer active, stops the move there, and Get a new number instead gives you a new number.
Trap
Do not cancel your old software until the card shows Number live in Petboost. If the account is cancelled first, the number can be gone for good.
A bulk send only counts the clients who opted in
Bulk Send on Messages asks what kind of message it is before it asks who it goes to, because the type decides who is countable at all.
- Open Messages & Calls, select the arrow beside New, then Bulk Send.
- Under Choose Audience, choose Announcements, Marketing or Rebooking reminders, and read how many customers can receive it.
- Pick the segments. To narrow them, add filters under Narrow it down. From October to December, Marketing also offers Christmas: nothing booked in December, which finds the clients seen this year with nothing booked in December and starts the message for you.
- Select the Review Audience button, which counts the audience, then Compose Message and write the message.
- Select Review Prior to Sending, then Review my message, and tick the consent declaration.
- Select the Send to button, which counts the customers.
Move between the three and watch the headline. Marketing needs an explicit yes from each client, so it is nearly always the shortest list and the one that reads zero on a young account. Announcements and Rebooking reminders each read their own consent, which is how a client can decline your offers and still be told their dog is due.
Every filter under Narrow it down shows how many receivable customers it keeps as you change it, and a customer has to match all of them. Birthday month finds the pets born in a month, Service booked finds who has or has never booked a service, and the more button adds membership, breed, visits, spend and the pet details. Two segments do the jobs people used to export a list for: Terms not agreed under Announcements reaches clients with an upcoming booking who have not agreed to your terms, and Booked on a day reaches everyone booked on a day you pick, the one to use for a closure.
Trap
A zero audience is a consent answer, not a filter answer, so widening the segments underneath will not move it. Consent is set per client on their profile under Communication Preferences, and only with their express permission, which is what the declaration on that card is for.
Credits come out of one pool whatever sent them, and they are counted per 160-character segment, so a bulk of one-segment messages to 48 people costs 48. The composer counts the segments before you send and will not send a batch your credits cannot cover. Replies coming back in are free. Plan credits reset on your billing date, pack credits never expire, and Auto top-up under SMS Top-up Credit Packs buys the pack you chose on the next message after you run out.
Check
Keep a bulk message short. Past 160 characters, or with an emoji anywhere in it, the carrier splits it and the client receives it in parts. Write the message, then read the segment badge on the composer before you send, and check the usage on Billing after a big send rather than assuming.
Email the list, and read the thread later
Petboost does not send this one for you. Send bulk email, under the cog on Customers & Pets, builds the recipient list and hands the draft to your own mail app.
- Open Customers & Pets, select the cog, then Send bulk email.
- Tick the clients to include, or select Select All.
- Select Open Default Email, or Copy BCC List to Clipboard for a list your mail app will not take as a link.
Open Default Email starts that draft addressed to your own business address, with every client in BCC so none of them sees another. Copy BCC List to Clipboard is the one to reach for when your mail app will not take a link that long, and past 400 addresses it splits into batches Outlook will accept. Nothing on this screen spends an SMS credit.
Tip
Every text with a client, automated or typed by you, sits in one thread on their profile under Messages, with Hide automated to take the reminders out of the view and a star beside it that puts the conversation under Starred on Messages, whether you star it from the customer, the pet or the booking. That tab appears once Communications Booster is on and the number is live. On Messages itself, the All team button filters the list to the conversations a chosen team member replied in.
To text an owner without leaving the calendar, right-click their booking and choose Message owner; from a booking opened on Mission Control, select Message followed by the owner's first name. Both open the thread in a side panel with the visit shown above it, and both need Communications Booster.
Whatever sent it, every email and text about a booking is also recorded on the booking's Activity Log, with a badge for what happened to it: delivered, opened, bounced or marked as spam for an email, delivered or failed for a text. A customer whose emails keep bouncing gets a red Emails bouncing badge on their profile, and Petboost stops emailing that address until it changes. A red Texts not arriving badge is the same warning for their phone, and correcting the number clears it.