Learn how to configure SMS verification, sending hours, and opt-in messaging in the Dutchie POS Backoffice, for Marketing Director / Manager, Compliance Officer / Director of Compliance, and Dispensary Manager / General Manager roles.
Overview
The SMS Settings tab in Marketing > Configure controls how your dispensary verifies, schedules, and identifies itself in SMS and MMS marketing messages sent through Dutchie POS Loyalty & Marketing Pro. These settings apply to all brands with a 10DLC registration and help you stay compliant with SMS marketing regulations while giving your customers a consistent, well identified messaging experience.
Before you begin
- You must have the Access Email Marketing or Edit Marketing Configuration permission to access the SMS Settings tab.
- These settings apply to all brands with a 10DLC registration, and each location manages its own SMS Settings independently. Other locations configure their opt-in brand from their own settings page.
- SMS marketing features, including SMS Settings, require Dutchie POS Loyalty & Marketing Pro with the SMS campaign upgrade enabled.
- Sending hours are applied in each recipient's local time zone, not your dispensary's local time zone. A customer in Pacific time and a customer in Eastern time will each receive messages within their own local sending window.
- Default quiet hours are set to national recommendations, but some states have their own rules. Review the linked TCPA 47 CFR § 64.1200(c)(1) reference on the page for legal context.
Configure SMS verification
Choose how customers are verified when they open a link in an SMS or MMS marketing message. This setting applies to all brands with a 10DLC registration.
- Age gate: the consumer enters a date of birth that must match the one on their POS profile, and they must enter it every time they click a link in a message. This option carries a low risk of carrier filtering and is the default.
- New PIN for every message: the consumer receives a new PIN to enter every time they click a link in a message. Use this option when your customers have incomplete or mismatched dates of birth on file, since a mismatch can prevent customers from completing verification and can lead them to stop engaging with your SMS messages altogether. This option also carries a low risk of carrier filtering.
To change this setting:
- Go to Marketing > Configure > SMS Settings.
- Under SMS Verification, select either Age gate or New PIN for every message.
- Click Save.
Configure SMS sending hours
Set the hours during which SMS messages can be sent to your customers. Times are applied in each recipient's local time zone. For example, a customer in Pacific time will receive messages between the configured hours in Pacific time, while a customer in Eastern time will receive them between the same configured hours in Eastern time.
The SMS Sending Hours section lets you configure a start and end time for each day of the week, and lets you disable sending entirely for a given day. If a message is scheduled to send outside the configured hours for a recipient, the system automatically queues the message and sends it at the start of the next available window instead of sending it immediately.
Things to know about sending hours:
- The default schedule is 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Monday through Saturday, with Sunday disabled. This default complies with most states' regulations.
- The allowed range for sending hours is 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
- A minimum 30-minute window is required between the start and end time for any enabled day.
- If you enable a day, you must specify both a start time and an end time for it.
- This flexibility is useful for states with stricter rules on certain days. For example, a dispensary in a state that limits Sunday texting hours can set a narrower window for Sunday while keeping standard hours for the rest of the week, or disable Sunday sending altogether.
To configure sending hours:
- Go to Marketing > Configure > SMS Settings.
- Under SMS Sending Hours, check or uncheck the box next to each day to enable or disable sending for that day.
- For each enabled day, select a start time and an end time from the dropdown menus.
- Click Save.
Overriding sending hours for a single campaign: sending hours configured on this page are applied to campaigns by default, but you can override them for an individual, time-critical campaign. When you schedule or send an SMS campaign for a time that falls within your configured quiet hours, a warning banner appears in the Schedule Send step of the campaign builder along with an Override quiet hours for this campaign checkbox.
Selecting this checkbox lets that specific campaign send outside your normal sending hours without changing your account-wide SMS Sending Hours settings. Campaigns that used this override display as Overridden in the Quiet Hours column of the campaigns list. Because overriding quiet hours carries compliance risk, use it sparingly and only for genuinely time-critical communications, such as an emergency store closure notice.
Configure opt-in message configuration
Choose which 10DLC brand this location's SMS opt-in messages use. This determines the dispensary name that appears in the opt-in message a customer receives. Other locations configure their own opt-in brand from their own settings page. If this location is not configured, it sends a generic opt-in message that does not include the dispensary name.
To configure this setting:
- Go to Marketing > Configure > SMS Settings.
- Under Opt-In Message Configuration, use the Send opt-in messages through dropdown to select the 10DLC brand this location's opt-in messages should use.
- Click Save.
Troubleshooting
Q: A customer says they can't get past the verification step when they click a link in one of our SMS messages. What should I do?
A: This is often caused by incomplete or mismatched dates of birth in customer profiles, which prevents customers from completing Age gate verification. Switch the SMS Verification setting to New PIN for every message so customers verify with a PIN instead of a date of birth.
Q: A campaign didn't send when I expected it to. Why?
A: If the scheduled send time fell outside your configured SMS Sending Hours for a recipient's local time zone, the system automatically queues the message and sends it at the start of the next available sending window rather than sending it immediately.
Q: I need to send a time-sensitive SMS campaign outside our configured sending hours. Is that possible?
A: Yes. In the campaign builder's Schedule Send step, select the Override quiet hours for this campaign checkbox when the warning banner appears. This applies only to that individual campaign and does not change your location's SMS Sending Hours settings.