SMS Surveys allow you to send your AskNicely survey via text message. We typically recommend implementing SMS once you have gotten up and running with a "Touch Base" emailed survey to all of your customers. However, if you don't capture email addresses or if text is your primary method of communication, starting with SMS is a great option.
If you're interested in adding SMS to your account, please contact your Customer Success Manager or Account Executive for SMS pricing. Plans vary based on location and survey limits, and several back-end changes must be enabled on your account before you can proceed.
📞 Number Formatting Guidelines
🧠 Know Before You Go
- The number of SMS that you purchase is an estimate based on cost per message, not the number of surveys you can send. Initial message, SMS Workflow messages, and SMS Workflow responses all count towards the message limit. If an SMS exceeds 160 characters, including the survey URL, it will be split into multiple SMS messages. The same goes for any reply you may receive or any workflows. (see FAQ's below for URL length)
- If you are using the API to bring your contacts into AskNicely, SMS messages do not follow the "delayminutes" rule.
-
If SMS is your primary survey method, that's great! We can do that as the only way of delivering surveys, or we can set it up where SMS is the initial method and email is the fallback.
-
What AskNicely cannot do:
- Send an email survey initially, then send a follow-up via SMS.
-
What AskNicely cannot do:
Important: AskNicely cannot send an email survey first and then follow up with SMS.
Deliverability & Avoiding Spam Filters
A message can show as "delivered" in your dashboard and still be flagged as spam on the recipient's phone carriers and mobile operating systems (iOS and Android) apply their own spam filtering on top of delivery. A few factors raise that risk:
Shortened links. Shortener-style links (short subdomain, random path token) are treated as more suspicious than a full, branded https:// URL because spammers use shorteners to hide destinations. See SMS Shortlinks below for the tradeoff.
Opt-out language. The required "Reply STOP to unsubscribe" text (see Opt-Outs) signals a bulk/marketing message to spam filters. This is a compliance requirement and can't be removed, but combined with a suspicious link or generic copy, it pushes the spam score higher.
Generic, templated copy. Messages like "Thanks for visiting! Please share your feedback" closely match common spam and phishing templates. Personalizing the copy with a business name and specific context scores better than anonymous template language.
Sender reputation. A brand-new number with no send history is more likely to be flagged than an established one. When starting a new SMS program, ramp up volume gradually rather than sending your full list on day one.
Emojis aren't disqualifying on their own, but avoid stacking them with the risk factors above.
📲 The SMS Survey Experience
Survey invitations are sent from a U.S. phone number and contain a link to your survey. When the recipient taps the link, it opens in their mobile browser.
Once the score is selected, any Feedback Topics or Conversation fields will be displayed as configured.
Easy and mobile-friendly for the respondent!
🛠️ Account Setup for SMS
Contact your AskNicely CSM or Account Executive to enable SMS. You can also head to AskNicely's App Store > search "Send SMS surveys" > click the button to request SMS
-
Import phone numbers using one of the following methods:
CSV file
API
3rd party integrations
Creating SMS Contacts
In AskNicely, Contacts can be either SMS or Email Contacts. This section explains how the designation is determined for each Contact.
Note: Twilio is referenced. Twilio is the tool AskNicely uses to send SMS messages.
🔀 Sending SMS Surveys Only
To set all Contacts to SMS, use the Primary Survey Method to map all of your Contacts. It is not necessary to map an email address in addition to phone numbers.
The Primary Survey Method mapping option will automatically create filler phone number/email values that will populate the email field for each Contact. E.g. 18558675309@sms.asknice.ly
🔀 Sending Email or SMS from One Account
Primary Survey Method, via Multiple Importers
Create two Importers.
- One Importer will be for your SMS Contacts. Use the Primary Survey Method to map the phone number column to the Mobile (Primary Survey Method) field.
- The second will be for your email Contacts. Map the email column to the Email field in the AskNicely section of the mapping list.
When Importing, separate CSVs into SMS and Email Contacts, and use the designated Importers when uploading.
Forced SMS Method
"Forced SMS" is how the AskNicely team refers to a configuration where Contacts have both an email address, and potentially, a phone number. You will choose a field from your imports to be the designated phone number field. This field is global to your account, so all phone numbers to be used for SMS surveys must be imported in the Forced SMS field.
If there is a correctly formatted phone number in your Forced SMS field for a Contact, that Contact will be designated an SMS Contact. If that field is empty, that Contact will be designated an email Contact.
Be careful: if a contact exists under both email and SMS as primary identifiers, they will be treated as two separate contacts.
Opt-Outs, Failed Delivery, and Unsubscribes
Opt-Outs
When a SMS survey is successfully delivered and the Contact replies STOP, Twilio blocks the number from future surveys, and the contact is immediately unsubscribed within the AskNicely Contact list. In Forced SMS configuration, the fallback email survey will not be sent.
If a Contact follows up and texts START, it will unblock the number in Twilio, but it will not re-subscribe them in AskNicely.
Failed Delivery in Configurations without Forced SMS
Delivery fails in Twilio, the number is blocked in Twilio, and AskNicely unsubscribes the Contact.
Failed Delivery in Configurations with Forced SMS
Delivery fails in Twilio, the number is blocked in Twilio, and AskNicely attempts to send an email survey.
The opt-out instruction ("Reply STOP to unsubscribe") is included only in the first SMS survey sent to a new Contact. Subsequent survey messages to that same Contact will not repeat this text. This is a compliance requirement and isn't configurable per message; it's automatically added once per new Contact.
📞 Number Formatting Guidelines
CSV Imports
Format must include country code and area code.
Format should be like
+18558675309.Ensure the "+" is not removed by your spreadsheet tool.
Here's a video tutorial on how to preserve "+" in Excel.
Select phone number cells that have the invisible +
Right click > Format Cells > Click "Custom" > Replace "General" with +0;-0;0 > Ok
API Methods
Method 1: Shared Field
If you are using the same API call to bring in both Email and SMS Contact information, the phone number needs to be formatted as described above; in addition, "@sms.asknice.ly" needs to be appended to the end of the number as well.
Example:
If the phone number for a contact is "1 (855) 867-5309"
Method 2: Dedicated Mobile Field
If you are using a unique field for SMS, our Support Team can direct SMS sending based on that field. Formatting of the API call would therefore look like:
Contact support@asknice.ly if you need setup help.
📥 CSV Column Mapping Options
Option 1 – Primary Survey Method (Recommended)
-
Match your SMS field to: Mobile Number (Primary Survey Method).
- Note: If you don’t see the “Mobile Number (Primary Survey Method)” option, ask support@asknice.ly to enable SMS for your account.
Set this during CSV import or via supported integrations like Salesforce.
Option 2 – Fallback to Email (Force SMS)
- Map the email column to the Email field in the AskNicely section of the field mapping list.
- Map the phone number column to the Force SMS field, chosen by you and configured by the AskNicely team.
Refer to number formatting guide.
Contact support@asknice.ly to discuss and activate Force SMS, and configure your Force SMS field.
✏️ Build Your SMS Template
Go to the Survey page and choose your template.
Click the SMS tab to edit the message body.
Test your character limit by clicking here. Select the "auto" option below the text box when checking total message count. If you leave it on the default of "gsm" it will highlight in red the characters that would cause a message to break into two separate texts automatically. Using special characters can drastically change the total character count.
Short messages ensure surveys stay within one SMS.
🔗 SMS Shortlinks
If your account has multiple brands, enable SMS shortlinks to replace your domain with a generic s URL for simpler display.
Deliverability tradeoff: shortened, generic-domain links are more likely to be flagged by carrier or device spam filters than a full branded URL (see Deliverability & Avoiding Spam Filters above).
📤 Schedule & Send SMS Surveys
Use the Send Page (paper airplane icon) to schedule daily sends.
Use the Email button on the Contacts page to manually send an instant SMS to a single Contact.
API & integration triggers can send SMS based on events (contact your CSM).
❓FAQs
Q: Why is my SMS balance running out even though I haven't sent my survey limit?
A: SMS is paid for not by number of surveys, but by number of messages sent. Your initial message, SMS Workflow messages, and SMS Workflow responses all count towards the message limit. Long messages may be split into more than one SMS.
Q: How do I know if a message will be split?
A:SMS messages split at 153 characters. When we're talking about your initial survey message, that includes both the text asking recipients to complete the survey and the link to the survey. The message includes a URL automatically.
Remember that Dynamic Fields are variable, too, so if your message contains {firstname}, you should plan for long names, which will increase the character count.
Remember, short messages are your friend in SMS!
Q: Will someone be double-surveyed, once by SMS and once by email?
A: Not if you use a custom field with phone number instead of putting the phone number in place of the email address. Because we use email address as a unique ID, if you add the same user but put their phone number in place of their email address, it would be considered a new user that's unaffiliated with the first. If that happens, someone may get double-surveyed.
Q: What if the phone number is incorrect and is actually a landline?
A: According to our sending service, US, UK, and Canadian landline numbers may be eligible to receive SMS (via automated voice recording).
For all other countries, we will get a "failure to deliver" notice and an email survey will be attempted only if you have an email address attached to the Contact Record.
To avoid this scenario at all, please double check the phone numbers you are importing.
Q: Which performs better — email or SMS?
A: Both are similar, but email surveys tend to have longer comments.
Q: Do SMS surveys count toward our overall monthly/annual survey limits with emailed surveys or inapp Web Surveys?
A: Yes, SMS surveys count toward your total survey limit.
Q: Can I use SMS with Workflows?
A: Yes! See the SMS Workflows and Alerts help article for details.
Q: Can I change the sending phone number?
A: No, numbers are managed by Twilio and cannot be customized.
Q: Is there a character limit for SMS responses?
A: Yes. Individual replies are limited to 160 characters. Longer replies are split and capped at 320 characters (2 messages).
🙋 Need Help?
If you need help setting up SMS surveys or troubleshooting your message sends, reach out to support@asknice.ly or click the chat button at the bottom right of your screen. We're here for you!