Send a Follow-Up SMS
The fastest channel, and the easiest one to misuse
SMS gets read. That is its strength and its risk. A text confirming an appointment somebody just booked is genuinely useful. A text following up an enquiry nobody asked to be texted about is an intrusion, and it costs you the goodwill the form just earned.
The setup mirrors the email action closely. The judgement about whether to use it does not.
Before You Begin
- A phone field on the form, mapped to the contact's phone number
- SMS configured for your account
- A saved SMS template, if you are not using the AI option
Steps
Decide whether SMS is appropriate first
Before setting anything up, ask whether the person would expect a text. Booking confirmations, appointment reminders and time-sensitive updates: yes. General enquiry follow-ups: usually not.
If you are unsure, use email. A text nobody wanted does more damage than a slower email does.
Enable the SMS action
In Manage Form Actions, switch on Send an SMS. The options appear beneath it.
Choose a template or the AI option
Select an SMS template offers your saved SMS templates plus AI-Generated SMS, marked with a star.
A template is predictable and easy to keep short. The AI option writes a message for that specific submission — useful when the right thing to say depends on what they answered.
If you chose AI-generated, write the context
Keep the context tight and say that brevity matters: Short message confirming we received their enquiry and that we will call today.
Without that steer you may get something longer than a text should be.
Set the delay
Send after a delay of is in seconds, defaulting to 30.
SMS suits a short delay far better than email does — its value is immediacy. If it is confirming something the person just did, send it quickly while they still have their phone in hand.
Save and test on a real handset
Save the screen, then submit the form with a phone number you can check.
Read the message on an actual phone. Length, line breaks and any link all look different there than in a template editor.
Important: Texting people has rules, and they vary by country. Consent requirements, permitted hours and mandatory opt-out wording differ between jurisdictions. Check what applies where your contacts are before enabling this on a form, particularly on a form that is not a booking confirmation.
Info: A contact with no phone number gets nothing, and that is not an error. If a phone field is optional on your form, expect the SMS action to apply to only some submissions.
Email or SMS?
| Case | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Confirming a booking the person just made | Both | Email carries the calendar invitation; the text confirms it landed. |
| Following up a general website enquiry | Nobody filling in an enquiry form expects a text about it. | |
| A reminder before an appointment | SMS | It gets read in time to matter, which is the whole point. |
| Anything long, or anything with attachments | A text is the wrong shape for it. | |
| A form completed by someone who has never heard of you | Texting a stranger reads as intrusive regardless of how useful the message is. |
Result
Submissions that include a phone number now produce a text message. It appears in the contact's communication history alongside their emails.
