It is a fully compliant landline based texting system. The dealer uses their existing dealership phone number to communicate with potential new customers. Messages are views, tracked, and managed through TextFuel's online management dashboard and mobile app.

TextFuel enables a dealer to communicate with customers the way the consumers want to, via text. It eliminates individual sales people using personal cell phones or even a company phones. All messages go through the one number. TextFuel adds transparency by giving owners and managers the ability to see what is being said by their employees to each customer.

Once the dealer goes through our self-service sign up and completes the account creation they will be asked to “provision” the number they would like consumers to see and use to text the dealership. Basically, “provision” means enable the phone number for SMS texting. This process takes anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to fully work thought-out the text world. When complete you can begin to use “Call or Text” in your various advertising plans, used car listings or where ever you want to have consumers text you questions. You then text back and forth with the consumer either through our mobile app that you download to your phone or always through our web based ILM, DOLLAR.

Setup - setup of TextFuel is super easy.

1. Go to http://www.textfuel.com and follow the simple sign up process.
2. Choose the right texting plan for your dealership, either one user for $19.99 or up to 10 users for $99.99; although we strongly recommend the $49.99 version as you get access to the mobile app.
3. Create an account by entering your dealership and contact information.
4. After an account is created you'll be directed to sign our e-contract.
5. Once that is signed you will be prompted to enter your credit card information.

Provisioning Process - After TextFuel is setup, you will be directed to Dollar to begin the provisioning process. This is the process where we enable their land line to send and receive texts.

1. Hit the provision now button and enter the number you want consumers to text.
2. Once the number is entered hit go, it will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes for it to fully work throughout the texting universe.
3. While waiting for the number to provision you can click on the account management tab to add additional users to the system and select their permission level.
4. Choose whether you want new inbound texts to be round robined between all sales people, just a few or only to one person.

There are multiple ways they can use TextFuel for their store. The dealer adds the language “call or text” to their advertising and then they can talk with potential customers. The other way is to take inbound leads they have received and add their number to the TextFuel section in Dollar and begin to communicate with leads they have gotten from other sources.

If they purchase the $99.99 package they get access to “key words”. Key words are words that can be texted to their dealership number and the person texting will automatically get a response with a link for them to click on. An example could be if the consumer is interested in an F150 and they text the key word F150, they would get back a link with additional information or what ever the dealer wants the consumer to see. They can do the same with a finance form, by having the consumer text Apply….its whatever work they would like to have the consumer text and then see, but from a follow up standpoint the dealership sales person can now have an intelligent conversation with the prospect as they will know what that person is interested in.

All of the administrative needs can be done in Dollar in the Admin tab. There they can add new users, add key words, upgrade service or cancel.

No, not completely. Many dealers are relying on their sales people to use their personal cell phones or company phones to communicate. This approach can create a number of problems including transparency for the dealer in understanding what employees are saying and when they are speaking to customers. That employee can also delete all of the texts they have had with a customer and the dealership would have no idea what was said and those records would not be able to be retrieved. TextFuel archives all communication so an admin can see the past texts. The other issues are if an employee is using a personal phone and they leave they can continue to work your prospects.

TextFuel is compliant in the following ways. First if a consumer is initiating the communication they are opting into talking via text. But when they do begin they can always opt out by replying with STOP; sales people who are using their personal phones can’t do this. By replying STOP will remove the ability to text with them, but not delete the conversation (its archived). If you are initiating the communication then you need to ensure that you have permission to text that customer, but that consumer can always opt out as well by sending STOP. All texts are archived so that if there ever is an issue you can find it and be able to speak intelligently.

The opt out messaging is something that you need to set up while you are setting up your account. We give you the ability to set a custom message to be sent and also if you want it sent automatically or not when a conversation is started with a consumer for the first time.

Yes, a person can opt back in to receiving text messages from you by texting “unstop”.

Absolutely. As long as it’s a landline (cannot be a mobile number), it can be done easily.

Sure, we can round robin to your sales people; you just need to add the appropriate users, their emails and select the round robin option in the Admin section of Dollar. And with this you also get “roll” based access so you can have a manager see all the leads while each user can only see the leads assigned to them.

Currently today the CRM companies don’t have a way for us to import this data into their systems.

The mobile app is our Apple or Andriod app that allows you to be able to message back and forth with the consumer. Every message either you or the person you are texting sends a message it will not only show up in the mobile app but also in our web based app. This is the way most of our customers use TextFuel. It allows them to return messages much more quickly.

The mobile app helps as it allows you to get back to the customers request in the quickest possible manner. Just make sure you have “notifications” enabled so you know when the messages arrive. You can also use our picture messaging to send images of the cars as well.

Keyword texting is when you pick a word SALE and place it in your advertising. So now in the web app you create a key word SALE and then put in a web address that has more details on the sale. So now when the customer texts SALE, they will immediately get a response with that link. So not only does the customer get to see additional information; you get to see who responding and now it allows you to be able communicate with people that you may not had been able to previously.

Mass texting is when you upload a customer list and send messages in a bulk format.

• Reminders – Reminders are such things as payment reminders. For example you could upload your BHPH customers with their payment due date and automatically have a payment reminder be sent via text automatically whenever you want. This could also be used for service reminders. You can also set reminders at the consumer level for those reminders for appointments that are specific to only that customer.
• Marketing Campaigns – Marketing campaigns are when you want to send a one time message to your customer list all with the same message. This could be for instance to promote an upcoming sale or special event.

When you set up a campaign there are instructions on how you need to format the list you have and how to save it. Then you would hit the “upload file” button and follow the instructions. If you have any questions someone from our TextFuel team would be happy to assist you.

Data Cleanse is when we will take the file you uploaded and make sure that all the numbers are active mobile phone numbers. This is an important step in the process to ensure deliverability and then you will also have a cleaned list of working numbers.

There is no contract term. All account prepay for a month of service at a time and it will automatically renew on your monthly anniversary date unless you cancel prior to it.

As we never want anyone to cancel; people do. In order to cancel just call our office at 804-225-1880 and get in touch with one of our TextFuel specialists.

You can upgrade at any time by going to the “account” section in Dollar and then choose programs. The system will prorate the amount you owe. To downgrade you do to the same place; but the downgrade will not take effect until the next time you are billed.

We provide TextFuel as software as a service, meaning we provide the tool to be able to send text messages. If you are uploading a customer list or entering customer phone numbers in the system to message, YOU need to make sure that you have the proper permission to do so.

Yes you are always able to get your customer information. In the setting tab there is a way for you do download a file that has all the summary information on each customer you have sent a message to from the beginning.

Yes we have a team in-house that is here during normal business hours to assist you with questions. We will also have various videos in the Dollar web app that can also help answer your questions.

You can do that, but we would strongly encourage you not to. We feel that you can not ensure that you have the proper permission to engage in a text conversation. An example is that John Doe enters info in this “box” for you to message him. But he puts his name and Minnie Mouse’s phone number. You now text “him” back and instead of getting John you get Minnie and she goes “who are you” and “I didn’t give you permission”. Now you are out of compliance.

Just have your web master add “Call or Text” where ever you have put your number.

Yes you will still be able to get messages while you are one the phone and vice versa. This will not have any effect on your phone and talking on it.

If you are signed up with one of our multi user programs you can set the permissions where you, as a manager, can see all conversations for every sales person and where you can jump in and add a message or not. The only people who can see each conversation is the one sales person that it is assigned to as well as any users who have their user permissions set to admin or manager.