Insight
What is a Landline Texting Service?
You already use your business landline to make and receive calls. What if your customers could text it, too?
Most customers prefer texting because it’s faster, easier, and they don’t have to wait on hold. Text messages have a 98% open rate and are read within minutes, which is something emails and phone calls can’t compete with.
Landline texting enables you to send and receive text messages from your existing business phone number, transforming your phone line into a two-way messaging channel.
Below, we’ll cover everything you need to know about what a landline texting service is, how it works, why it matters, its benefits, use cases, and how Text Request can help your business get started.
Can You Text a Landline?
Landlines were designed solely to make voice calls, and not for sending or receiving text messages. So if someone texts a traditional landline, that text typically goes nowhere. But with the right landline texting service, you can text-enable that same landline number without changing your existing phone number or losing your voice call functionality.
What is a Landline Texting Service?
A landline texting service, also called a business texting service, enables your existing business phone number to send and receive SMS and MMS messages. Customers can text the same number they’ve always called, and you can reply directly from your computer or mobile device.
Business texting platforms make it possible for calls to still go to your landline, while texts go to a secure online dashboard or an app. Think of it as giving your business phone number a whole new layer of convenience, and you get to keep the same number your customers already know and trust. Your voice capabilities won’t be affected at all.
How Does Landline Texting Differ from Mobile or VoIP Texting?
Mobile Texting: Occurs between cellphones connected to a cellphone provider, such as AT&T or Verizon. It’s convenient for personal use, but not scalable for teams.
VoIP Texting: Involves internet-based phone systems, such as Google Voice. Some of these services provide texting, but often require a new number or a complicated setup.
Landline Texting: You keep your existing phone number while adding professional texting features that your entire team can access.
Landline texting allows you to have the best of both worlds. You keep the familiarity of your current number and the efficiency of modern business text messaging.
How Does a Landline Texting Service Work?
1. Your business number gets text-enabled.
Your mobile provider verifies ownership of your landline number and layers SMS capabilities on top of it. Calls and texts are routed separately so your voice service isn’t affected.
2. You can start sending and receiving texts via an online platform.
You’ll log in to a web app, desktop dashboard, or mobile app to manage and monitor conversations.
3. Customers can reply and reach out to you like any other text conversation.
Conversations go to your texting platform, where your team can reply in real-time.
10 Features to Expect from a Landline Texting Service
A quality landline or business texting service will have the following features:
Mass Texting (Bulk Texting): Send important updates or alerts to multiple customers at once.
Text Templates: Create pre-written, customized responses for your most commonly used communications to save time.
Keywords: Set up keywords to trigger autoreplies and for customers to opt-in to receiving texts from your business.
Autoresponder: Automatically respond to incoming texts after business hours.
Scheduling: Plan and send texts ahead of time.
Reporting and Analytics: Track response rates, message volume, and customer engagement.
SMS Chat: Give customers the power to text you directly from your website, and collect contact info to follow-up once they leave your site.
Reviews: Create unique SMS review links, track new reviews, and reply to online reviews, so you can get more reviews and win more customers.
Payments: Request and collect secure payments through SMS, and manage it all in one place.
API and Integrations: Connect Text Request to the software you already use. Use one of our out-of-the-box integrations, or create your own with our API and webhooks.
These texting tools help teams communicate faster, stay organized, and enhance the customer experience.
5 Benefits of Landline Texting for Businesses
1. Customer Convenience
By enabling landline texting, you meet customers where they’re already at—which is on their phones. Whether you realize it or not, your customers are already trying to text you. Lots of people assume any number is textable, and when their texts go unanswered, they can get frustrated.
When you enable your business number to send and receive text messages, your customers can effortlessly do things like book appointments, ask questions, or confirm orders.
2. Professionalism and Trust
Strengthen your brand consistency by keeping all your communications under the same number your customers already know. You won’t have to share personal cell numbers or juggle multiple lines. Customers will know and trust that every message comes from your business.
3. Efficiency and Time-Saving
Manage multiple customer conversations simultaneously with landline texting. Your team can respond faster, reduce hold times, and minimize missed calls. Businesses typically use text templates or automated responses to handle common requests and questions, helping you save more time for complex interactions.
4. Improved Customer Engagement and Conversions
Lightning fast follow-ups lead to better engagement and more conversions. That’s why the first business to respond is typically the one who wins more sales. Whether you’re confirming appointments, sending quotes, or answering product questions, texting helps close deals faster by keeping customers engaged in real time.
5. Seamless Integration with your Existing Tech Stack
Powerful landline texting services like Text Request integrate directly with your CRM, customer support system, or marketing tools. You can track text message history, sync contacts, and automate workflows without ever having to leave your platform.
5 Common Use Cases for Landline Texting
1. Appointment Scheduling and Reminders
Healthcare providers, salons, repair shops, and other appointment-based services can take advantage of landline texting. Send SMS appointment reminders, confirm times, and reduce no-shows, all via text.
2. Sales and Lead Generation
Speed is one of the most important factors when it comes to closing a deal. Texting helps you follow up instantly with leads by allowing you to automate responses, so you can start conversations immediately.
3. Customer Service and Support
Instead of waiting on hold, customers can text you quick questions like “What are your hours?” or “What is the price of this service?” Support teams can answer faster and track conversations more effortlessly when they text for customer service.
4. Internal Communications
Teams can use internally texting to send quick updates, coordinate schedules, or share important information without cluttering email inboxes.
5. SMS Marketing
Use texting to send exclusive offers, promotions, or event reminders via text. Before you get started, make sure recipients have opted in. SMS marketing campaigns typically see higher engagement than email because of their high-open rate, making them an effective marketing channel.
How to Get Started with a Landline Texting Service
1. Find the Right Text Messaging Platform
Choose a text messaging service that’s designed for business use, not personal texting. Look for key features such as multiple user access (dashboards), text message templates, analytics, and integrations.
Text Request makes it easy for teams to manage all incoming and outgoing texts in one shared dashboard.
2. Check Your Existing Number
Confirm with your provider that your number is eligible for text message enablement. Most are, and your provider will need to verify ownership.
3. Complete 10DLC Registration
You’ll need to register your number for 10DLC compliance. This verifies your business with mobile carriers and ensures your messages will be delivered reliably.
4. Launch Your First Campaign
Try texting for things like appointment confirmations, customer feedback requests, or lead follow-ups. Track what works, and expand and scale from there.
5. Follow Best Practices for Success
Here are 4 quick SMS best practices to send text messages that customers love:
Keep messages short and straight to the point. Customers prefer concise communication.
Respond quickly. Texting is a fast channel. Slow replies defeat the whole purpose.
Personalize your tone. Use customer names, reference past interactions, and make the communication feel human.
Make sure your customers are opted-in to receive texts from your business. This is crucial for compliance.
These small touches go a long way toward building loyalty and building trust.
Upgrade Your Business Communication with Landline Texting
Landline texting transforms your old-school communication into a modern, customer friendly channel. You can streamline operations, strengthen customer relationships, and never miss another opportunity to connect.
Text Request makes it easy to get started. We’ll do the heavy lifting by text-enabling your business number, help you stay compliant, and give your team the power to message customers at scale – all from the number they already know and trust.
Ready to enable your business number to receive texts? Schedule a demo today.
