Understanding Concierge SMS
Concierge SMS is Recharge’s AI-powered text messaging solution to support your customers conveniently. Customers can interact conversationally with Concierge to manage and update their subscriptions, without needing to interact with your support team.
This guide explains key features, use cases, and relevant considerations for Concierge SMS.
- Shopify Checkout Integration
- Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration
Before you start
- If you have questions, feedback, or notice anything unexpected, contact Recharge's Product Support team at earlyadopterprogram@rechargeapps.com. Recharge is here to help and work directly with you on this feature.
Key features
Concierge SMS offers the following features:
- Inbound and outbound capabilities
- Messaging analytics and outcomes
- Message inbox
Use Concierge SMS to send the following messages to customers:
- Welcome message: Sent when a customer purchases a subscription through the checkout
- Upcoming order notification: Sent before a customer's upcoming order
- Order processed notification: Sent after Recharge successfully processes a customer's order
- Failed payment recovery notification: Sent if a customer's payment fails (if a Failed Payment Recovery strategy is active)
- Cancellation prevention: Sent when a customer cancels their last remaining subscription
How it works
Concierge SMS enables AI-powered conversational text messaging with your customers. Customers can respond to messages and take key actions via SMS, such as skipping a charge, adding a product, changing a charge date, or requesting immediate shipment.
Concierge SMS prioritizes simplicity, safety guardrails, and ease of use. It functions as a toggle-on feature with limited configuration.
For example, if you disable order skips in your customer portal settings, Concierge still allows skips. However, Concierge SMS respects existing customer portal rules for other actions. Product additions, for instance, follow the same restrictions you’ve already set in your portal. If you’ve limited product additions to a specific collection, Concierge SMS enforces that rule.
Conversational messages
Most messages sent from Concierge are conversational messages. These are real-time, chat interactions for general guidance and simple subscription updates. Review the chart below to understand each message type, and how Concierge interacts with your customers.
Message type |
Description |
| Change order date | A customer requests to change the order date. Recharge changes the order date after the customer confirms. |
| Ship now | A customer requests to ship their upcoming order now. Concierge confirms the order contents and processes it with confirmation. |
| Delay | A customer requests to delay their upcoming charge. Concierge defaults to offering a one-month delay if the customer does not provide a date. |
| Add a product (for non-bundles orders) |
A customer requests to add a product to their upcoming order. This functionality is subject to restrictions set in the customer portal settings. For example, only a specific collection is allowed, products outside the collection cannot be added via Concierge. |
| Cancel order | A customer requests an order cancellation. Concierge delays the upcoming charge if confirmed by the customer. This is treated as a charge delay. |
| Failed payment | Concierge notifies the customer of a failed payment if you use Failed Payment Recovery. |
| Swap a product | A customer requests to swap a product in their upcoming order. Concierge gathers required details and confirms the change. |
| Change the product quantity | A customer requests to increase or decrease their product quantity. Concierge will confirm and apply the change, as long as the quantity remains above 0. |
Escalation handling
Recharge directs customers to their customer portal to complete the following actions:
- Update frequency intervals
- Subscription cancellation requests
- Address changes
- Payment method updates
Recharge prioritizes optimizing experiences based on their frequency. As Recharge expands Concierge, customers will be able to complete all the actions listed above, except address changes and payment method updates, through conversations with Concierge. Both address change and payment method messages are intentionally sent to customers' customer portals to protect their sensitive data.
If Concierge SMS can't support a request and the customer can't manage it through the portal, Recharge routes the request to your support team. You can update your store's escalation email any time in your Concierge settings.
Recharge sends escalation emails from no-reply@t1.rechargemail.com. You must whitelist this email address to receive escalations in your inbox.
Transactional messages
Customers are automatically enrolled in transactional SMS notifications when:
- They provide a mobile phone number during checkout
- They are existing customers with a mobile phone number already associated with their account
Marketing messages
Customers are enrolled in marketing SMS communications only if they explicitly opt in by:
- Subscribing to marketing SMS during checkout
- Opting in to marketing messages during an interaction
Concierge SMS escalates the question to your support team if it can't answer the question, or sends the customer a link to the customer portal.
RechargeSMS
Concierge SMS is the updated version of Recharge’s original SMS feature. Concierge SMS delivers a conversational, personalized experience for your customers.
Recharge is gradually upgrading stores from the legacy version to Concierge. Check your email for instructions on how to make the switch. If you haven’t received one and are interested, enter your contact information on the Concierge SMS request form.
Enable Concierge SMS
Enter your contact information on the Concierge SMS request form. A member of the Recharge Product team will follow up to help you enable this feature.
Set-up instructions
See Concierge SMS onboarding guide for detailed setup instructions.
Manage Concierge settings
Review and update SMS-related settings:
- Select SMS from the left-hand navigation menu.
- The SMS landing page differs depending on your previous RechargeSMS activity:
- If you did not previously use RechargeSMS: Follow the Concierge set-up landing page that guides you through confirming your settings and adding your escalation email.
- If you previously used RechargeSMS: Recharge imports your past information into Concierge SMS, including your escalation email. You can review this information in the Settings tab.
- Review and update the following settings as needed:
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
| Send upcoming order reminder | The number of days before Recharge sends the Upcoming charge SMS (range: 3–14). |
| Send failed payment recovery reminder SMS | Send an SMS whenever a Failed Payment Recovery email is sent. This is not compatible with Basic FPR. |
| Send customer sentiment survey SMS | Send a customer sentiment survey after a customer completes an action. |
| Send an order adjustment survey SMS | Send a survey asking the customer why they completed a successful order adjustment. |
| Send Concierge nudge SMS | Send a follow-up SMS if a customer receives a confirmation message but doesn't reply. |
| Change quantity | Allow customers to increase or decrease their product quantity conversationally. Requests to set quantity to 0 are treated as cancellation requests. If disabled, customers are redirected to the customer portal. |
| Product add | Allow customers to add a product to their upcoming order conversationally. If disabled, customers are redirected to the customer portal. |
| Product swap | Allow customers to swap a product in their upcoming order conversationally. If disabled, customers are redirected to the customer portal. |
| Store escalation email | The email address Concierge AI escalates to when it cannot provide customer support. |
View SMS conversations
There are two methods you can use to view the conversations Concierge SMS has with your customers:
Method 1 - SMS Inbox
- Select SMS in your Recharge merchant portal and click Inbox.
- Enter your customer's name or email address into the search bar to locate a specific customer conversation.
Method 2 - Customer profile
- Select Customers in your Recharge merchant portal and click Customers.
- Use the search bar to locate a specific customer.
- Click on the customer's name to open the customer's profile.
- Select View customer chat history under Customer overview.
Enable Gorgias integration
If your team uses Gorgias for customer support, you can integrate Concierge SMS to streamline your workflow. When a customer escalation comes through Concierge SMS, the system automatically creates a ticket in Gorgias. This ticket includes the customer’s email address and context about the escalation, so your support team has the necessary information to respond quickly.
Integrate Gorgias with Concierge SMS directly in your merchant portal:
- Open the merchant portal, click the Tools & Apps dropdown, and select Installed apps.
- Make sure the Gorgias app appears in the list. If not, go to the App marketplace and install the Gorgias app.
- Click the SMS dropdown in the merchant portal and select Concierge.
- Open the Settings tab.
- In the Customer escalation section, enter the support escalation email. If the integration fails, Concierge SMS automatically sends the escalation details to this email. Use a general support email address here.
-
Select the checkbox next to Gorgias.
-
Provide the Gorgias API URL, username, and API key. Refer to Gorgias API Credentials if you need help finding them.
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Analytics and Performance
The Concierge Overview and Performance pages track key engagement metrics, customer actions, and support efficiency to help you understand how customers interact with your SMS experience.
View the Concierge SMS Overview page to see your Analytics. This data helps you understand how customers interact with Concierge.
View the Concierge Performance page to understand to see the following metrics:
- Customer Sentiment Survey
- Revenue
- Audience overview
- Outcomes
- Engagement
- Messages
- Customer requests
You can use the comparison tool to compare usage between different dates.
Upcoming Concierge SMS features
Recharge is continuing to expand what customers can do through Concierge SMS by testing new features. If your store is a good fit for any of the features listed below, Recharge will reach out and schedule a call to help you get started.
Opt-in forms
This feature enables customers to opt in to marketing or transactional SMS from the checkout thank you page or the Affinity customer portal.
Considerations
Consider the following when using Concierge SMS:
Consideration |
Note |
| Billing by segment |
You are billed for Concierge SMS based on the number of SMS segments sent. A segment is a block of up to 160 characters. Longer messages are split into multiple segments, and you are billed for each segment rather than for the full message.
For example, a message with 328 characters is split into three segments. |
| Customer portals | Concierge SMS works with all customer portal options. |
| Bundles | Recharge Bundles are partially supported. Customers can use SMS to skip an order or change their charge date for bundle subscriptions. Concierge SMS sends the customer a link to manage their subscription in the customer portal for more complex actions, such as swapping bundle items or customizing contents. |
| Stores located outside of the US, Canada, or UK | Concierge SMS sends messages only from the US, Canada, or UK to customers in those countries. International customers and merchants can't use Concierge SMS at this stage. |
| Multi-language | Concierge SMS is only available in English at this time. You cannot translate messages that Concierge SMS sends or receives. |
| Prepaid subscriptions | Prepaid subscriptions are partially supported with RechargeSMS. Customers can use SMS to adjust their charge dates, but shipment dates cannot be modified via SMS. If customers need to make changes to the prepaid cycle or contents, Concierge SMS provides a link to manage the subscription directly in the customer portal. |
| Unsubscribing |
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| Time zones | Recharge sends messages between 8 AM and 8:30 PM in the customer’s local time zone, based on their phone number’s area code. |
| Phone numbers |
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Resources
Review the following Concierge SMS resources:
