Concierge SMS (Powered by AI) Early Adopter Program
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 (Powered by Recharge AI).
- Shopify Checkout Integration
- Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration
Before you start
- Concierge SMS is Recharge’s newest text messaging technology, replacing RechargeSMS. As of March 2025, Recharge is in the process of upgrading RechargeSMS users to Concierge SMS.
- RechargeSMS continues to work for current merchants until they upgrade to Concierge SMS.
How it works
Concierge SMS immediately enrolls customers as text message recipients if they provide a mobile phone number when they place a checkout order.
Concierge sends customers the upcoming order SMS text message 3 days before customers’ upcoming orders by default. Customers can respond to these messages and take key actions, like swapping, skipping, or delaying their upcoming orders, to manage their subscriptions through a few text messages. Concierge SMS escalates the question to your support team if it can’t answer questions. 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.
For legal and privacy reasons, customers must agree to receive marketing notifications to receive promotional content or engage in marketing-related conversations with SMS. Customers can opt-in during newsletter sign-up at the checkout, or when they receive their first message from Concierge SMS.
Customers can text STOP or use an unsubscribe link at any time to stop receiving messages, including transactional notifications. See Shopify’s article Collecting customer contact information for more information.
RechargeSMS
Concierge SMS is an update to RechargeSMS, Recharge’s first feature with SMS capabilities. Concierge is AI-powered and provides a conversational, personalized experience for your customers.
Recharge is in the process of moving stores that used RechargeSMS over to Concierge SMS. Check your email for instructions on upgrading. If you haven't received an email but are interested, fill out the waitlist form.
If you have a contract that includes RechargeSMS, Recharge will not convert you to Concierge SMS until after your contract end date. Contact your Customer Success Manager for additional details.
Key features
Automated customer and support interactions
Concierge SMS responds to customers' text message inquiries in real-time using a conversational tone. Customers can text Concierge whenever they need assistance managing their subscriptions.
Inbound and outbound capabilities
Customers can receive text message notifications about their upcoming orders. They can then respond back to the text message to have Concierge SMS:
- Skip or delay upcoming orders
- Cancel their active subscriptions
- Immediately ship their next order
- Add or swap products from their subscription
Messaging analytics and outcomes
Recharge provides insights into your messaging analytics and outcomes with the following data:
- The total number of messages sent and received
- The number of outbound messages
- The number of inbound messages
- Engagement percentage
- Total Promotional Opt-ins
- Human-Agent Equivalent
- Actions taken (total, escalations, skips, delays, ship sooner)
See Analytics for more information, including metric definitions.
Messaging logs
Recharge logs all inbound and outbound messages at a customer level under the Message history tab on the customer’s profile.
Use cases
Use the examples below to see how other merchants are benefiting from Concierge SMS:
Use case |
Benefit |
|---|---|
| A customer texts Concierge SMS to skip their next order. |
Customers can conveniently text Concierge to modify their subscription without logging in to their customer portal. Concierge simplifies subscription management, saving time and effort while providing a positive experience for your customers. |
| A customer texts Concierge SMS to cancel their subscription. |
Customers can have a conversation with Concierge before canceling. Concierge requests customers provide a cancellation reason. Concierge SMS cancellations currently operate separately from any active Cancellation Prevention experiences. |
| A customer texts Concierge SMS to have their next order immediately shipped. |
Customers can text Concierge when they run out of a product, and get it shipped immediately. SMS ensures customers don’t have to wait for their scheduled order date, increasing customer convenience and satisfaction. |
| A customer texts Concierge SMS to add a one-time product to their next order. | Customers can seamlessly adjust upcoming orders and personalize them throughout their journey |
Enable Concierge SMS
Enter your contact information on the Concierge SMS waitlist form. A member of the Recharge Product team will reach out to work with you on enabling this feature.
Set-up instructions
After enabling Concierge SMS, 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 |
|---|---|
| Store escalation email | The email address Concierge AI escalates to when it cannot provide customer support. |
| Recharge AI Agent name | The name of your AI support agent. |
| Notification send window | The number of days before Recharge sends the Upcoming charge SMS (range: 3–14). |
| Brand statement |
Any brand-specific context Concierge should consider when communicating with customers. For example: “Don’t use the word subscribe, use Autoship.” This feature is currently in development. Recharge plans to release additional capabilities in the future. |
| Recharge AI activation | The option to turn Concierge SMS on or off. |
Analytics
The Concierge Overview page tracks 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. You can use the comparison tool to compare usage between different dates.
The following metrics are available:
Metric |
Definition |
|---|---|
| Engagement Percent | The percentage of customers who engaged with SMS by replying or starting a conversation. |
| Total Promotional Opt-ins | The number of customers who accepted marketing during an SMS conversation. |
| Human Agent Equivalent |
The estimated number of support agents required to handle the same volume of messages managed by AI. Formula
Where
|
| Total Outreach (Messages) |
The number of messages sent, broken down into inbound, outbound, and total.
|
| Total Actions Taken | The number of actions taken via Concierge SMS. Actions include skipping a subscription or swapping to a new product. |
| Escalations | The number of conversations escalated from AI to your support team. |
| Skips | The total number of skip actions taken during the selected time period. |
| Delays | The total number of delay actions taken during the selected time period. |
| Ship Sooner Requests | The number of times a customer requested to move a charge date forward. |
| Conversation Activity Log | A complete SMS conversation history. This is also available on each customer’s profile page. |
Considerations
Consider the following when using Concierge SMS.
Consideration |
Notes |
|---|---|
| Bundles | Bundles are not compatible with Concierge SMS. |
| Stores located outside of the US or Canada | Concierge SMS sends messages only from the US or Canada 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 | Concierge SMS is comptabile with prepaid subscriptions. |
| Phone numbers added after checkout | At this time, customers must add their phone number when they go through the checkout to receive messages from Concierge. |
| Marketing emails | Customers can respond NO when Concierge asks if it's okay to receive promotional offers to opt out of marketing and promotional messages, but still receive transactional ones. |
Resources
Review the following Concierge SMS resources:
