Generally no, not for marketing messages. A customer who gave you their phone number to book a repair consented to you contacting them about that repair — not to promotional texts months later. US rules require express written consent before sending marketing messages, and "we had their number in the system" does not meet that standard. Transactional messages tied to a job the customer actively booked sit on much firmer ground. The practical answer for most contractors is to keep sending operational texts, start capturing proper consent now, and treat your existing list carefully rather than blasting it.
This is not legal advice. Texting rules carry real penalties and your situation may differ, so confirm your obligations with your own counsel before running a campaign.
What is the difference between transactional and marketing texts?
This distinction does more work than any other in business texting, and most contractors have never had it explained.
Transactional messages relate to a transaction the customer initiated. An appointment confirmation for a job they booked. A reminder the day before. A message saying the technician is on the way. A reply to a call they just made. The customer's action created the context, and the message serves that context.
Marketing messages promote something. A seasonal offer. A discount. A "we haven't seen you in a while" message. Anything whose purpose is to generate new business rather than service existing business.
The line is not always crisp, and the grey area is real. A furnace tune-up reminder to a customer whose system you installed sits somewhere between the two — it relates to work you did, and it is also an attempt to sell something. When in doubt, treat it as marketing and get consent.
What does express written consent actually mean?
It means the customer affirmatively agreed, in writing, to receive marketing texts — and that the agreement was specific enough to be meaningful.
In practice that means:
A clear statement of what they are agreeing to. Not buried in a terms document. Something like "I agree to receive text messages from [business] about services and offers" next to the field where they give their number.
An unchecked box, or an equivalent affirmative action. Pre-ticked boxes are not consent.
Records you can produce. When it was given, what the wording said, and how. If you cannot evidence consent, you effectively do not have it.
Not a condition of service. Consent to marketing cannot be required in order to book a job.
The written part matters and catches people out. A customer saying "yeah, sure, text me" on a phone call is not express written consent, however genuinely they meant it.
So what can I do with my existing customer list?
This is the real question, and the honest answer has layers.
Keep sending transactional messages. Appointment confirmations, reminders, en-route notices, replies to inbound calls. These relate to work the customer booked and are the least risky category. This includes missed call text back, which replies to a call the customer made.
Do not blast the whole list with promotions. A seasonal offer to two thousand numbers where you cannot evidence consent for any of them is the scenario that generates complaints, and complaints are what bring scrutiny.
Start capturing consent now. Add it to your booking form, your service agreement, your website. Every new customer from today is a customer you can market to properly.
Ask existing customers to opt in — by a channel you are allowed to use. Email them, mention it during service calls, add it to invoices. Build the consented list deliberately rather than assuming you already have one.
Consider phone calls for the rest. If you want to reach your back catalogue and cannot text them, calling is a different regulatory regime with different rules. It is more work, and for high-value past customers it can be worth it.
What about database reactivation campaigns?
This comes up constantly, because a dormant customer list is genuinely valuable and everyone knows it.
The value is real. These people already know you, already trust you, and cost nothing more to reach — which is why database reactivation is often the fastest source of booked work available. But the consent question does not disappear because the economics are good.
How we handle it: check what consent actually exists before anything is sent, suppress anyone who opted out, segment so messages stay as close to the original service relationship as possible, and use email for the portion of the list where text consent is not documented. A campaign that generates complaints damages your carrier standing, and that damages the transactional messages you depend on.
The shortcut — texting everyone and dealing with problems as they arise — trades a durable asset for one month's bookings. It is not a good trade.
What happens if I get this wrong?
Three separate consequences, and people usually only think about the first.
Legal exposure. US texting rules carry statutory damages per message, and class actions exist in this area. For a business with a list of a few thousand, the arithmetic gets alarming quickly.
Carrier filtering. Complaints affect your sending reputation. Once carriers start filtering your number, your appointment confirmations stop arriving too — you lose the operational messaging you actually depend on, not just the marketing.
Customer relationships. A homeowner who feels spammed by a contractor they used once does not just opt out. They remember, and they mention it.
The second one is the sleeper. Businesses expect the legal risk and are surprised by the day the reminders stop working.
How do I start collecting consent properly?
Put it where you already collect phone numbers, which is more places than most contractors realize.
Your booking form. A checkbox with clear wording, unchecked by default.
Your service agreement or work order. A line the customer initials.
Your website chat and contact forms. Same checkbox, same wording.
Your phone process. If your office takes the number verbally, have a follow-up that captures written consent — a confirmation text with opt-in language, or an email.
Then keep the records. Whatever system you use should store when consent was given and what the customer agreed to. If you ever need to demonstrate it, a spreadsheet of numbers with no provenance will not help you.
None of this is complicated. It is just easy to skip, and the cost of skipping it shows up later — our texting compliance checklist lists every step so nothing gets missed.
What about email instead?
Worth saying plainly, because it is the practical answer for most of the list you already have.
Email is governed by a different and generally more permissive regime than texting. A business emailing past customers about a service they previously bought is on much easier ground than texting them, provided the email identifies you, includes a physical address and offers a working unsubscribe.
That makes email the natural channel for the part of your database where text consent is not documented. It is less immediate and gets opened less, but it reaches people you otherwise cannot reach at all, and it is the obvious way to ask them to opt in to texts.
The sequence that works: email the back catalogue, include a clear invitation to opt in to text updates, and move people onto the texting list as they agree. Slower than blasting everyone, and it builds an asset instead of risking one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I text a customer who called me but did not answer?
Replying to a missed call is a reply to contact the customer initiated, which is a much stronger position than sending them a promotion. This is why missed call text back is generally the safest place to start with business texting. Confirm your specific situation with counsel.
Does having someone's number in my CRM count as consent?
No. Possession of a phone number is not consent to market to it. The customer gave it to you for a purpose, and consent is tied to that purpose. Marketing messages need their own express written agreement.
Can I text past customers about a seasonal tune-up?
This sits in the grey area. It relates to work you performed, and it is also promotional. The cautious approach is to treat it as marketing and get consent first. Where consent is not documented, email is a lower-risk channel for the same message.
What if a customer verbally said it was fine to text them?
Verbal agreement is not express written consent. It may reflect genuine willingness, but it does not meet the standard and it cannot be evidenced later. Capture it in writing.
Do I still need consent if I am registered for A2P 10DLC?
Yes. A2P 10DLC registration is a carrier requirement about message delivery. Consent is a legal requirement about whether you may send to a given person. They are separate, and satisfying one does nothing for the other.
How long does consent last?
There is no universal expiry, but consent from many years ago for a one-off job is weaker in practice than recent consent from an ongoing relationship. If a contact has had no interaction with your business in years, treat reaching them as a question worth asking rather than assuming.
Want your texting set up so this is not a worry? Book a free strategy call. We handle consent capture, registration and opt-out management as part of every SMS marketing build.
