How To Setup OpenPhone Account

What Do I Need To Do?

1. Click here to sign up for a Starter level account with OpenPhone. Below we have step by step instructions on the OpenPhone sign up process.
2. Complete the brand and campaign registration process through OpenPhone. Below we have step by instructions for the SMS number registration process. 
3. If you wish to communicate with guests with international phone numbers, learn how to do so here.
4. If you have multiple store locations, you only need one OpenPhone account, but each store will need a dedicated phone number, you may need a shared phone number.
5. Only after you have received confirmation from OpenPhone via email or are seeing your SMS campaign registration from Step 2 showing all verified and approved, please contact your dedicated GoTab Account Manager. Please provide your account manager your approved, registered OpenPhone number and API key (Steps 12 and 13 of SMS registration).

Steps 1,2 and 5 are the minimum steps required to continue with your current GoTab SMS functionality. 

How Much Will The OpenPhone Account Cost?

There are no additional costs from GoTab. For the Starter level single location continuation of SMS functionality, you will pay: 

• $16.50/month, plus a one-time $19 registration fee. 
• $1.50/month campaign maintenance fee (paid to the Campaign Registry via OpenPhone as a 100% pass-through cost with no markup)
• Optional International per-message fees if you enable international messaging capabilities

 

OpenPhone Account Creation

Step 1- Add an email address and verify with the 6 digit code sent to that email address.

Step 2- Click For Business and Enter Business Information.

For now, most will choose "Just Me" and "My Team" and leave the "Allow Anyone" unchecked at the bottom. Adjustments and additions to your account can be made after the account is setup. 

Step 3- Verify with a mobile number.

Step 4- You now have an OpenPhone Number. Click Continue. 

There is an option to port an existing number for your location after completing the OpenPhone account setup process.

Step 5- Choose Starter Plan and Payment Info. 

Both the Starter Plan and Business Plan will work with GoTab. The Starter Plan is the minimum needed in order to continue with SMS functionality within GoTab. 

Step 6- Click "Skip for now" on Invite your team screen.

Step 7- Add password to your OpenPhone account.

Adding a password is optional. Skip and finish means you receive a text to login in lieu of a password.

This completes the OpenPhone account creation process and you'll now be on the OpenPhone home screen pictured below. 

Please note that this only completes the OpenPhone account creation process. Complete the registration steps below to become compliant with SMS regulations and industry standards. These steps are required in order to continue with business-to-consumer text messaging.

 

OpenPhone Number Registration for Text Messaging

Step 1- Navigate to Settings--Trust Center--Register Now.

If your account was created under a free 7 Day Trial, you will have to click the "upgrade to a paid plan" first. Once on a paid plan, the "Register Now" will show.

Step 2- Enter Your Business Registration Number (EIN)

Step 3- Complete Business Details. 

Please note that the information above needs to match exactly as it appears when registered. The review process is automated and seemingly minor discrepancies can be flagged. For example, if Knowledge Base LLC is the legally registered business name and Knowledge Base, LLC is entered above, the review will fail. In this example, we unintentionally added a comma that isn't part of the registered business name. 

Step 4- Enter Main Point of Contact Information.

Step 5- How Will Your Business Use Text Messaging?

Enter this exact message below.

"We are a restaurant and we send order confirmations, receipts, order status updates, links to redeem digital gift cards and coupons to our customers using SMS from our point of sale."

Step 6- Provide Message Examples. 

Enter these messages below with your business name replacing the bracketed [your business name]. Please leave the [link] bracketed part of each message.

Example Message 1: "Your order is confirmed with [your business name]. Your receipt [link]. Text STOP to opt out, HELP for info."

Example Message 2: "Thank you for your gift card purchased from [your business name]. View and claim your gift card here: [link]"

Step 7- Keep "I'll update an existing Privacy Policy" checked and click Next. GoTab has a written-in privacy policy already.

Step 8- Click Digital consent as method of collecting text message consent. Copy and paste the link below as where it asks for a link to the online form. This link takes you to a screenshot of our customer receipt page where guests opt-in for texts.

Step 9- Read and confirm by clicking the checkbox at the bottom that you will not engage in any SMS messages in violations of industry standards and regulations. 

Step 10- Confirm registration fees and submit.

Please note that the $19 one-time charge shows as two separate charges. One for $15 and another for $4. 

Step 11- Your registration is now in review. Wait on the screen shown below for 1-2 minutes while the quick initial automated review of your Brand registration takes place. This will find any smaller issues such as a typo or mismatched legal business name.

After 1-2 minutes on the above screen and your Brand registration is still showing "In review", you can navigate away from this page.

Step 12- Keep an eye out in your email inbox for any error notifications, as well as for a registration approval email from OpenPhone. You can also check the status of your registration but heading to Settings--Trust Center in OpenPhone, as well.

Step 13- Only after you received email confirmation of registration approval and see the above highlighted approved messages in the Trust Center of your new OpenPhone account, navigate to Settings--API API and click Generate API Key. Please provide your OpenPhone number and this newly generated API key to your GoTab account manager. 

Registering Multiple EINS? (Think regional manager of 3 locations)

You may use an email alias to create OpenPhone accounts for each location and then register each location for business-to-consumer SMS messaging. Most people can use Plus Email addressing whereby you can use one email address, with slight variations as aliases.

Example. You're the manager of 3 Knowledge Base locations and need to sign up, and register phone numbers for SMS compliant messaging for each location. You use the following email address knowledge.base@knowledgebase.edu for all locations but you need 3 different email addresses, one for each location to register. 

When signing up with OpenPhone, the first Knowledge Base location email would be the actual email address knowledge.base@knowledgebase.edu.

Now, the second Knowledge Base location email is where we could start using the Plus Email addressing. We could type in knowledge.base+location2@knowledgebase.edu as our email address. It's still going to knowledge.base@knowledgebase.edu but we simply add the +location2 (or whatever is relevant for you) to make it an alias. 

Proceeding with this example, we are now ready to sign up our third Knowledge Base location. This email address could be knowledge.base+location3@knowledgebase.edu. 

IF the above method does not work with your email provider, you may receive an error or message that the email address is unable to receive mail. You can also create multiple aliases for the same email address through your email provider. Here is an example article from Google on what email aliases are and how you can create one in GMAIL. 

 

Click here for more information on why numbers now need to be registered for business-to-consumer text messaging.