The Californer - Repair Shop Solutions Adds Group Texting to RSS Texting

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Service advisors can now message a customer and up to 8 other people in one shared thread

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. - Californer -- Repair Shop Solutions, a provider of digital vehicle inspection and desktop texting software for independent auto repair shops, today announced group texting for RSS Texting. Advisors can send one message to a customer and up to 8 additional people, and all replies land in the same conversation. The feature went live for RSS Texting customers on October 21 and is included in the existing monthly fee.

Many shops still send customer texts from an employee's personal cell phone. RSS Texting moves that work to the computer. Advisors send messages from their desktop, using drop-down templates. Learn more about RSS Texting at https://www.repairshopsolutions.com/about/desktop-texting/

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Group members can be picked from existing contacts by name. Typing a new name and number creates a new contact on the spot. Sending again to the same set of people continues the same thread, which appears in the conversation list with its member count.

Highlights of the new feature include:

Shared threads. Replies show who sent them and trigger the usual notification and sound. Group replies stay in the group thread and don't spill into anyone's one-on-one conversation.
Delivery status for each person. Every group message shows Sent, Delivered, or Failed for each recipient. A failure raises an alert that names the recipient.
Opt-out protection. If someone texts STOP, RSS Texting marks every contact record with that number as opted out. In testing, a single opted-out member caused the carrier to reject the message for the whole group, so the app now disables Send and shows a banner naming the person.
Scheduled group messages. Advisors can schedule a group text the same way they schedule a one-on-one message. If the group becomes inactive or a member opts out before send time, the message is marked failed with the reason shown in the thread.
Attachments. Outgoing group attachments can be up to 2 MB each. Incoming images, videos, and PDFs are accepted.

"A lot of repair decisions get made by two people, like a couple at the kitchen table or an owner and a manager," said Scott Osborn, founder of Repair Shop Solutions and an ASE Master Technician with more than 50 years in the automotive industry. "You never want a customer watching an employee tap away on a personal phone. With desktop texting, the advisor stays at the computer, and a group message reaches everyone at once."

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Group texts can be sent from a shop's US or Canadian local number. Carriers do not support group texts from toll-free numbers.