He texted one word in September: STOP.
So we stopped. Six weeks later, my phone system took a call from him. He asked for me by name.
That should be the easy part of this business. An owner who told you to go away has decided he wants to talk. Instead, it exposed three holes in how we handle exactly that moment. If you text or call owners at all, you probably have the same holes, so this issue is about closing them.
The Worked Example
Here is what happened, in order.
September 18: the owner replied STOP to a text. His number closed for texting that day, and nothing automated went to it again.
October 29: he called in. Our AI assistant answers our inbound line. He asked for me, and the assistant told him I would call him back at 9 the next morning.
After the call: our system refused to book that callback, because his number was closed. Nobody told him. The assistant had made a promise the rest of the system had already ruled out.
The same afternoon: one of our callers saw that he had called in and tried him. It went to voicemail. Nothing stopped that dial, even though the same number blocked the booking.
October 30: I reviewed the day's calls, found the mismatch, and decided what to do.
Look at what the system did. It blocked the one thing the owner asked for, and it allowed a dial nobody had thought through. Neither was a decision. Both were accidents of how two parts of the software were built.
My first instinct was simple: he called us, so he opted back in. Turn the number back on.
I talked myself out of it, and here is why. He asked for a phone call. He didn't ask for texts. If I had cleared the STOP, our follow-up would have started texting him again the next morning, and he never asked for that.
So we wrote down a narrow rule:
A call-in opens that number for the return call. That's all it opens.
Texting stays closed until he texts START.
Nothing clears a STOP automatically. A person makes the return call and logs it.
That's our rule, for how we want to treat people. Yours may be different. The point is to have one before the phone rings, because at 4 PM with a queue full of calls, nobody on your team will stop and reason it through.
Copy This
Two pieces: what to say on the return call, and what to log.
THE RETURN CALL
"Hi [name], this is [you] with [company]. You called us on [day] and asked for me, so I'm calling you back.
I know you asked us to stop texting, and we did. That hasn't changed, and I won't text you unless you tell me to.
What can I do for you?"
Then stop talking.
If they want to keep talking by phone:
"Great. Is this the best number, and what time of day works?"
If they want texts again:
"Text the word START to our number and we'll be able to reply."
If they were just returning a call and want no contact:
"Understood. I'll make a note and you won't hear from us again."
THE LOG (a note in your CRM or a row in a sheet)
Owner:
Stopped on (date, channel):
Called in on (date):
Asked for:
Return call made by, date:
What they said about contact from here:
Texting still closed? (yes unless they texted START)
Notice what the script leaves out. There's no pitch and no offer in the first thirty seconds. They called for a reason. Your only job is to find out what it is.
From Our Numbers
Since July 1, on our own acquisitions account, 839 owners texted a bare STOP word. Of those, 32 later reached out to us again in some way: 27 by text, 4 by phone and 1 another way. That's about 1 in 26, and the middle one came back about two weeks after the STOP. Read on October 30.
Thirty-two people is not a lead source, and I'm not suggesting you treat it as one. It's a handling problem. Each of those 32 people changed their mind about talking to us, and each one hit whatever your system happens to do by default.
The Honest Part
Our count includes anyone who wrote back at all, and some of those messages were probably not "I want to talk." I counted the contact, not the intent. A call-in is the clearest signal, and that's only 4 people in four months, so this is a small sample.
The bigger miss is ours. An owner was told he'd get a call at 9 AM, and our software had already decided that wouldn't happen. We found it the next morning in a call review. The rule above is written down. The fix to the software isn't built yet. Until it is, a person checks.
One Thing This Week
Take 15 minutes and test your own stop list. Find one person who opted out, and ask what happens if they call you tomorrow. Does your dialer let the call out? Does your booking tool allow it? Does your follow-up start again on its own? Write down the answers, then write your rule.
Close
Have you had someone who told you to stop come back later? What did you do? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
We're building software that keeps this kind of follow-up straight, and a small list of investors hears about it first: join the Early Access list.
Talk soon,
Jason
Questions readers ask
If a seller who texted STOP calls me, can I start texting them again?
We don't. Our rule is that a call-in opens the number for a return call only, and texting stays closed until the person texts START. Decide your own rule with that in mind, and write it down.
How long should I wait to return the call?
Return it the same day if you can. The person reached out, and that moment doesn't last.
What should I say first on the return call?
Say why you're calling, confirm you stopped texting, and ask what you can do for them. Then stop talking.