Keeping your number healthy

Meta rates every business number by how people react to its messages over the last week or so, mostly how many block it or report it as spam. Numbers shows the rating:

• High quality: people are glad to hear from you.
• Medium quality: more people than usual are blocking or reporting you. A warning.
• Low quality: Meta may restrict the number, lowering its daily limit or stopping it sending templates.
• Not rated yet: a new number, or one that has sent too little to judge.

Replies inside a conversation the customer started almost never hurt the rating. What does:

• messages to people who never agreed to hear from you;
• too many marketing messages, too close together;
• messages that do not say who they are from, or offer no way to stop.

Sema guards the second for you. A marketing campaign leaves out anybody who had a marketing message in the last two days, and anybody who has not opened the last four, and says how many before you send. Both are in Settings → Workspace → How often marketing goes out. Order updates and replies are never held back.

Under the numbers, Quality, last 30 days lists every change to a number’s rating or its daily limit, and to a template’s quality, with what Meta said. A template that is dragging the number down is a link to how it is doing.

The daily limit is how many different customers a number may start conversations with in 24 hours, by template. It does not limit replies to customers who write to you. Numbers shows it: 250, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 customers a day, or unlimited.

A new number starts low. Meta raises the limit by itself as you use more of it with good quality, and can lower it when quality falls. Sema keeps campaigns within it: people past the day’s limit are skipped, not charged, and listed so you can send to them another day.

When Meta changes something about your number or account, Sema tells you with a notice at the top of every page:

• the quality rating slipping to medium, or falling to low;
• the daily limit changing;
• a template rejected, paused or disabled;
• the account restricted by Meta;
• Meta’s permission for Sema ending soon, or the number disconnected (see keeping it connected).

Each notice says what to do and has a button to the right page. Owners, admins and managers can dismiss one once it is dealt with. The serious ones (the number at low quality, the account restricted, the number disconnected, the plan paused) are also emailed to owners and admins, once each, and a paused plan to billing members too. So are low credit and a connection about to end.

• Message people who asked: leave Only people who agreed to hear from us on for every campaign.
• Say who you are in the first line of every template.
• Give a way out: a “Stop promotions” button on marketing templates. Someone who can stop you easily does not need to report you.
• Space out offers: one good campaign a week beats three a day.
• Answer quickly: use the away message and saved replies so nobody waits for hours.