Guides · The agents

Missed-call text-back

Text every missed caller within a minute, from your own business number.

When nobody picks up, the caller gets a text from your business within a minute, so they don't call the next company on the list.

How it works

1. Someone calls your business number (a number in your own Twilio account).
2. If you set a "ring this phone first" number, your phone rings for 20 seconds. You hear "press 1 to take the call" — so your own voicemail never counts as answering.
3. If nobody takes it, the caller hears your greeting (with "this call may be recorded" if voicemail is on, as Connecticut law requires) and can leave a voicemail.
4. Within a minute they get your text, exactly as you wrote it, plus "If this is an emergency, call 911" and "Reply STOP to opt out".
5. If they text back, the agent asks what they need, where and when, and shares your booking link. After 3 replies (or sooner) it hands the conversation to you with a one-line summary.

The rules it follows

• Texts go out only between 9am and 8pm your time. Later calls get the text at 9am.
• One text per caller per day, however many times they call.
• It never gives prices, estimates, promises or payment requests, and never sends links other than your booking link.
• Urgent or upset messages ("flooding", "no heat", an angry customer…) go straight to you with no automatic reply.
• STOP, "stop texting me" or "remove me" opts them out for good. START opts them back in.
• If an unusual number of calls comes in (more than 30 an hour or 150 a day), texting pauses and you're told. This protects your Twilio bill from spam calls.

Setting up Twilio (one time)

The phone number lives in your own Twilio account, so it's always yours. You pay Twilio directly: typically a dollar or two a month for the number and about a cent per text.

1. Create an account at twilio.com in your business's name and add a payment method.
2. Buy a local phone number with voice and SMS (Phone Numbers → Buy a number).
3. Register for business texting (A2P 10DLC): Messaging → Regulatory compliance. US carriers require it; texts from unregistered numbers are blocked. Approval usually takes a few days.
4. Registration puts your number in a Messaging Service. Open it → Integration → Incoming messages → choose "Defer to sender's webhook". Without this, callers' replies won't reach us.
5. On your Lumière Agents page, in the Missed-call text-back section, open Twilio number and paste your Account SID and Auth Token (Twilio Console home page) and the number. We set the number's call and text settings for you.
6. Under What callers get, write your text, add your booking link (optional) and a few words about your business for the agent's replies.

On your page

Every conversation shows as text bubbles, with voicemails to play. Booked marks it a win (counted in your Monday email); Close ends it. Conversations nobody replies to close themselves after a day.