VALID FOR SMS SENT TO INDIAN DESTINATION NUMBERS (NOT APPLICABLE FOR ILDO / INTERNATIONAL ROUTE)

What is a consent?

A consent is an explicit opt in by the customer to receive SMS content from your business. 

Consents are applicable only for Service Explicit and Promotional SMS types. 

For SMSes sent as Banking OTP or Service Implicit, consents are NOT required.

What is a consent template?

A consent template is a standard message that is sent to end users of enterprises to inform the scope of the consent with a mention to receive communications on promotions and offers for specific products and services.

How do businesses/individuals link consents? What are the steps to be followed?

The first step in the consent process would be to register your consent template(s) on the DLT portal of any registered telecom provider. This has to be done for both promotional and service explicit SMS messages.

Steps to register consent templates:

Step#1

If you are a principal entity who needs to register your consent template, you would first need to log into the DLT platform of any operator. 

E.g.https://www.vilpower.in/  

https://trueconnect.jio.com/#/ 

https://telemarketer.tatateleservices.com 

https://dltconnect.airtel.in/ https://smartping.live/entity/login.

Updates made on the DLT platform of any operator will be reflected across DLT platform of all DLTs, post approval.

Step#2

Filling in details on the consent template form -

This involves filling 3 fields on your form. These include:

1. Template Name : The Template Name is any unique name chosen for a consent template - This is usually any recognisable name that has not already been used against your username.Template names do not have to be unique across principal entities.

2. Brand Name : The Brand Name is the name that is owned by your entity and is the name of your brand, your principal entity, your trade name or your legal name. You would need to use a unique brand name that is relevant to you.

E.g. Louis Philippe by Aditya Birla Fashions could use the brand name `ABF_Louis Philippe’. If your brand name is not relevant, eg. if Exotel uses Louis Philippe as its brand name, your application will be rejected by the registrar. In case of any justification that needs to be communicated to prevent rejection, do email your telephone operator.E.g. email [email protected] for Vodafone.

3. Scope of Consent : The Scope of Consent refers to the reason why the messages are being sent in the first place. This field is particularly important in the vetting process by the concerned authorities.

This field should not have any dynamic characters e.g. your <name> , an <OTP> and the like.

Your scope of content should not carry any actual message content.

With the above details filled, principal entities can submit templates for approval. There is no limit on the number of consent templates that can be registered by an entity. Post approval by the registrar, entities can link these consent templates with choice of content templates (promotional/ Service Explicit category only).

It takes 24 - 48 hours for your consent template to get approved upon submission of your consent template form.

Reasons for your consent template to get rejected include:

Branding mismatch - E.g. If you are an HDFC loan reseller, who has listed your brand name as HDFC. This implies that you are not a legal owner of the brand name

Using generic names as your template name. E.g. ABC, Test, Test1, Sample, Sample1 .etc.

Variables i.e. dynamic characters may be present in the scope field

When your scope of consent does not contain the required information. The scope of content should include:

• Mention of your brand name

• Reason for communication. E.g. marketing offers

• Recipients of communication. E.g. All registered customers

• Opt-out information can be optionally included  E.g. For To opt-out customers can send an SMS as STOP to 56789”.

Consent template format guidelines include:

• The consent template should not contain any variables 

• Brand/PE/Trade/Legal Name must be captured clearly in the template

• The purpose of the consent must be mentioned explicitly in the template.The field for consent scope should not be populated with dynamic characters e.g. your <name> , an <OTP> and should not contain actual SMS message content

A few examples of consent templates that have been approved include: <WE SUGGEST THESE TEMPLATES>. This is to be added in the Scope of Consent section on the  DLT form.

• <Brand or Entity Name> needs your consent in order to serve you better. We may send you promotions, updates, recommendations & our best offers

• Dear Customer, we are pleased with your sign-up with <Brand or Entity Name>. To receive exciting promotions and offers on SMS/call, please submit your consent.

• Dear <Brand or Entity Name> Customer, we would like to stay in touch with you about our new launches and promotions. To continue receiving exciting offers from us, please submit your consent.

What would it mean for a business once consents are enforced?

Once you have finished consent registration, you can also upload your customers’ consent data on the portal of any telecom service provider portal.   This includes those customers who have blocked their related preference on DND.

The process involves submitting a list of phone numbers of customers who have opted in for receiving these SMS messages from businesses (Refer to the consents upload section on your DLT portal)

For this, you would need to

1. upload a CSV of customer phone numbers and the date on which the customers provided consent.

2. revisit this process after 6 months as the mandate by TRAI states that the date on which consent was provided should be within six months from the date of consent upload.

We understand that the process may involve a few more than the regular number of updates. Your predicament is temporary as operators are working, in parallel, to create APIs to make the process easier.

A slab-wise charge is to be paid to your Operator’s DLT portal for bulk consent upload. Exotel does not play any role in these levied charges.

Do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] in case of any queries. We would love to hear from you!

Besides this, for more information on DLT, you can refer to our knowledge base

REFER TO THE ATTACHMENT BELOW FOR STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR CONSENT TEMPLATE REGISTRATION AND FAQs

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If you have any questions or concerns, please connect with us using the chat widget on your Exotel Dashboard or Whatsapp us on 08088919888.