Textline Review

Why Textline Is Best for Large Businesses and Teams?

Large businesses with complex needs require a robust platform that allows them to easily stay in touch with customers and manage relationships. Textline offers features to let businesses and teams effortlessly improve customer communication, whether through marketing efforts or providing stellar one-on-one support, no matter how many customers you have. 

Textline’s features help your team communicate quicker and more effectively from the office or on the go. Source: Textline

Unlike conventional text messaging, Textline offers a centralized hub that simplifies message tracking, automation, response management and collaboration among team members. We found this level of coordination streamlines the communication process, making it an ideal choice for growing enterprises and established large businesses. 

We liked that Textline offers the flexibility to send bulk marketing messages, field customer inquiries or just to stay in touch with other team members. You can even create separate departments (e.g., sales or customer service) to make routing conversations to the correct team member easy. Advanced automations and shortcuts to common responses also streamline customer communications. Plus, with multiple phone numbers and Smart SMS, your contacts can always get in touch with the right person.

We appreciate that Textline provides a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can do almost anything from your phone, including manage conversations and contacts, send bulk messages, create shortcuts, schedule send-outs and toggle between departments. Not all competitors we reviewed offer mobile apps, and many only include a two-way inbox. Textline’s app lets your teams collaborate to provide excellent communications from anywhere.

Usability

Textline features an intuitive and simple user interface, ensuring that even those unfamiliar with the platform can find their way around quickly. Accessing the features is a breeze, thanks to the thoughtfully organized layout. In the conversations screen, chats can be found in the left side panel. From the top menu you easily claim, transfer or resolve a customer interaction.

We found Textline’s chat window feature especially useful for multitasking. Source: Textline

The menu at the very top of the screen allows users to navigate through messaging tools, address book, surveys, metrics, admin and account settings. Messaging tools include announcements, scheduled messages, automations, routes, shortcuts and dispositions. There is a library of video tutorials and a help section on Textline’s website to help users take full advantage of all of the software’s features. 

Textline integrates with various tools, including Slack, Zendesk, HubSpot and Salesforce. You can even open and close Zendesk tickets in Textline. Furthermore, there’s a Google Chrome plugin that allows customer service agents to provide support while doing research.

Textline Features

Automation

Large businesses need a platform with robust automation capabilities to work quickly and efficiently. Textline enables timely responses while reducing agent involvement with its automated messaging features. Configure preset actions, such as out-of-office replies, follow-ups or customer surveys, based on whether the message was sent or received and if it meets certain conditions. 

You can easily create automation templates with the foolproof dropdown menus and if-then statements. Premium plans include an SMS API for setting up advanced actions, like notifications and password reminders.

Setting up automations with Textline is easy thanks to the simple if-then interface. Source: Textline

Routing

We found Textline’s incoming message routing to be a standout feature, although we were disappointed that it is restricted to the most expensive plan. Textline allows you to determine how incoming messages are assigned to agents. Routing ensures all your customers receive prompt responses without overloading your team. 

You can even automate message assignment by tags. For example, VIP clients get bumped up in the queue or foreign language messages are sent to a team member who speaks that language.

Secure SMS Messaging

At the core of Textline’s appeal is its commitment to secure SMS messaging. The platform employs end-to-end encryption, ensuring that every conversation is shielded from prying eyes. This level of data protection is crucial for businesses that handle sensitive information. 

Textline’s HIPAA compliance makes it a great choice for businesses that handle sensitive patient health data, as many competitors don’t offer this level of security. However, HIPAA-compliant plans include an additional monthly fee. 

Textline boasts additional compliance certifications, more than most competitors, like SOC 2, CCPA, GDPR and TCPA. Certain plans allow you to black out sensitive data and every plan allows for multi-factor authentication.

Multiline Management

Whether you’re addressing customer queries or collaborating with team members, managing multiple conversations is simple in the Textline interface. Unlike traditional SMS, Textline allows seamless switching between conversations for more efficient responses. 

You can create multiple departments and even assign an individual number to each person or department. Team members can claim, transfer or resolve conversations easily. We especially love the whispers feature that lets you leave notes in conversation that only your side will see. You can filter conversations any way you need, which is essential for scaling businesses as it keeps interactions organized even as message volume grows.

Textline lets you tag colleagues and leave whispers that only your team will see. Source: Textline

Announcements and Group Messaging 

The announcements feature allows you to broadcast messages to your entire contact list or a group of contacts determined by various criteria, such as area code. Announcements are useful for updates, such as service outages or running text message marketing campaigns. 

Textline sets itself apart from the pack with its unique group messaging feature. You can create conversations with up to 10 participants. Unlike mass texts, everyone can respond in the same thread, which helps streamline information sharing between dispatchers, field workers, customers and other stakeholders. However, each group message you send uses three credits, while all incoming responses cost one credit. 

Surveys

You can create and send text message surveys, allowing you to gather important feedback from your customers, right inside Textline. The software provides ready-made Net Promoter Score and CSAT surveys and enables premium users to create custom surveys with numeric ratings or open-ended responses. 

Using automation, you can send out these surveys when specific conditions are met, such as at the end of customer service interactions. Surveys provide insight into your customers’ experience and immediate feedback for your customer service agents. 

Smart SMS

We found the Textline’s Smart SMS feature especially useful for large businesses that operate in multiple locations with multiple numbers. When you reach out to a new contact, either by individual or mass message, the platform uses geolocation to determine where your customer lives and then automatically sends the message from the number that closest matches the customer’s area code. Textline matches the customer with the number, so all future communications come from the same place.

Metrics 

Gathering useful insights from robust reporting is essential for any business, but especially so for larger businesses with multiple teams. Not only can you track customer engagement rates, you can also see how individuals, teams and entire departments are performing by tracking response and resolution time. We especially love that you can filter reports to get granular with your data. 

Easily track how your teams and departments are performing with Textline’s robust Metrics feature. Source: Textline

Textline Costs

Textline offers a range of pricing plans tailored to businesses of varying sizes and requirements. Here’s an overview of the available plans, their features and corresponding costs.

The Limited plan is ideal for smaller teams that only need basic messaging features. However, we did not find it ideal for larger teams looking for a more comprehensive solution. 

The Standard plan caters to scaling businesses, with up to 15 agent seats and advanced features like surveys and integrations. The Pro plan is designed for large companies with high-volume and complex communication needs, however businesses needing more than 55 agent seats and a customized solution should consider Enterprise. Annual payment plans include a 20% discount. 

All plans can add on a webchat service for $29.99 per month. Users that opt for a 10-DLC number will have to pay a $15 per month industry fee. 

None of the plans include messaging costs, which are determined by the amount you send and receive in a month. Textline says messaging costs vary each month, but at the time of publication the price was $0.03 per credit. 

All users are required to purchase a minimum of 500 monthly credits for $15, but unused credits roll over and never expire. Still, Textline’s message pricing is more expensive than the prices we found in our review of Twilio, the only other solution that always charges per individual message. 

Additionally, you have to pay for each individual agent and there are minimums, so even the limited plan will cost you $60 per month before adding the price of messaging credits. This can make Textline more costly than most competitors, depending on the size of your team and message volume.

Textline offers a free 14-day trial period, allowing businesses to experience the features of any of the paid plans before committing financially. You are not required to enter any credit card information to access the free trial. 

Textline Setup

Getting started with Textline takes about five minutes. It’s as easy as signing up for the free trial. The process requires you to provide your phone number and basic information about your company. The free trial defaults to the Standard plan, but you can test out any plan and then choose which one to subscribe to in account settings.

The signup process takes about three minutes, and then you can access a two-minute tutorial that shows you around the Textline dashboard. After you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, you’ll be prompted to invite team members and import your customer contacts. You can chat with a Textline agent at any point during the setup process to ask questions or get guidance.

Depending on how large your business is, it may take some time to create departments, add team members and assign additional numbers. Still, the relatively small amount of time you’ll put into setting things up will pay off in the long run as you seamlessly manage customer communications from Textline.

Textline Customer Service

Unsurprisingly, Textline offers customer service via text message. It’s simple to get in touch with an agent by texting (415) 849-4349. When we reached out via text, we received a response within five minutes and the customer service agent was responsive and knowledgeable. 

You can also call, create a support request online or send an email. Agents respond to text, support tickets and emails Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m PST. Pro and Enterprise customers get priority support with faster response times and dedicated customer success managers. While we appreciate that Textline offers multiple ways to contact a rep, we were disappointed that support hours are quite limited.

For troubleshooting common issues you can visit the online help center, which contains FAQs, video tutorials and nearly 150 articles on how to use Textline. The Textline website also has a blog with additional resources. 

Textline Drawbacks

While Textline excels in many aspects of business communication, there are a few limitations worth considering.

Because Textline is built for growing and larger businesses, its robust features cost more than simple SMS messaging competitors. However, message credits must be purchased separately, and unlike many competitors, you are charged for incoming messages. HIPAA compliance and the webchat add-on also incur additional fees. Depending on your communication volume and needs, you might end up paying a significant amount extra per month. Plus many large businesses might be surprised to learn that Textline doesn’t offer short code. 

We were disappointed that many of the Textline’s best features, like the Unified Inbox, are only available with the most expensive plans. The Limited plan lives up to its name as it only offers basic SMS marketing functions. Considering it costs $60 per month, plus message costs, Textline may not be the most cost-effective choice for small businesses, especially those engaging in high-volume messaging. If keeping costs low while sending extensive messages is a priority, check out our review of EZ Texting, which offers affordable entry-level plans that include a team inbox, 500 message credits and free incoming messages. 

Another one of Textline’s drawbacks is its exclusive focus on SMS communication. While the platform’s SMS capabilities are robust and efficient, it doesn’t offer a truly comprehensive omnichannel solution for customer interactions. The platform doesn’t support voice calls and integrations are quite limited beyond a few basic channels, like Facebook and Instagram. If you need an SMS solution that includes calling and multiple third-party channels , consider reading our review of Podium.

Methodology

In our assessment of Textline, we thoroughly examined the product’s features and functionalities in a free trial and evaluated how user-friendly and useful the service is. Our methodology involved direct interaction with the product representatives, participating in demonstrations and posing as customers while interacting with customer support. We also used the platform’s self-help resources and explored the online guides and tutorials. We took similar steps in our research of other text message marketing platforms. When finding the best solution for large businesses we looked for robust platforms capable of handling complex messaging needs.

Overall Value

Ultimately, Textline’s impressive features and commitment to customer service make it an excellent choice for large and growing businesses looking to elevate their communication strategies and build lasting connections with their customers.

We recommend Textline for …

• Growing businesses seeking an efficient and secure platform to manage extensive communication demands.
• Large companies looking to seamlessly manage customer communication from different teams and departments in an easy-to-navigate platform.
• Companies that handle sensitive health information and need HIPAA compliance.

We do not recommend Textline for … 

• Small businesses or small teams looking only for basic SMS marketing features.
• Businesses requiring omnichannel communication capabilities beyond SMS, like voice calls.
• Businesses on a limited budget that need to keep costs low while messaging many customers.