Intelligent Timezone Compliance

Sonar’s Intelligent Timezone Compliance feature— an added safety measure to avoid sending texts to your customers or prospects during non-business and unapproved hours as stated by TCPA law guidelines. Under TCPA, companies are allowed to text consumers only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the respective timezone of the recipient.

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What You Need To Do

First, you need to derive the timezone using one of several options:

  • You can input a timezone manually for customers — either through the Salesforce integration, API, CSV Import, or manually in the UI — but this method is reliant on your company already collecting timezone data.
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  • In cases where you do not have timezone data, you can utilize the consumer’s zip code (U.S. only).

  • If your company doesn’t go about either of the above routes, then Sonar tries to derive timezone from the area code.

    • However, we recommend being extra cautious in this scenario by specifying the acceptable hours to a more narrow window to prevent accidentally sending a text too early or too late.
    • Specifying an 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. window would give you wiggle room to ensure you are abiding by TCPA guidelines.

Sonar gives companies the ability to pre-select their own acceptable hours of text communication if they do not want to run off the default of TCPA hours.

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Zip Code vs. Area Code

Note: Zip code is better than area code because people move around while still keeping their existing phone numbers.

Intelligent Timezone Compliance Terms Defined

TermDefinedDefault Setting
StartBeginning of acceptable window to message8:00 A.M.
CloseEnd of acceptable window to message9:00 P.M.
Queue Messages for LaterWhether or not to queue messages for laterTrue
Max Queue DepthMaximum number of messages to queueOne
Manual Message BypassAllow UI messages outside of compliant hoursFalse
Bot Message BypassAllow bot messages outside of compliant hoursFalse
Away Message BypassAllow away messages outside of compliant hoursTrue
Double Opt-In Message BypassAllow double opt-in messages outside of compliant hoursFalse
Cancel When Customer Sends MessageCancels scheduled messages if customer sends messageFalse
Cancel When Customer ConvertsCancels scheduled messages if customer convertsFalse
Cancel When Customer Receives MessageCancels scheduled messages if customer receives messageFalse
Pass Through Follow-Up CancellationPasses through and merges follow-up cancellation settingsTrue