Compliance
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      Understanding SMS Quiet Hours

      Quiet Hours

      Quiet hours prevent subscribers from receiving promotional text messages during a specified time frame, usually at night. Texts will be queued and sent out once Quiet hours are over.  Quiet hours function according to the time zone of your subscriber. If we do not have the subscriber's time zone, the store's time zone will be used instead. 

      Quiet hours are set from 8 PM to 9 AM in subscribers’ local time zones to maintain SMS compliance and ensure optimal delivery. While these settings are fixed by default, we understand some businesses may have specific needs. Please contact our support team at support@recart.com to discuss your requirements. 
      Note: Additional documentation and approval may be required for any quiet hours modifications.
      SMS marketing regulations vary by country, and businesses must ensure compliance with the relevant laws in their subscribers’ regions. In the United States, compliance with the TCPA guidelines is required. Other notable regulations include:
      If your business operates internationally, we recommend reviewing the specific SMS marketing laws applicable to your target regions to ensure full compliance.

      Transactional vs. Promotional Flows

      To define the setup of Quiet hours, we have organized our flows into two groups: transactional and promotional.

      Transactional flows

      Here are the transactional flows in which the initial messages are sent during Quiet hours:

      1. Welcome flows: includes legal information and the first welcome text messages.
      2. Order & Receipt flows: includes receipt, order canceled, order refunded, and order refund canceled messages.
      3. Help flow
      4. In addition to these, transactional integrations such as Wheelio and Typeform, which are related to opt-ins, are also considered in this category.

      Other transactional flows - fulfillment

      Other transactional messages, such as fulfillment flows or subscription-related flows, are sent after the Quiet hours have ended.

      We have chosen to delay these messages in the case of fulfillment flows because it is possible that the delivery information may be automatically updated during the night.

      We want to ensure that users are not disturbed by packaging updates during this time.

      Promotional messages

      In order to prevent promotional messages from disturbing customers during Quiet Hours, it is set from 8 PM to 9 AM in subscribers’ local time zones to maintain SMS compliance and ensure optimal delivery.

      While these settings are fixed by default, we understand some businesses may have specific needs. Please contact our support team at support@recart.com to discuss your requirements. 

      Note: Additional documentation and approval may be required for any quiet hours modifications.

      Flows beginning with Delays

      When the flow starts with a Delay, we consider these items when assessing Quiet hours. This is because we believe that they have been set up intentionally.

      For instance, if a Delay item is added to a Welcome flow following the legal message, we will send the brand welcome message after the Quiet hours.

      This rule also applies to all transactional flows where we immediately send out the initial message.

      Conditional split and Randomizer do not influence how we evaluate the Quiet hours.

       

      Where You’ll See Quiet Hours Notifications in Recart

      To help you stay informed about Quiet Hour restrictions when scheduling SMS campaigns, Recart highlights this in two places:

      1. Campaign Builder Side Panel

        When creating your campaign, you’ll see a Quiet Hours notice in the left-hand panel. You can click on it to expand more information.

        Edit trigger - Quiet hours info

      2. Campaign Overview (Before Sending)

        When reviewing your campaign summary just before scheduling or sending, you’ll also see a Quiet Hours notice with a reminder that messages will be delayed if they fall within the restricted time frame.

        Summary popup - Quiet hours tooltip

      These notifications are designed to help you plan your campaigns effectively and stay compliant.

      If you have any issues or questions, please feel free to contact us, we are happy to help. 😊