What This Is
We build event-driven SMS systems using Twilio’s Messaging API. When something happens in your application — an appointment is booked, an order ships, a payment fails, a lead fills in a form — an SMS fires automatically with the right message to the right person at the right time. No manual sending, no batch uploads to a messaging platform, no copy-pasting phone numbers.
These workflows go beyond one-way notifications. Two-way SMS conversations let recipients reply to confirm, cancel, or request more information, and their responses feed directly back into your systems. A patient texts “C” to confirm an appointment and your booking system updates instantly. A customer replies “STOP” and your application respects the opt-out and records it for compliance.
We run SMS workflows in our own operations. Our platform sends automated SMS notifications for time-sensitive client communications — deployment confirmations, scheduled maintenance alerts, and invoice reminders. The system processes inbound replies and updates records without any manual intervention. Delivery rates sit above 97% because we handle carrier-specific formatting, number validation, and retry logic at the application level.
When You Need This
SMS workflows make sense when your communications are time-sensitive and email is too slow or too easily ignored. Appointment reminders, two-factor authentication codes, payment failure alerts, dispatch notifications — situations where the recipient needs to see the message within minutes, not hours.
You also need this when your current SMS process is manual. If someone on your team sends texts by hand from a phone or copies numbers into a web portal, that is a workflow that should be automated and connected to your data. Manual SMS does not scale past a few dozen messages per day, and it leaves no audit trail in your business systems.
How We Work
We start by defining the triggers — which events in your application should fire an SMS, to whom, and with what content. Each trigger is mapped to a message template with variable substitution: the recipient’s name, their appointment time, their order number, a tracking link. Templates are stored in your application, not in Twilio, so your team can update message content without a code deploy.
Each workflow handles the full lifecycle: number validation before sending, delivery status tracking via Twilio webhooks, retry logic for temporary failures, and opt-out management for compliance. Inbound replies are received via webhook and routed to handler logic in your application — a confirmation reply updates a booking, a question reply creates a support ticket, an opt-out reply flags the contact.
We build SMS workflows as Laravel queue jobs so sending never blocks your application. A batch of 500 appointment reminders processes through the queue at a controlled rate that respects Twilio’s throughput limits and carrier regulations. Each message is logged with delivery status, cost, and any reply received.
What You Get
- Event-triggered outbound SMS tied to actions in your application
- Two-way messaging with inbound reply handling and automated responses
- Message templates with variable substitution, managed in your application
- Delivery tracking via Twilio webhooks — sent, delivered, failed, undelivered
- Opt-out management and compliance handling (STOP/START keywords)
- Number validation and formatting before send
- Queue-based sending with rate control for high-volume batches
- Per-message cost tracking and usage reporting
Technologies We Use
- Twilio Messaging API — outbound SMS, inbound webhook handling, delivery status callbacks
- Twilio Lookup API — number validation and carrier detection before sending
- Laravel — queue jobs for sending, webhook controllers for delivery and reply handling, template management
- MySQL/PostgreSQL — message logs, delivery status tracking, opt-out records, and audit trails
Related Systems
SMS workflows are a notification channel inside larger systems — a booking system that confirms appointments, an e-commerce system that sends dispatch alerts, or a query management system that acknowledges incoming requests. The SMS handles delivery; the system decides when and what to send.
Stop Sending Texts by Hand
If your team manually sends SMS messages that could be triggered by events in your systems, get in touch and we will automate the workflow.
