Configuring your Calling and Texting in Shape

Add calling, messaging, and phone numbers to roll out new ways of communication within your Shape Software system. In order to make calls, receive calls, and send and receive text messages, you must enable your call settings and add usage credits.

 

You must have at least one Shape Software phone number in the system, which you can get from directly within the Manage Phone Settings page! Your Shape Phone number is multi-functional and supports calling and texting on the same number.

*Please note, default systems are configured for US-based dialing only. International calling is only available requires additional configuration and custom setup, please contact sales@setshape.com for more information. International rates apply.

Enabling Calling and Texting with your Shape Number

First navigate to “Settings” in your top gradient navigation bar to bring up the dropdown for “Phone Settings” where you will find the “Manage Phone Settings Page”.

Manage Phone Settings: https://secure.setshape.com/manage-call-settings

At the top of the Manage Phone Settings Page, you will find 3 toggles for enabling your system for calling and texting.

  • First you will see the “Your phone integration is enabled/disabled” in the top right. To call and text in Shape, you will want this toggled ON indicated by the green color.
  • The next two toggles are for enabling calling and texting features in your system. You can enable both or one or the other.

In order to get phone numbers and use calling, texting, and call recording, make sure that you have usage credits. If you see a red announcement bar across the top of your screen and “Add Usage Credits” is red, you need to add some usage credits to use the phone and texting capabilities.

This can be done by clicking “Add Usage Credits” at the top of the page.

You must have at least one Shape phone number in the system, which you can get by pressing “Get Phone Number” and choosing your area code of choice. All users can share the same phone number and it is not necessary to have a dedicated line per user.

Note: If you are searching for area codes and get an error message, please either try again in a couple days or reach out to support@setshape.com to request your desired area code on your behalf. Phone numbers are replenished on a weekly basis. Some phone numbers (such as high population areas) are no longer available due to the popularity.

Configuring your Caller ID

Your caller ID can be set from the Manage Phone Settings Page either through a purchased Shape number or through a verified outside line with Verified Caller ID.

Verified Caller ID in Shape

Have existing phone numbers such as a personal line, company phone number, or mobile number that you’d like to use instead of the Shape phone number? An existing non-Shape phone number, like the number to a wireless phone or a landline in your home or office, can be validated and be used for outbound calling.

Have existing phone numbers such as a personal line, company phone number, or mobile number that you’d like to use instead of the Shape phone number? An existing non-Shape phone number, like the number to a wireless phone or a landline in your home or office, can be validated and be used for outbound calling.

Note: Verified phone numbers can only be used as a Caller ID for placing outbound calls. Text message caller ID masking is not supported.

Setting the Primary Fallback Number for your System

After purchasing Shape numbers and verifying caller ID numbers, choose your primary Calling Phone number and Primary SMS fallback numbers. This will be the fallback number if a user doesn’t choose a Caller ID number or a template doesn’t have a “From” number selected.

Enabling Call Recording

The Manage Phone Settings page has a check button at the top to enable call recording for all calls in your system however this can also be enabled manually in the dialer slideout. You can also require call outcomes from your users for every call. Checking this box will enable a popup at the end of every call to disposition the call appropriately.

Manually Recording Calls

If your system doesn’t have call recording enabled for all calls, you can select when you’d like to begin recording the call by clicking on the recording icon in the dialer slideout. This will start and stop the recording. Please keep in mind that if you start and stop the recording several times within a call, Shape will only store the most recent segment to the reports.

Automatically Recording Calls

If you need to ensure that all calls are recorded for training or compliance reasons, enable the “Record all calls automatically” check mark at the top of the page. This will automatically record all calls routed through Shape and will not allow users to manually start and stop calls.

IMPORTANT: Please note that in the United States, there are laws and regulations at the federal and state level that apply to recording calls, including California’s Invasion of Privacy Act and similar laws. It is important to familiarize yourself with the laws and standards that will apply to your specific call recording use case to make sure that you record calls in a legally compliant manner. Shape Software requires its customers to comply with all applicable laws. The right way to obtain consent will depend on your use case and your relationship to the call participants being recorded. A common way many customers do this is to play a Greeting Message before the call recording is started in which it is disclosed to the participants that the call will be recorded. You can build this into your call flow in Inbound Call Routing. Please note that when doing a cold transfer using the transfer setting on the dialer slideout, the recording will end when the cold transfer is initiated. The right approach for your use case will depend on your specific situation and should be decided in consultation with legal counsel familiar with your business.

Legal Considerations and Best Practices When Recording Phone Calls

In the United States, there are laws and regulations at the federal and state level that apply to recording calls, including California’s Invasion of Privacy Act and similar laws. Certain federal and state laws require that you have the consent of at least one of the participants before recording a call. Other states have laws that require you to obtain consent from every participant before recording a call. There are also laws outside the United States, such as in the European Union, that require you to get the consent of participants before recording a call.

In addition to legal requirements regarding consent, there may also be laws governing how you use, disclose and secure your call recordings depending not only on where your participants are located, but also on business sector specific laws or industry standards.​

Determining which laws apply to recording a call can be complicated when participants are in multiple states or countries, or if you cannot be sure about the location of one or more call participants. For these reasons, it is important to familiarize yourself with the laws and standards that will apply to your specific call recording use case to make sure that you record calls in a legally compliant manner.​

Shape Software requires its customers to comply with all applicable laws. Because the consent laws vary and it can be difficult to determine the location of a call participant, it is best practice to comply with the strictest consent laws and obtain consent from all participants before recording a call. In doing so, it is best practice to provide a clear explanation to all call participants that you may or will record the call. It is also best practice for you to disclose to your users prior to recording that you are using a third party communication provider (Shape Software, Twilio) to record and store your communications with them.

The right way to obtain consent will depend on your use case and your relationship to the call participants being recorded. A common way many customers do this is to play a Greeting Message before the call recording is started in which it is disclosed to the participants that the call will be recorded. You can build this into your call flow in Inbound Call Routing. The right approach for your use case will depend on your specific situation and should be decided in consultation with legal counsel familiar with your business.​

You should keep adequate records of how you obtained consent. You should also respect a participant’s choice not to be recorded. Shape provides voice call recording controls that support the starting, stopping, pausing and resuming of voice call recordings.​

Storage, Use, and Sharing: Your call recordings can be found under “Reports.” Only Managers and Admins on the system have access to these reports. If your recordings contain particularly sensitive or highly confidential information, please reach out to support@setshape.com to enforce more advanced security features.

Further, you should make clear to your users how you plan to use and/or share recordings (or any information derived from them)—for example, by including this information in your publicly-posted privacy notice. And, you should make sure that you only use and share those recordings in a way that is consistent with what you told your users and all applicable laws. Finally, you should not keep call recordings you don’t need. Delete recordings by going to the “Reports” dropdown and deleting via the “Actions” options.

Notice: Shape Software recommends that you consult with your legal counsel to make sure that you are complying with all applicable laws in connection with communications you record or store using Shape Software.

Frequently Asked Questions

You are in control of your variable usage credits. Put as much or as little usage credits on your account. This credit applies to your system as a whole and as you use usage credits, it will deduct from the balance and will alert you when you’re running low. Your usage credits do not expire if you do not use them, the balance rolls over month to month. Usage credits must be paid for by credit card only. We do not accept ACH for usage credits.

Absolutely! You can find a breakdown of all your Usage credit charges in your system from the Billing and Transactions settings page: https://secure.setshape.com/billing-transactions

Yes! We offer a Communications Package for $39 per month that will net you 5,000 free emails per month and automatically keep your system topped off with 3900 package balance for your calling and texting. 

Yes! On the Billing and Transactions settings page you will find the option to automatically refill your credits when you hit a low balance that you specify!

Set the low balance that will trigger the re-charge as well as the amount of credits that you are charged.

Absolutely! This feature is called “Call Forwarding” and can be set right from the dialer slideout at the top. Simply set to call forwarding and type in the outside line that you wish to dial out from.

Shape will first dial this number and once answered, the call will go out to the customer!

If the text is over 700 characters you will receive an error when sending. The text will need to be cut down to less than 700 characters.

Still need help? Contact Shape experts!