SMS keywords and AI replies

When a contact texts back after receiving your SMS broadcast, the platform decides — in order — whether the reply is an opt-out, a keyword response, an AI conversation, or a simple acknowledgment. This page explains that decision and the controls you have in the wizard’s Keywords step.

Want to test the full handoff safely? Follow Turn an SMS reply into a PT Upsell Lead with your own Demo Gym practice contact.

What happens to a reply, in order

1. STOP, START, and HELP always win. Opt-outs are honored immediately and recorded; the contact receives the carrier-standard confirmation. Nothing you configure changes this.
2. Contacts who opted out never get a reply from us. If someone has revoked SMS consent, the platform stays silent — no keyword response, no AI, no acknowledgment.
3. Keyword match. If the reply matches one of your campaign keywords, the keyword’s response is sent and the trigger is counted.
4. Everything else goes to either the AI assistant or a generic acknowledgment, depending on your settings below.

When does the AI assistant answer?

The wizard’s “Let the AI assistant handle other replies” checkbox controls the AI for replies that didn’t match a keyword.

When the AI does not answer (and the contact hasn’t opted out), the platform sends a short acknowledgment from the same number instead, so no reply goes unanswered.

What the AI knows and how to guide it

The assistant always knows:

• Your club’s details — name, hours, amenities, contact info — for the contact’s home club.
• Who it’s talking to — the contact’s name and, where available, remembered context from previous conversations.
• Your campaign — the campaign name and the exact message you sent, so it understands what the contact is responding to.

The “Guidance for the assistant” box (optional, up to 2000 characters) is injected into the assistant’s instructions for this campaign only. Use it to state the offer’s real terms and boundaries:

• ✅ “This campaign promotes the $0 enrollment offer, valid through August 31, new members only. Don’t discuss other promotions.”
• ✅ “If they ask about class schedules, point them to the club — this offer is gym-access only.”
• ❌ Don’t restate style rules (“be friendly”, “keep it short”) — the assistant already has those.

Built-in guardrails apply regardless of your guidance: the assistant won’t invent prices or discounts, won’t push a sale on a complaint or billing issue, respects disinterest, and never collects payment details.

Complaints, cancellations, and billing questions

Replies to a broadcast aren’t always about the offer. When a contact raises a complaint, a cancellation, or a billing problem, the assistant apologizes, says plainly that it can’t resolve it over text, and gives them the club’s phone number — it does not say the team will follow up.

That’s deliberate. The broadcast number isn’t a staffed inbox and support issues aren’t captured as sales leads (a complaint doesn’t belong in front of a salesperson), so there is nothing behind a promised follow-up. Sending them to a number that a person actually answers is less warm and more useful. If the club has no phone number on file, the assistant tells them to call or stop by rather than inventing one — so it’s worth confirming the club’s phone under Clubs → [your club].

Capturing interested leads

The “Capture interested leads into” setting connects the assistant to your sales pipeline. When a contact shows genuine interest, the assistant records them as a lead in the pipeline you choose, at the stage you choose (or the pipeline’s entry stage). Choose “Don’t capture” to have the assistant reply and leave follow-up entirely to staff.

Reviewing what happened

• Agents → Interactions — the full conversation transcripts: what the assistant said, message by message. This is the place to review replies today — the broadcast detail page’s “Replies” metric is not yet wired up (it currently always shows 0), though keyword trigger totals are tracked.
• Marketing Test Bench (Demo → Marketing) — set yourself up as a test contact, send yourself the broadcast, and reply from your own phone to see the whole loop before sending to real members.