Who sends past client check-in texts?
Teams whose next deal often comes from a past client or their referral: real estate agents, insurance agents and account teams that work on contracts or projects.
Real estate agents check in around the anniversary of a closing, when a value update or a contractor name is genuinely useful. Insurance agencies check in mid-term or after a policy lapses, with a question about whether anything changed at home or on the road. Customer success teams check in with customers whose project or contract has ended, to see how things are going and keep the door open.
All three work from a list with a date column, and all three want a person, the agent or account owner, to take over the moment the client answers.
What does a past client check-in look like?
Two texts a month apart around a date that matters to the client: one that asks about them, and one that offers something useful. Then nothing until the next round.
- Text · Day 1, the month of the anniversary
Hi {{First name}}, {{Agent}} at {{Brokerage}}. It's been {{Time in the home}} since you got the keys to {{Address}}. How is the place treating you?
123 characters with the fields filled in, one segment. With the opt-out line: 2 segments.
- Wait
30 days
- Condition
Status equals Active client: end the sequence for this lead. Otherwise: next step.
- Text · Day 31
One more thing, {{First name}}: if a value update on {{Address}} would help with your plans, reply and I'll send recent sales nearby. No visit needed.
142 characters with the fields filled in, one segment. With the opt-out line: 2 segments.
Every text in a sequence ends with: Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. A reply ends the sequence, so the line is on each automated text, and your team’s answers from the inbox go without it. Names are made up.
- Two texts a round is what keeps it from being annoying. The first asks about them and nothing else. The second offers one useful thing, and the round ends there whether they answer or not.
- The Condition step reads a Status column. A Condition step reads the person’s row in your list at the moment it runs. Change a column by hand, or let your CRM’s sync change it, and the next Condition step sees the new value. Mark a client Active when they start a new purchase or policy with you, and the agent takes it from there by hand.
- Fields such as {{Address}} and {{Time in the home}} come from your list, so one campaign covers every anniversary in the month. If a field is empty for someone, they pause at that step with the missing column named, so nobody gets a text with a gap in it.
- Other dates work the same way. Swap the fields and wording for a policy start date or the day a project ended, and keep the two-text shape.
How often should you text past clients?
One or two rounds a year, each with two texts about a month apart, sent on weekdays inside business hours on the client’s own clock.
Textually doesn’t read an anniversary date and count from it, so you push each month’s batch. On the first of the month, push the clients whose closing or policy date falls that month into the campaign. Waits count whole days, from 1 to 30, and Business days only skips Saturdays and Sundays. To start a batch at a set time, use Schedule on the Launch tab and pick the date and time.
Each campaign has its own sending days and hours. With Send in each lead’s local time on, those hours follow each person’s time zone, read from the area code of their number, and Textually never sends a campaign text before 8 AM or after 9 PM on their clock, the window US federal rules set for telephone solicitations (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)). A text that falls due outside the hours waits for the next allowed time.
What consent do past client texts need?
Consent that covers texts that promote your services, recorded with where and when the client gave it. In Canada, implied consent from a purchase lasts two years, so ask for express consent before then.
A check-in that offers a value update or a new quote promotes your services. In the US, marketing texts sent with an autodialer to a mobile need prior express written consent (47 CFR 64.1200(a)(2)). The Do Not Call exception for an established business relationship lasts 18 months after a transaction (64.1200(f)(5)) and covers the Do Not Call registry only, so it doesn’t replace written consent. Older lists also hold numbers that have changed hands; the FCC’s rules give a safe harbor to a sender who checks the reassigned numbers database first (64.1200(m)).
In Canada, CASL treats a purchase from you as implied consent for two years (s. 10(10)(a)), and for an ongoing account, policy or subscription the two years start when it ends (s. 10(14)). A written contract counts while it runs and for two years after it expires (s. 10(10)(d)). After that you need express consent, so ask for it while the implied consent still covers the request. The CASL guide and the guide to texting existing customers cover both countries. This is a summary of public rules as of October 2026, not legal advice.
In Textually each person needs a consent record, the source and the date they agreed, carried from columns on your list or your CRM, or you confirm consent for the whole campaign at launch. A text step skips anyone without one and saves the reason on the lead. Keep the closing or purchase date on the list too, so you can see which Canadian clients are near two years before you push.
What happens when a past client replies or texts STOP?
A reply ends the check-in for that client and goes to the shared inbox for the agent or account owner. STOP or clear stop wording opts them out across your whole workspace.
- A reply of any kind ends the sequence for that person, and no later step goes out. The thread lands in the shared inbox with a label such as Interested or Declined, and whoever answers sends from the number the person already knows.
- STOP, or clear wording such as “please stop texting me” or “remove me from your list”, opts the person out across your whole workspace: this campaign, every other campaign that holds their number, and any you run later. The inbox won’t send to them, and a later text from them does not undo it.
Every member of the workspace sees the reply in the bell inside Textually, and each person can turn on email or browser alerts. A thread that has waited more than 4 hours is marked overdue in Needs reply. A reply to a check-in is often a referral, a move or a question about coverage, so answer it the same day.
A client who opts out is skipped by every later round and every other campaign in the workspace, so nobody texts them again by mistake next year.
How do I run past client check-ins from my CRM?
Connect the CRM, match the closing or policy date field, and the clients come into a list you push into the check-in campaign each month. Each reply and opt-out is written back on the record.
Follow Up Boss adds a note to the person’s timeline for each reply and opt-out, HubSpot adds a note on the contact, and Salesforce logs a completed task. Any field, such as a closing date or an address, can be matched by hand and used in a text. With Keep in sync on, Textually reads changed records every hour, so a Status you match from the CRM keeps the Condition step current.
A transaction or agency management system without an integration works through a CSV export or the API.