TCPA rules for calling and texting service customers

Why the TCPA matters to service companies

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FCC's rules under it govern how businesses call and text consumers. Service companies use the phone constantly: confirmations, on-my-way texts, maintenance reminders, estimate follow-ups, review requests and seasonal promotions. Most of that is lawful and welcome. The risk comes from blurring service messages with marketing, texting people who never agreed to it, and ignoring opt-outs.

The FCC's rules at 47 CFR 64.1200 make clear that texts are in scope. The rules name text messages directly: the consent-revocation provision covers “calls or text messages,” and the telephone solicitation rules extend to text messages sent to wireless numbers^[1]. Treat every rule below as applying to both.

Service messages and marketing messages

Content decides the category, not the tool you send it from. A reminder that adds “book now and save” has become a marketing message. CTIA's industry guidance draws the same line: adding a call to action such as a coupon code to an informational text may put it in the promotional category, and consumers should agree in writing before receiving promotional texts^[3].

Prior express written consent

For telemarketing calls or texts made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to mobile numbers, the rules require the called party's prior express written consent^[1]. The FCC's definition has specific elements, and a consent checkbox that misses one of them may not hold up.

• A written agreement, which can be signed electronically where federal or state law recognizes e-signatures.
• Clear authorization for the seller to deliver telemarketing messages using an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice.
• The phone number the messages may be sent to.
• A clear and conspicuous disclosure that the person is authorizing such messages and does not have to agree as a condition of buying anything.

Keep a record of every consent: the wording shown, the date and time, the number and how it was collected. If a dispute arises, the business has to show the consent existed.

Quiet hours and the Do Not Call list

Telephone solicitations may not be made to residential subscribers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location^[1]. Service companies that cover several time zones, or whose customers keep out-of-state cellphone numbers, should schedule marketing messages by the customer's location rather than the office clock. For informational texts, the same window is a sensible default for anything non-urgent.

The national Do Not Call Registry had 259 million active registrations as of September 30, 2025^[4], and the FCC's rules say registrations must be honored indefinitely^[1]. Marketing calls and texts to registered numbers generally need a qualifying relationship or consent; check your rules and scrub marketing lists before each campaign.

Opt-outs and revocation

Customers can revoke consent by any reasonable method that clearly expresses a wish to stop receiving calls or texts, and the rules require businesses to honor revocation within ten business days of receipt^[1]. A one-time text confirming the opt-out request is allowed under conditions set out in the rules^[1].

• Act on STOP and on normal-language requests such as “stop texting me,” “unsubscribe” or “please opt me out,” as CTIA recommends^[3].
• Apply opt-outs across every tool that texts customers, not just the one that received the reply.
• Flag opted-out numbers in your CRM so staff do not text them manually.
• Keep honoring the opt-out until the customer clearly opts back in.

AI voices and prerecorded calls

On February 8, 2024, the FCC unanimously ruled that calls made with AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the TCPA^[5]. If you use automated voice calls for reminders, collections or promotions, the consent rules for artificial or prerecorded voice calls apply. This is about outbound calls your business makes; answering a customer's inbound call is a different situation, but disclosure and good judgment still apply.

Customer attitudes point the same way as the rules. In 2025, 76% of US adults said it is extremely or very important to be able to tell whether content was made by AI or by people, and 50% said they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life^[6]. If an automated or AI voice contacts customers for you, say so plainly at the start, and make it easy to reach a person.

State mini-TCPA laws

Several states have their own telemarketing laws, often stricter than federal rules. Florida's Telephone Solicitation Act defines a telephonic sales call to include a text message, and its definition of prior express written consent covers text messages^[2]. For text solicitations, the Florida law requires the recipient to reply STOP before suing, and gives the sender 15 days to stop^[2]. If you market to customers in several states, review each state's rules or have counsel do it.

Where service companies slip up

• Using a customer list built for service texts to send a promotion, without separate marketing consent.
• Buying or sharing lead lists and texting or calling them as if they were customers.
• Letting a marketing agency or software vendor send campaigns in your name without checking consent records or quiet hours.
• Handling opt-outs in one tool while another keeps sending reminders or offers.
• Techs texting customers from personal phones, outside any consent record or opt-out list.
• Assuming a customer from years ago still wants marketing messages.

Most of these come from growth rather than bad intent: new tools are added and nobody maps who sends what. A yearly review of every calling and texting tool catches them before a customer complaint does.

Example: cleaning up a texting program

Example: a fictional HVAC company texted every customer in its system each spring with a tune-up discount, including people who had only ever called once. Its booking form had no texting consent and opt-outs were handled by hand. The company split its texts into two programs: appointment and service texts, with consent captured at booking, and a marketing program for customers who ticked a separate written-consent box. It scheduled marketing sends between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time, connected opt-outs across all tools and asked counsel to review the templates.

Compliance checklist

1. List every tool that calls or texts customers and what it sends.
2. Sort each template into informational or marketing.
3. Capture service-text consent at booking, and separate written consent for marketing.
4. Store consent records with wording, date, time and source.
5. Schedule non-urgent and marketing messages within quiet hours by customer location.
6. Scrub marketing lists against the Do Not Call Registry and your internal opt-out list.
7. Honor opt-outs in any reasonable wording within ten business days, across all tools.
8. Register business texting through your provider, and review state laws where you market.

For the setup side, see A2P 10DLC registration for contractors and how to set up missed-call text back.