💬 The cost of sending an SMS message is variable, as it depends on the number of 'fragments' needed to send the message. Currently, it is 1.99p per fragment for these booking messages. When creating an SMS message, it is important to consider the number of fragments contained in your message.
The number of fragments is based on both the length of the message and the encoding format used to send the message. Typically, one fragment is made up of between 140-160 characters, however, certain special characters reduce the number of characters fitting into one fragment dramatically.
The more characters you use in a message, the more SMS fragments you will need to pay for, increasing the costs for your organisation or ICB. Our products will always try to send an SMS in the most effective manner, with ideally no more than one or two fragments.
What are we doing to help?
Batch Self-Book will block you from sending messages that contain more than two fragments to reduce the costs of sending messages.
You'll see the error shown below if you have exceeded this limit 👇
We will be providing some templates within Batch Self-Book (for Flu, Polio, COVID boosters and Smear invites) to help you, which you can use and adapt to suit your needs.
If you have any further questions about fragments or this error message you are seeing, please get in touch with our support team by selecting the green speech bubble on the bottom right of the screen 👉