In this article, we will discuss how you can utilize the SMS Dashboard from our Smart Carrier platform. SMS stands for Short Message Service, and is also commonly referred to as text messaging. By utilizing the SMS Dashboard, you will have a simplified overview of your SMS performance by State, Wireless carrier, as well as the quantity of Inbound or Outbound SMS messages. An outbound SMS message is an SMS triggered by your VICIdial Webhook URL from your organization's VICIdial system, which can be viewed under your Outbound SMS Dashboard. An Inbound SMS is a message sent to an SMS-enabled phone number by your prospect or customer. For example, if a customer replies to your outbound SMS, this would be shown under the Inbound SMS dashboard.

First, we will cover how you can view your Inbound SMS Dashboard. Start by navigating to our Smart Carrier portal via app.smartcarrier.io. By default, the dashboard opens automatically upon logging in to the Smart Carrier portal. If you happen to be viewing another setting, you can simply click (dashboard) as shown, and you will be directed back to the Dashboard page. From the Dashboard page, you can then select Inbound SMS. You can view your SMS messages by state on the Inbound SMS page. Or Wireless carrier. The states are color coded to provide you with a simple method of viewing where the majority of your Inbound SMS messages are being sent from. The darker color indicates a higher quantity of inbound SMS messages. The lighter color indicates fewer messages received by a state. No color indicates there were no Inbound SMS messages received from that state. 

Here, we can see a total of our inbound SMS messages for today. You can also use your mouse to hover over each state to see the specific quantity of SMS messages from that state. 

To view which Wireless carrier was used by your customer or prospect in the Inbound SMS dashboard, you can view the pie chart, which has color-coded the major US wireless carriers and unknown wireless carriers. Please note, this may not be completely accurate as not all wireless carrier information is available when you view the page. 

In this example, we can see AT&T in the color orange, T-Mobile in the color green, and Verizon in the color purple. Any other carrier will be displayed in the color blue. You can also use your mouse cursor to hover over each carrier in the pie chart to view the quantity of Inbound SMS messages by the wireless carrier. 

Towards the bottom of the page, you can view your Inbound SMS message statistics by date,  time range, and date, as well as the quantity of Inbound SMS messages received at the date range and time range that you have selected. 

By default, the graph will display the Inbound SMS statistics to include all states. You can select a specific state by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting the state that you wish to view. You can also use your mouse cursor to hover over the graph to view the date, time, and inbound SMS quantity. Select a start date.  By default, the Start date and time will be precisely 24 hours before your current time. You can adjust the date and time by clicking on Start date and selecting a new date, time, or both a new date and time. We will then click on the end date and adjust the time.  Here we can see the peak of the received Inbound SMS messages.  This can be a very useful tool to help you identify the best time of day to reach out to your customers by SMS.