How to set up Twilio for your repair business

Setup, screen by screen

1. 1

   Create the account

   Go to twilio.com and click “Start for free” (or “Sign up”). Enter your name, work email, and a strong password.

   Verify your email (click the link they send) and your cell phone (they text you a code).

   Twilio asks a few onboarding questions (“What do you want to build?”) — answers don't matter much; pick SMS / Alerts & notifications / No code and continue to the Console.

2. 2

   Upgrade the account (add a card)

   A trial account can text only up to 5 verified numbers, holds a single phone number, and can't complete business-texting registration — so upgrade right away.

   Click the “Upgrade” banner/button in the Console (or search “Upgrade” in the Console search bar), add your card and billing address.

   When Twilio asks how you'll use the account, choose Business (not personal/individual) — that's what unlocks business texting later.

   Takes under a minute. Any leftover trial credit still applies after upgrading.

3. 3

   Verify your business (Trust Hub)

   Twilio now verifies who's behind every business account. In the Console go to Trust Hub → Customer Profiles (search “Trust Hub” in the Console search bar) and create a Business Profile.

   Authorized representative: your name exactly as on your government ID, email, phone, and your title at the company.

   Business details: your legal business name EXACTLY as registered (match your EIN letter — CP 575), EIN, company type (LLC, Corporation…), industry, website, and business address.

   Submit. Review usually completes within 48 hours — you can continue with the next steps while it's pending. You'll get an email when it's Approved.

   💡 The #1 rejection reason is a legal name that doesn't exactly match IRS records. Copy it letter-for-letter from your EIN confirmation letter.

4. 4

   Buy a local phone number

   In the Console: Phone Numbers → Manage → Buy a number.

   Search by your area code (e.g. 704, 980…) — a local number gets answered far more often than a random or toll-free one.

   Make sure the number has both Voice and SMS capabilities (checkmarks in the list), then click Buy. Cost is about $1.15/month.

   💡 If the search comes back empty, try a neighboring area code or remove extra filters — inventory varies by region.

5. 5

   Copy your credentials

   Go back to the Console home page (Account Dashboard). In the “Account Info” box you'll see:

   Account SID — starts with “AC…”. Auth Token — click “Show” to reveal it.

   Treat the Auth Token like a bank password: paste it only into MeraFix, never into emails or chats.

6. 6

   Connect it to MeraFix

   In your MeraFix admin: Settings → Integrations → SMS → “Bring your own Twilio”.

   Paste the Account SID (AC…) and the Auth Token, then Save — MeraFix validates the credentials against Twilio immediately and shows exactly what's wrong if something doesn't match.

   That's it — MeraFix automatically creates the Messaging Service in your account, attaches your phone number to it, and wires up the inbound-texting webhooks. Nothing to click in the Twilio Console.

7. 7

   Business-texting registration (A2P 10DLC) — we handle it

   U.S. carriers require every business texting from a local number to register its brand (EIN + legal name) and messaging use case. Unregistered traffic gets filtered.

   MeraFix runs this registration for you using the business details in your account, and pre-checks everything against carrier rejection rules before anything is submitted — so it passes on the first try instead of burning the non-refundable submission fees.

   Approval is often same-day, occasionally up to a couple of weeks. Once approved, your automated texts (booking confirmations, on-my-way, estimates, review requests) switch on.

If something goes wrong