Leading SMS Health Insurance App Boosts Growth, Slashes Costs by Switching to Telgorithm

Written by: Samantha Carreira

Introduction

In the ever-evolving world of selling health insurance, agents need to contact their prospects as efficiently as possible. OnlySales, a leading SMS application designed to simplify A2P 10DLC messaging for health advisors, found itself facing new challenges when 10DLC regulations tightened in 2023. 

Companies like OnlySales needed clear guidance from their SMS providers to navigate the complex registration process. Without it, OnlySales was struggling with mass Campaign rejections, poor message deliverability, and delays with their providers’ customer support team.

In this interview, Andre Arancibia, CEO of OnlySales, discusses how these challenges led his team to seek a more reliable and transparent SMS provider. He shares the journey of transitioning to Telgorithm and how it has drastically reduced costs, enabled more than 25% company growth, improved message deliverability, and optimized customer support to better serve their clients.

Samantha:
Can you share some primary SMS use cases in the health insurance industry?

Andre:
We use SMS for a variety of purposes, such as marketing messaging, customer support, and enabling health insurance agents to contact leads. The primary goal of our SMS component is to help insurance agents contact their leads as reliably and efficiently as possible, allowing them to project a larger presence than they could manually.

Samantha:
You mentioned you’ve worked with multiple SMS API providers in the past. Who have you partnered with and what was your experience? 

Andre:
Yes, we initially started with Twilio. They have strong marketing and developer support through extensive documentation and established APIs. However, their pricing model made it difficult for us to remain competitive, especially as our usage scaled up. For small-scale use, Twilio works well, but when you start sending thousands of messages, the costs quickly become unmanageable. Also, Twilio is not set up to provide individualized support.

We also explored other providers like Bandwidth and Telnyx, but each had their own set of challenges when it came to support response and resolution times. Initially, Telnyx suggested that we set up as a 10DLC Reseller. However, we quickly realized that we had no insight into the Brand and Campaign setup and approval process. Also, when Brands and Campaigns were rejected, we were given no insight and no suggestions on resolution.

Samantha:
What were some specific pain points you faced with these providers?

Andre:
With Twilio, the major issues were support and pricing. Their support was too generalized to address our specific needs, and their pricing structure caused our costs to balloon. 

When we moved to Telnyx, we initially received good support, but this quickly deteriorated. We experienced significant delays in getting technical support, and the quality of their platform dropped over time. We also noticed a decline in message deliverability rates, especially when 10DLC registration became mandatory.

Samantha:
How did these issues affect your business?

Andre:
The lack of reliable support and clear communication from Telnyx was causing us to lose between $4,000 and $6,000 per day. We couldn’t risk losing customers over these delays, so we began offering discounts and refunds to our users to keep them from churning, adding to our overall revenue losses. The ongoing issues with message deliverability and registration delays ultimately forced us to look for Telnyx alternatives.

Samantha:
How did you discover Telgorithm? 

Andre:
We discovered Telgorithm through an online ad that focused on TCR (The Campaign Registry) registration and fast Campaign vetting, which was exactly what we needed. We learned that Telgorithm was well connected with TCR and Direct Content Aggregators (DCAs) which gave us confidence in the brand and in Telgorithm’s expertise. 

When we had our first call with the team, we were provided with all the technical information we had been seeking for months in just a few minutes. This level of knowledge, support, and clarity made it an easy decision for us to switch. 

Samantha:
Did you have any reservations about switching to Telgorithm?

Andre:
After being burned by contracts with previous providers, we wanted to put in a number of guardrails in our contract with Telgorithm. The team was accommodating in addressing these concerns, which helped build our trust in their service. Initially we migrated 20% of our overall traffic to Telgorithm and shortly thereafter all of our 10DLC traffic to Telgorithm.

Samantha:
How was the integration process with Telgorithm?

Andre:
Overall it was quite smooth. At the time there were some gaps in documentation but the level of support took care of this. The quality of support allowed us to speed up integration with our customers. Switching took about 2 days, and Telgorithm helped us get registered as a CSP in TCR. 

Samantha:
What tangible results have you seen since switching to Telgorithm?

Andre:
The most immediate impact was the cessation of our daily losses. We were losing about $5,000 per day before switching. Now, we’re saving around $150,000 per month. The clarity and speed of support has also allowed us to expedite the 10DLC Campaign approval process, reducing turnaround times from several weeks to just a few days. 

This improvement has made us a more competitive platform and has contributed to consistent revenue growth since the switch. Since we started working with Telgorithm, we’ve seen a 25% increase in overall company growth and we haven’t stopped climbing since.  

Samantha:
That’s incredible! Last question – how has Telgorithm’s support improved your customer experience?

Andre:
Telgorithm's support team has been phenomenal. They helped us understand the 10DLC requirements and nuances, enabling us to guide our users on how to configure their Brands and websites effectively for approval. Their expedited Campaign approval process has allowed us to serve our clients more efficiently, which in turn has helped us retain and attract more users.

To learn more about OnlySales’ switch from Telnyx to Telgorithm, check out the case study.