One-Page Contact Policy: A Playbook to Reduce Fatigue and Message Costs

Strategy decks rarely stop three departments texting the same customer on the same day. A one-page contact policy does—if leadership backs it and tools enforce it. This playbook turns the ideas in why you need a contact strategy into something you can paste into Notion, share with vendors, and use in Pulse discovery workshops.

Section 1 — Scope and principles

• Who this covers: all outbound SMS, email, WhatsApp (and push if applicable) to customers, clients, members, or citizens.

• Principle 1: every message has one primary purpose and one primary action.

• Principle 2: fewer, clearer messages beat volume when action is the goal.

• Principle 3: opt-out and quiet hours are non-negotiable.

• Principle 4: exceptions require named approver + reason logged.

Section 2 — Message purpose tags (use in your ESP/CRM)

Train teams to tag every send:

• Transactional — receipt, OTP, password reset, payment confirmed. Highest priority; minimal frequency debate.

• Service — appointment change, delivery update, program deadline official notice.

• Behavioral — reminder tied to a journey step (pay, upload, enroll, return). Must link to trigger + suppression rules.

• Marketing / growth — promo, upsell, newsletter. Lowest priority; strictest caps.

If two tags apply, use the higher-priority rules (transactional wins) or split into two messages on appropriate channels—not one overloaded SMS.

Section 3 — Frequency and cooling-off (defaults to customize)

Set defaults; tune with experiments:

• Marketing SMS: e.g. max 2–4 per month per user unless they opted into more.

• Behavioral reminders: e.g. max 2–3 per journey episode, spaced 24+ hours; stop after action or after cap.

• Cross-channel: e.g. do not send the same CTA on SMS and email within 6 hours unless transactional.

• Cooling-off: if two behavioral reminders ignored, pause 7 days and review barrier via Pulse—not a third ping the same day.

Document: "We disclose frequency at opt-in" where regulations require it.

Section 4 — Suppression list (always exclude)

• Opted out (STOP honored immediately).

• Journey complete (paid, enrolled, KYC done).

• Active on another high-priority journey (define precedence).

• Invalid / unreachable number (clean regularly—save cost).

• Quiet hours (define local window; e.g. no promotional SMS 21:00–08:00 recipient time).

Section 5 — Content and reactance-aware tone

• Line one: who, what action, by when (amount, date, link).

• No false urgency; rotate framing if repeating.

• Offer easy opt-out and help path (short code, helpline).

• Public programs: official sender, proportional language—see AI drafting for public programs.

Section 6 — Metrics and monthly review (30 minutes)

Track per journey:

• Primary action rate (not delivery alone).

• Opt-out / STOP rate per 1,000 sends.

• Complaints (support, social, helpline).

• Cost per completed action (SMS spend ÷ primary actions).

• Fatigue signals — declining action on same template over weeks.

Agenda: What did we expect? What happened? Fatigue or reactance likely? Scale, change cadence, or return to diagnosis?

Section 7 — Roles

• Journey owner — caps, triggers, readouts.

• Data owner — suppression, list hygiene, dashboards.

• Approver — exceptions, public/regulated copy.

• Pulse partner (optional) — barrier review when metrics stall despite policy compliance.

How Kilele helps without replacing your policy

Pulse stress-tests whether your policy matches real barriers—maybe the issue is trust, not frequency. Hub encodes triggers and exits when trials fit your stack. AI drafts messages inside your rules—not around them. Enablement gets Sender ID and channels live so policy applies to trusted sends—see SMS setup types.

Copy-paste checklist before any campaign send

• Purpose tag assigned?

• Suppression applied?

• Under frequency cap?

• Quiet hours respected?

• One primary action and working link tested?

• Owner named for readout in two weeks?

Download the habit, not more software: one page, one review, one metric. Contact us to align a policy with Pulse discovery or Hub waitlist when execution is next.