This one’s Australia-only, but it solves a problem I’ve personally been dragged into more than once… completely by accident.
I’ve had calls from very confused people asking when their dishwasher was being installed.
I don’t install dishwashers.
Turns out they’d received an SMS from an appliance installation company that didn’t sign off their message properly. The customer thought the company was called “ServiceM8”, googled it, and somehow landed on me.
Funny in hindsight. Not great for the business who actually sent the message.
This is exactly the kind of thing ServiceM8 is trying to fix with the new SMS headers and footers, rolling out for Australian users from December 2025.
If you’re in Australia and you’re using ServiceM8’s standard SMS service (so your messages go out under the “ServiceM8” sender ID, not Branded SMS), some of your outgoing messages will now automatically include a short header and footer.
The header shows:
“From: Your Business Name (Your ABN)”
And the footer lets the customer know they can reply or unsubscribe via the existing link.
Nothing dramatic. Just clear, compliant, and much harder to misunderstand.
A couple of important things that aren’t obvious at first glance. These headers and footers only appear on the customer’s phone. You won’t see them cluttering up the job diary or the two-way SMS portal inside ServiceM8. They’re also not added to every single message. They tend to show up when it’s your first message to someone, if you haven’t messaged them in a while, if another ServiceM8 user has contacted them recently, or if the message looks promotional.
And no, you’re not charged extra for them. They don’t count towards your SMS usage.
Customers can immediately see who’s messaging them, which business it relates to, and that they’re allowed to opt out if they want. That’s good for trust, and it keeps things aligned with Australian messaging rules without you having to think about it.
From a practical point of view, it also cuts down on confusion. Fewer “who is this?” replies. Fewer people thinking your software provider is the company turning up at their house. Fewer awkward misunderstandings that shouldn’t happen in the first place.
You don’t need to switch anything on for this — it’s handled automatically by ServiceM8 for eligible messages. It’s just one of those quiet changes that makes the system feel more advanced and a bit more customer-friendly.
If you want the official wording and the finer detail, ServiceM8 have it covered here:
Not flashy. Not exciting.
But if it saves even one person from phoning the wrong business about a dishwasher, I’m calling that a win 🙂
