6 Ways of SMS to Improves Customer Service for Businesses

In this article, we are going to look into the ways businesses can make use of text messaging to improve their customer service offerings. 

Six Ways to Incorporate SMS for Better Customer Service 

Your customers will respond a lot better to transactional customer services messages when they come to them in the form of SMS. Sending the reminders out does not only benefit your customers but also benefits the businesses by lowering the instances of no-shows that cost businesses time and value. 

The businesses that can benefit most from this are service (delivery, e-commerce, etc), healthcare, banking, and events. Each of them can put on reminders and alerts to notify their customers or stakeholders in real-time. 

Businesses can take their customer support to the next level through automated messages. By creating automated replies for keywords that help solves issues quickly by giving out website links and troubleshooting in simple ways, SMS turns out to be a great customer experience mode. 

There are a number of events that you can automate - The order placement status, content download success notification, order delivery update, etc. The use cases of automated messages are endless. It ultimately varies from business to business that how they use the ability in their offering. 

Keeping the customer informed during the entire transaction journey helps in ensuring customers are addressed. The intention here is to lower down the instances where the questions like where is my order and what is my tracking number, etc. 

To make the experience better, you should send them messages when they have placed the order, when the item has been shipped, and to inform them of completed delivery. 

92 percent of customers feel most satisfied when using a live chat feature. However, for live chat the customer has to visit the website or mobile app. With two way SMS feature, your agent can respond to customer request and provide a superior customer experience. 

C-Zentrix Omnichannel contact center offers an SMS module so that SMS can be integrated for customer service. With two way SMS (limited to regulations in different countries), customers can have the ease of live interactions without moving out from the ubiquitous SMS.

Eemails can easily get into the spam box or worst, the trash box in a very least amount of time. Because of this, it becomes next to impossible for businesses to receive feedback on their services - especially the ones which can help guide their future offerings. 

People are lot more willing to reply to a text message or even click on a link for a short survey,  compared to provide feedback at the end of call or responding to an email. This makes SMS as a feedback mode an absolute no-brainer. 

SMS can be a great way for bridging the gap between a business’s brick and mortar establishment and their digital platform. Through the help of geo-fencing, the marketing teams are able to use SMS messages for pushing out relevant and timely discounts and promotions when the customer is physically near their stores. 

These interactions can be both one-way and two-ways. In case of two-way communication, the sales associate can respond to the customers if they respond to the message. 

The Best Practices for Sending Out Text Messages 

         

Text messages are viewed as a flexible communication channel by the customers, where they won’t mind being contacted. In case you do not have staffing resources available for 24*7, you should rely on automated services to inform people that human agents will contact them the next day. 

On a side note, it is important to be wary of the time and day when you are sending out the message to the customers. 

Like in the case of all the high performing customer service strategies, the aim of your business must be to get beyond your customer’s expectations for only then you will be able to expand your customers’ satisfactions. With SMS as part of your customer service arsenal, it becomes a very convenient channel to reach out and even interact with your customers. Also, with Rich Communication Services (RCS) in SMS, it is now not limited to text but multimedia, location, emoji, voice can be exchanged, while using SMS over smartphones.

However, it is extremely important to remain professional and maintain the brand’s voice and identity while using SMS. By doing this, you will be able to create a strong image about your brand on a subconscious level. The customer representative should avoid cryptic message and short codes while sending out SMS messages.

It is an undeniable fact that SMSs hold the dominating stance when it comes to offering effective customer experience. For a digital business that wishes to create an irreplaceable part in the customers’ life, it is impossible to ignore the power of messages and the capabilities it holds to create a remarkable brand resonance. 

But, ultimately the success of your SMS marketing will depend on the service agencies that help you get there. By partnering with agencies which can help you create a SMS strategy and give you a platform to make the process automated, you will be able to get several steps closer to attaining grand success. 

Let our customer service experts help you get on your customers’ devices. Our team will be delighted to assist you in expanding your customer outreach and enhancing the customer experience.