Short message service (SMS), better known as text messaging, is one of the best ways for businesses to connect with their consumers. From sharing order confirmations to sending appointment reminders, your company can transform how it interacts with and supports its customers.
Here, we are breaking down why SMS is great for customer support and some tips for making the most of this dynamic service.
How to Use SMS for Customer Service
SMS is an incredibly powerful tool businesses can utilize to streamline and supercharge their customer service efforts. Text messaging allows businesses to provide support directly through the user’s mobile phone, making communication simple and effective.
The following are some customer support duties SMS can accomplish for businesses:
- Shipping and delivery updates: Your company can share real-time updates about product orders and when customers can expect to receive their packages.
- Confirmation details for orders or reservations: SMS is a great way to share order information with customers when they make a purchase. They can easily access the text to double-check order numbers or reservation times from the convenience of their phone.
- Timely notifications: Whether your customers are eligible for an exclusive deal on your merchandise or they are next on the waitlist for seating in your restaurant, you can provide them with timely notifications.
- Automated responses for frequently asked questions: A great way to save your team time and energy is to set up automated responses for common inquiries so customers can find the answers they need when they need them.
- Troubleshooting: Two-way messaging allows businesses to work with customers to troubleshoot problems with products, technical issues or other needs.
5 Benefits of Using SMS for Customer Service
Businesses can reap many amazing benefits when they use SMS for customer service purposes, including the following:
1. Offer Enhanced Customer Experiences
Today’s consumers want convenience. SMS allows your customers to engage with your team from the palm of their hand.
Whether they are receiving order updates or need to ask a question, there is no easier way to contact customer support than SMS. By utilizing text messaging, your business can reach its shoppers in seconds.
In addition to convenience, consumers will also appreciate that they receive push notifications directly on their devices. With SMS, there is no need to sift through dozens of emails, set aside time to make a call or bother to download an app.
2. Get Higher Visibility and Faster Response Times
Another benefit of using SMS customer service is getting real-time customer attention and prompt replies. SMS is highly accessible since 85% of the United States population and about 86% of the Australian population have a smartphone. Plus, customers can send, receive and reply to text messages without an internet connection.
Text messaging is also an effective way to reach people quickly—75% of Americans report feeling uneasy without their phones and therefore always have them on hand.
3. Foster Customer Relationships
A huge perk of using SMS for customer service is building meaningful relationships with your customer base. Personalization and individualized attention can have major influences on how someone perceives your business.
Text messaging allows you to communicate in a less formal way to showcase your brand’s personality and values while connecting with the customer on a deeper level.
All consumers want convenient, straightforward customer service, and SMS allows you to meet them where they are without any hassle.
4. Enjoy Cost-Effective Customer Communications
SMS for customer service can be an incredibly cost-effective solution. Messaging tends to be more inexpensive and efficient than speaking on a phone call for customer support purposes.
Your business can automate particular messages to answer frequently asked questions, even if your customer service team is off-duty. These tools can help your company cut operational costs by streamlining customer communication, taking care of repetitive inquiries automatically, and boosting overall efficiency.
When your SMS is doing some of the work for you, your team can focus its efforts on other important customer service tasks.
5. Schedule Future Messages for Timely Contact
As previously mentioned, leveraging automation can be highly advantageous for your business’s customer service operations.
An awesome benefit of using SMS for customer support is the ability to schedule messages ahead of time. Your customer support team can follow these easy steps:
- Compose your text message through Gmail, Outlook or a web browser.
- Select the specific recipients you want to reach.
- Choose a date and time for the system to send your message.
These scheduled texts will remain on the server until the desired time and date—no need to set an alarm or rush to get a message out at the perfect moment.
Automation tools make scheduling messages ahead of time simple. And by saving your crew significant time and energy each week, you empower them to deliver increased productivity.
How to Make the Most of SMS for Support
Your company can make the most of using SMS for customer support by becoming familiar with a few best practices:
- Utilize personalization: SMS personalization refers to using individualized information, such as a shopper’s name, birthday or pronouns, to create a more meaningful message. Using special details in your texts is one of the best ways to boost SMS open rates and harness more meaningful engagement.
- Keep your messages clear and concise: No one likes receiving overly lengthy text messages, especially from someone trying to sell them something. Keep your texts brief and get to the point quickly. Users should be able to understand the message and what action to take with a quick look.
- Ask your customers for feedback: Don’t be afraid to ask your customers to share their opinions about your business’s SMS custom support. They may be able to share valuable insights that could help you refine your operations.
- Don’t overdo it: A major rule of thumb for any type of business SMS is prioritizing quality over quantity regarding your messages. Consumers do not want you to bombard their phones with notifications from your company.
- Always share how to opt out: While SMS is an amazing and convenient tool, receiving texts from brands is not for everyone. Be sure your messages include easy-to-understand instructions for opting out. Otherwise, some recipients will block your SMS number.
Start Your Free Trial With Red Oxygen’s Business SMS
When your business is ready to take your customer support operations to the next level, turn to Red Oxygen. Our powerful and scalable business SMS platform makes communicating with your customers easy. Whether you’re looking to send texts in bulk or direct them to individual users, our SMS helps businesses stay connected with their target audience.
From two-way messaging to call forwarding to sending out reminders to reorder, our enterprise SMS has a vast range of features that will elevate and improve your customer service efforts.
Ready to get started? Contact Red Oxygen or request your free trial to learn more about our powerful business SMS today!
