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Best B2C Practices for Using SMS, IM, and Email
As you’re learning more about conversational commerce, you may start to feel defensive about your current email communication strategy. It seems to be working for you and you're comfortable with the system in place. Why put time, energy, and resources into implementing a new process, like using SMS texting and instant messaging, that may not work for your needs?
It’s a natural way to react to any type of change—probably more so in business where you’re not just risking your personal reputation and money, but your business’ as well. It’s the responsible reaction to question anything that claims to be “better for you.” So to all of you cautious decision makers—we say bravo and applaud your thoughtful judgment.
We are not here to convince you that you need to completely change your communication plan. Rather, we are here to provide insights into how you may augment your arsenal to enhance what you’ve got and make it even better.
We’ve got nothing against email. On the contrary, we’ll show you how to improve your email strategy while adding SMS texting and instant messaging capabilities as options for your audience.
Before we do that, we will first address some common concerns about using SMS and/or IM for business purposes. Then, we’ll outline when to use instant communication with your audience and when to use email.
Common Concerns about SMS and IM
Concern #1: They’re intrusive.
Some people may find getting a text or chat message from a business on their personal phone as an invasion of a sacred space that should only be designated for trading emojis and gifs with your nearest and dearest. That’s a fair point if the customer did not opt in to receive SMS or IM from the company.
However, standard practice for most organizations is to request permission before contacting a consumer. By doing this, businesses know whether the consumer wants to hear from them or not. In addition, companies usually offer a way to opt out if consumers change their mind or were contacted by mistake. So, ultimately this choice of communication style is left with the consumer. Those people who find it intrusive can opt out—they would be among the minority anyway.
When Facebook surveyed daily messaging app users, 61% of those surveyed in the US told them “they had messaged a business in the past three months.” The same statistic from other countries was either the same or higher. It’s clear most people around the world don’t find SMS or IM from companies intrusive at all.
Concern #2: No access or limited access.
There may be a cost barrier that limits or prevents people from receiving text or instant chat messages. Those consumers have the same choice as above—they can opt out of receiving these types of instant communication altogether or choose the chat platform that’s most accessible to them whether that be SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or the like. Businesses can access all of these mediums through a unified platform, like Chatfully, that will keep the conversations organized and open for teams to view and collaborate on the best solutions.
If the targeted recipients do opt out of any instant communication, hopefully, they have the option to be reached by email, phone, or postal mail instead should they have questions about your product or service or want to be alerted about sales promotions.
Concern #3: No records.
For everyday personal use, it may not be possible to keep a history of your texts or DMs, and if one did, it would take up precious space on your device. For businesses, however, there are services, like Chatfully, that can help you maintain records of all your conversations (no matter the platform) for however long you want to keep them. So if you’re looking for that complaint sent over Twitter or that billing question sent via WhatsApp, you can easily find it through a unified platform like Chatfully’s.
But which tool is best?
Now that we have addressed the common concerns about using SMS texting or web-based instant messaging, for the rest of this article, we will refer to both of these mediums as “instant chat” and compare “instant chat” to email. The other pros and cons in certain situations for both SMS and IM are the same so both will be grouped as “instant chat.”
This guide will help you choose the best tool for each of the following areas:
- Scheduling
- Customer success
- Sales
- Marketing
- Use Cases for Instant Chat
Use Cases for Instant Chat
- Scheduling: Making and confirming appointments normally doesn’t require a lot of text, but it does require a quick response. Thus, this use case is a perfect example of why chat methods work best here.
- Customer Success: If a customer has a quick question that can be answered with a short message, instant chat is a convenient and efficient way to provide service for both parties. Consumers can be helped quickly and agents can help more people.
- Sales: This will depend on what stage of the sales process you or your agent is in. Instant chat makes the most sense for initial inquiries in which you find out how the prospect wants to learn more about your company—via email, phone, or in-person meeting.
- Marketing: Instant chat can be used to send out quick, short alerts on a product sale or promotional event on a mass scale. These messages can be targeted to those most interested in the offering to better ensure your message is not viewed as spam. It’s also less costly than email and mailers because it would not be necessary to invest in graphic designers or coders to craft an eye-catching text message.
The benefits outlined below explain why instant chat is preferable in the scenarios above.
Benefits:
- Immediate and direct delivery to a mobile device
- Not considered spam since contacts are required to opt in
- Higher chance of being read quickly
- Higher chance of quick response
- Allows for back-and-forth dialogue in real time
- Less likely to be a victim of viruses
- Not as costly when compared to some email campaigns
These pro tips will show best practices in using instant chat for business.
Pro Tips:
- Keep the messages concise. Formal greetings and signatures are not required, but you should address the person by name and add your name and company at the end of the message.
- If you’re replying to a customer or prospect using an IM platform, leave your number in case the person wants to continue the conversation over the phone. Usually, smartphones will be able to recognize when a phone number is typed in and can provide a one-touch link to the phone app on the device.
Use Cases for Email
- Scheduling: Using email for scheduling is fine if chat is not available. It may be slower depending on your email service, but it should accomplish the task just as well.
- Customer Service: If an issue with a product or service is more complicated and requires more space to explain than a text message can provide, email is the next best option for your customers. It can always be combined with the use of chat for follow-up questions or surveys.
- Sales: Depending on what type of visuals or other collateral will help close the deal, email is the more secure and convenient way to send large attachments, like pictures, presentations, and multi-page contracts. It is better suited for long-form text that needs to relay complex information and for forwarding that information to other decision-makers.
- Marketing: Email is more effective for sending mass email blasts. There is more room to make the content look professional and impactful. In addition, email is more appropriate because people are used to seeing marketing information in emails and won’t get annoyed at receiving them. Email campaigns, like instant chat campaigns, can be customized for certain demographics and interest groups that are more likely open to receiving whatever it is your marketing.
The general email benefits below apply to all use cases above.
Benefits:
- Commonplace for business use which means most people should have an account
- Better for relaying complex information or lengthy messages
- More appropriate for sending larger-sized files and multiple attachments
- Generally more secure for sharing sensitive information
- Better for reaching an audience at scale
- Can be sent from desktop or mobile
- Easier to organize and archive for your records
- Can easily be printed
Here are the best practices when using email for business.
Pro Tips:
- Email for business is expected to be more formal. Follow the standard business letter-writing protocol when crafting your emails, including professional greetings and signatures.
- Take advantage of the space that email offers to craft outstanding, engaging, and informative content that will best serve the intention of the email.
- Spend time making subject lines irresistible and memorable so the email doesn’t get buried or lost
- Invest in security measures to keep private information sent via email out of the hands of hackers.
We’ve shown above that instant chat and email each have their pros and cons and their recommended usage can depend on what you’re trying to accomplish. As stated in an article in PC World, “There is no clear “best”, just a “best for the situation right now.” You can communicate more efficiently if you understand the pros and cons of each, and choose the right tool for the job at hand.
Of course, there’s no rule that says you can’t use both. Try them both and see which works best for you.
Want to learn how quickly you can unify your business’ messaging with consumers? Chatfully can help! Click here to learn more.
Sources
- Bradley, T. (2012). Email vs. IM vs. SMS: Choosing the Right One. [online] PCWorld. Available at: https://www.pcworld.com/article/248142/email_vs_im_vs_sms_choosing_the_right_one.html [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
- Nield, D. (2017). What Are the Benefits of Texting Vs. Email?. [online] It Still Works. Available at: https://itstillworks.com/benefits-texting-vs-email-3872.html [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
- Facebook IQ. (2018). Why messaging businesses is the new normal. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/why-messaging-businesses-is-the-new-normal [Accessed 31 Aug. 2019].
- Windermere, A. (2019). Texting vs. E-mail in Business. [online] Work.chron.com. Available at: https://work.chron.com/texting-vs-email-business-9217.html [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
More and more consumers are growing comfortable with the idea of texting businesses to make their voices heard. The savviest of businesses understand the importance of this trend and is choosing to engage numerous customers using bulk SMS. Bulk SMS is changing the way businesses communicate and nurture relationships with consumers by empowering businesses to send messages at scale, without sacrificing the personal touch of their messages. For those interested in dabbling with bulk SMS, did you know you can take your current phone landline and convert it into a platform that enables 2-way bulk text messaging? You don't even need to change your landline phone number. All it takes is a quick call to your service provider. It’s so quick and easy In fact, you could easily text-enable your landline within the day. WIth flexible pricing plans depending on your needs all without disrupting your current business workflow. Soon you’ll be able to send tens of thousands of messages efficiently and effortlessly.
Texting with prospects and customers is a new marketing channel for most businesses, but the benefits are staggering.
Picture this—you’re thinking about conversational commerce and what it can do for your organization. You’re sitting through a demo to learn how easy it is to add texting to your current phone line when it hits you … AHA! This is a lot easier than I thought!! So what do I do next? First, you’ll want to get buy-in from your team. If your employees don’t believe in this new strategy, it will be more difficult to get your customers to trust it. To tackle this, consider this two-pronged approach: Explain how adding SMS texting and instant messaging will help your team. Explain how it will help your business. How Texting and Instant Messaging Will Help Your Team The first approach to get your team behind your new SMS and IM plan is to show them how it will make their work simpler and more efficient. Are your employees being stood up too often by no-show customers not making their appointments? Are their processes held up by waiting for important customer information? Through the use of automated appointment reminders and faster responses via text or chat, your workers’ pain points with customers can be reduced considerably. An instant message platform can also make collaboration within the team and the organization effortless by allowing other workers to see the status of a conversation and, if needed, jump into it to bridge a knowledge gap and seamlessly facilitate service to the customer.
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