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How SMS Builds Customer Relationships
We have come a long way when it comes to texting.
Today, more than 5 billion people worldwide -roughly two-thirds of the world's population- use text messaging for regular communication. It's become the norm for how people communicate.
While most of us are comfortable texting our family and friends, it’s another story when it comes to the idea of texting our customers. It’s easy to be more self-conscious about the texts we send to those we do business with. It feels like there is just so much more at stake, should you send the wrong message.
But we should not be afraid to venture into the prospect of texting our customers. SMS communication with customers is still a relatively new concept. It is up to us as professionals to form stronger customer relationships, and the fastest way to do that is with SMS.
Starting the conversation
The idea of mass texting your customers can be an exciting proposition. However, please keep in mind that not only are unsolicited texts rude and off-putting, they are also illegal. Doing so can land you some hefty fines from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or the TCPA . These fines can be as costly as $1,500 per text. Now, multiply that by hundreds or even thousands of texts.
So to avoid that, you’ll need to get your customers’ express consent.
There are multiple ways you can easily ask your customers to opt in and accept your text based messaging.
Sending an SMS opt-in message
Relatively straightforward example. While you can’t immediately start bombarding your customers with a slew of sales promos, there's nothing stopping you from sending a simple message asking if they’d be interested in hearing from you. Remember to send your customer a quick message telling them what to expect. What’s the purpose of this messaging campaign that you are offering? How frequently are you going to be messaging them? Do message and data rates apply? Don’t forget to mention your privacy policy and your terms & conditions.
By setting expectations and being transparent, not only are you in compliance with the law, you're treating your customers with respect while simultaneously vetting out those who just aren’t interested, saving you time and resources.
Conversations worth having
“What comes next?”
Here are a few suggestions:
Billing and Invoices
While you may be using tools such as billing and invoicing software applications to keep track and capture your revenue, some customers have a lot on their plate and it's easy to be a bit forgetful. A direct approach like texting your customer might just be the gentle reminder they need to get that cash flow back in a timely manner, a boon for both parties.
Text-to-Landline Customer Service
Conversation is a two-way street. While you typically reach out to your customers, have you ever wondered how often your customers have tried to reach out to you by texting your landline?
Did you know, you can text-enable your landline? Few vendors provide that capability, but it opens up an entirely new communication channel. Give it a shot - you may be surprised by the number of customers who would love to text you through your landline number.
Referral and Sales Promotions
Text your customers special sales promotions, offering them exclusive discounts before anyone else. You can do this through SMS keyword campaigns. Build their loyalty and increase demand through referral programs as well.
SMS Texting Etiquette and Practices
While sending these messages, it's important to have certain standards of etiquette. SMS is still relatively new, and it’s not uncommon for enthusiasts to overstep boundaries by accident.
Politeness is not only important, it’s appreciated by your prospects and consumers.
Here are some rules of thumb to help guide you.
Timing is Key
SMS and other mediums like it allows users to text their prospects and consumers at any time and any place
However, CAN and SHOULD are two separate matters.
It is important to text clients at appropriate times; few people appreciate receiving a text in the dead of night. Doing makes it less likely to get a response in a timely and gracious manner.
Texts sent outside of working hours imply a sense of urgency. So unless it actually IS urgent, it’s best avoid doing so.
Putting a foot in the door
SMS texts are best when they are concise.
Short, sweet, and to the point.
Long conversations benefit more from other mediums, such as on the telephone or on a conference call.
However, SMS text is a good way to start the chat by setting up a time and date to have it.
Say what you mean.
Words and context can easily get lost in translation when texting. It’s recommended that businesses avoid using words and phrases that could be misinterpreted. Tone can be difficult to convey in text messages.
Sarcasm and humor should be left to trained professionals.
SMS key metrics
How do you measure the height of your success with SMS?
Delivery Rate & Time
Even the best crafted message is ineffective if it’s not reaching the intended contacts.
It’s imperative to make sure that contact information for prospects and customers is updated regularly and accurately. Consumers may have changed their phone number or perhaps a phone number was input incorrectly. Either way, these are just some reasons a message might not be properly delivered.
It’s also important that your message be delivered in a timely manner. People have busy lives and schedules. If the SMS has a call to action that needs to be completed at the end of the day, sending the message last-minute is not only rude, it’s unlikely to be fulfilled by the recipient.
Opt-in & Opt-out Rates
Find out how many new subscribers are coming in on a weekly, or monthly basis. It will be a good measure of growth and verify the success of the SMS campaign.
Conversely, a consistent opt out rate may be an indication of flaws, such as targeting the wrong audience, or not living up to their expectations.
Looking towards the future with SMS
It’s important for any marketing channel to be able to speak the language of the consumer. To talk to them through the channels that they are most at home using. By 2025, it’s predicted that as many as 72.6% of users will be accessing the internet solely through their smartphones.
While it may seem strange for some to use texting to communicate with consumers, it’s up to us as business professionals to move past that so we can converse with our customers in new ways that they prefer.
Want to learn how your team can collaborate on customer messages faster? Chatfully can help! Click here to learn more.
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.
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
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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