If there’s one thing that’s changing when it comes to customer expectations, it’s their communication preferences. While customers might still appreciate the latest sales and promotions via email and direct mail, they want a more personal way to connect with their favourite brands.
And to do that, they’re opting for text messaging. Here are some great business text messaging examples that may inspire you…
- Appointment scheduling
- Reminders
- Customer service
- Order updates
- Emergency and service disruption alerts
- Sales and promotions
- Customer satisfaction survey
1. Appointment scheduling
Waiting on hold is no fun for anyone. Whether it’s a doctor’s appointment or scheduling a demo scheduling, business text messaging allows customers to book appointments quickly and easily.
You don’t even need one of your employees for this. Integrate your messaging platform with your scheduling software/calendar and a chatbot could easily handle the interaction, giving your team time back to focus on higher-value tasks. Of course, there can always be the option of escalating to a human employee but AI can understand keywords and intent, automatically booking appointments while still providing warm customer service.
2. Reminders
Even if an event is marked in a diary, people can still forget about it. Or perhaps there’s a clash or they’ve forgotten to cancel. Help your customers and lower the likelihood of no-shows by using business text messaging to send reminders.
You can even ask your customers to confirm whether they’re still attending.
3. Customer service
Often, something that frustrates customers more than issues they’ve experienced with their order/your business is having to wait to have these issues resolved. Gone are the days of waiting on hold, in a queue or days for their email to be responded to. With business text messaging, they can engage in asynchronous communication as and when they want to.
Not only is message history saved even if the chat window is closed, but your customer service agents can engage in multiple conversations at the same time. This boosts internal efficiency and customer experience.
4. Order updates
Most customers expect to receive notifications such as their order being shipped or refunded via email. What if you also text it to them? Emails can easily be missed or end up in a spam inbox. Or perhaps a customer doesn’t possess a smartphone with an email app, so they’ll have to log into a PC/laptop to check their emails.
Order updates via text are much more accessible.
5. Emergency and service disruption alerts
Quick communication is key in disruptive situations. For example, you might be a utility provider and there’s a burst pipe that could be affecting certain postcodes. Or perhaps you’re a broadband provider and some areas are experiencing a WiFi outage. A text can easily and quickly inform your customers.
A text is also more likely to be read than an email (for reasons mentioned in the previous point).
6. Sales and promotions
Email and direct mail are two great ways to inform customers about your latest sales, promotions and product launches. But as we’ve mentioned earlier, emails can easily be missed or automatically filtered into a ‘promotions’ folder that nobody reads. Direct mail is easily tossed aside and/or thrown away.
Texts are not only more accessible but boast a far higher open rate than email and direct mail (plus, metrics for the latter are harder to track). They also add a personal touch.
7. Customer satisfaction survey
To improve customer service and experience, you need customer feedback. But feedback can be difficult to collect. Customers don’t typically want to click on a link in an email and be taken to a webpage that hosts a five-page survey. Why not reduce the effort required from customers and boost response rates by sending your customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys via text?
Not only will that survey feel much less like it took five minutes to complete, but it can also be automated. You can design a workflow that automatically triggers a specific response, depending on your customer’s rating.
How to get started with business text messaging
If you’re inspired by the above examples, you may now be wondering how to get started with your own journey. It’s easy to accidentally flood customers with email marketing campaigns. And now you’re potentially adding SMS to the mix. Here’s how to ensure your execution is a success.
- Make it easy for customers to opt in and out
- Be engaging from the start
- Personalise your messages
- Automate where possible
There are many businesses successfully using text messaging to connect with their customers. After all, you’re already using this channel to talk to family and friends – and so are your customers. Why not use it to meet your customers where they’re most likely to be found?
This is where conversational messaging comes in. Use business text messaging to create a one-on-one conversation with your customers – one that’s natural, personal and keeps them engaged through every point in their buying journey.
Learn more about conversational messaging and why it’s the key to growing customer loyalty, sales and pipeline in our guide.
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