How SMS can help businesses stay connected with consumers during COVID-19

A recent survey revealed that the weekly volumes of email campaigns rose from 3,600 to 40,000 between mid February to mid March during the COVID-19 pandemic (source). Engaging customers only with email during this time may prove to be even harder than before. Whether you need to stay connected with your existing customers, or want to engage with prospects, it looks like you need a helping hand in capturing your customers’ attention. We think SMS can help. 

Consumers prefer texting 

In fact, a study from Zendesk found that COVID-19 seems to have revealed the importance of texting, with customers increasingly turning to texting for customer services to take the advantage of being able to begin and end a conversation on their own schedule. 62% of consumers have also admitted that they are responding more quickly to texts since the outbreak began (source). 

So if you haven’t already, there’s no better time than now to add SMS to your mix of communication channels. Even before the pandemic, there are many statistics showing how adding SMS in your communication strategy can help with some quick wins:

• SMS has an open rate of 94% (Esendex)
• Texting a prospect after initial contact can increase conversion rate by 112% ( Crazyegg)
• 70% of respondents agree that using SMS text messaging is a good way for an organisation to get their attention (APIFonica)
• 64% of consumers with texting capabilities prefer texting over voice for customer service channel (Ameyo)

Use SMS for time sensitive messages

Consumers, particularly 18-34 year olds, are found to be more likely to use 5 or more channels to engage with brands; research also indicated that multichannel consumers are more likely to convert, and have a higher basket value and greater loyalty.

So embrace the different channels and make use of its unique features to suit the messages you are sending. SMS, for instance, has the fastest response time with 90% of messages being read within 3 minutes, so it’s ideal for any time critical messages like changes of opening hours and policies; or messages that require immediate action like appointment reminders and delivery notifications.   

Keep customers updated with SMS automation  

Many businesses and organisations have to cope with increased customer support queries during an uncertain time like this, yet also having to operate with remote teams and reduced numbers of staff or working hours. This makes it even more vital to streamline your business process so that your valuable staff members can work more effectively and focus their time on tasks that require creativity and innovation. 

From keeping customers updated on the progress of their queries, to reducing training requirements by enabling staff to send and receive SMS through their current software and platforms, plugin tools like the Esendex Zapier Integration can be of great help in times like this. 

The integration connects the Esendex SMS platform to over 1300 apps, software and systems, enabling businesses to add automated SMS based on different triggers without having to hire a team of developers or engineers.

Whether it is to send an automated SMS to customers after they submitted a support ticket or to keep them updated as the ticket moves along different stages, or to create new records in your CRM and notify staff members via an automated SMS, these processes can help reduce the time your staff spend on administrative tasks, yet still be able to provide a great customer experience.   

Sign up for a 7 day free trial here and receive 25 free SMS credits to test out how our SMS solutions can help your business communicate better during this time.