4 Reasons to Use SMS for Customer Service

SMS marketing is one of the most popular forms of communication when it comes to efficient, cost effective customer contact. SMS marketing allows businesses to connect directly with their customers and customers the opportunity to contact your business at a time that suits them.

Across several sectors including hospitality, leisure, and retail to name but a few, businesses are making improvements to their customer experience offering through effective SMS marketing. Business SMS messaging can help to improve the flow of communication both into and out of your business, giving both your marketing or communications team and your customers the opportunity to use text messaging to improve their dialogue.

Below we’ve listed out some of the key ways SMS marketing can help to improve your customer experience offering:

1. It adds value

Loyal customers are one of your business’s most valuable assets, as they are more likely to spend more money than new customers and the cost of keeping them engaged is less than working to attract new customers to your business.

You can use SMS messaging effectively to offer relevant deals and discounts to your loyal customers, by segmenting their phone numbers from your customer database. Directly targeting a certain proportion of your customers will help them feel as though their regular custom is seriously valued by the business, which will encourage them to spend more in the long term with you. It will also work as an incentive to other customers who hear about the offers to continue to buy from you, so that they too are able to reap the rewards in future.

SMS marketing is effective at adding value to long standing customer relationships, as it is quick and easy to carry out, meaning you can react quickly and unexpectedly to reward your customers – helping to brighten up their day and put your brand in a positive light.

2. It helps you listen

One of the reasons SMS messaging is so effective at improving customer relations is that it allows customers the opportunity to give their say on your business. You can quickly and easily compile customer feedback surveys, which can remain anonymous over text. By automating your system, you are able to send a series of texts to a customer feeling out a survey or questionnaire, with relevant questions dependent on their previous answers.

SMS text messaging is, therefore, a highly cost effective way to run a customer satisfaction or customer feedback exercise, which can also help to generate almost instantaneous feedback. You can then compile your customers’ feedback within your SMS marketing system and respond to all customers who answered your survey with a ‘you said, we did’ text message, ensuring your customer’s know they’ve been listened to, which will ensure they feel valued.

3. It makes you attentive

If your company is affected by legislation changes or factors outside of your control, you can use SMS messaging to remain attentive to your customers around the clock.

Let’s say you’re an airline or travel company and some of your customers have been affected by changes to their travel plans. Whether these changes have been caused by your company or not, SMS text messaging gives you the opportunity to directly contact all your customers who’ve been affected. You can respond almost immediately to the incident arising, regardless of where your customers are in the world.

Offering a customer service number to text or call will help to reassure your customers’ that you genuinely have their best interests at heart and that you’re doing all your can to help. This extra contact at stressful, uncertain times can go a long way in helping to positively develop the experience your customers have of your business.

4. It gives you flexibility

SMS marketing offers both your business and your customers the flexibility to communicate with each other at a time that will best suit your customers. If you’re sending out an SMS marketing campaign, consider the frequency with which you text your customers, be sure to send your messages from one centralised number so that your customers feel the text is coming from a trusted source, and think about what time of day will be most effective for your message to reach your customer.

Often, early mornings, lunchtimes or later in the day are best as people will be using their phone during a commute to work or a break. The beauty of an SMS text message is that it remains flagged in someone’s phone until the message has been read, making it a highly effective method of communication when trying to reach customers.

SMS text messaging is also highly flexible for your customers, who will no doubt work busy lives. If your business is in the hospitality or leisure sector, implementing SMS messaging gives your customers the opportunity to contact your business to book and reserve appointments at a time that suits them. Most people struggle to make a call between 9-5 Monday to Friday and don’t want to spend their precious break time on the phone making plans. If you can offer customers the chance to book appointments or reservations via text messaging, you will be giving customers an additional reason to use your company. Without this form of communication, you might miss out on custom if someone isn’t able to respond quickly to phone calls or emails. It will also help you to beat out any competition who do not offer SMS messaging to their customers as a form of communication.

If you’re ready to start using SMS marketing to improve and develop the experience you customers have of your business, you can contact FastSMS on 0800 954 5305. With over 15 years experience developing successful SMS marketing campaigns for our customers, we’re well placed to help you launch an SMS campaign to improve your customer relations. Whether it be running a customer satisfaction survey, gaining insight into your customer’s experiences of your business or offering your customers the chance to contact you directly via text, our specialist SMS messaging service will help to positively develop your customer service offering. For more information about how SMS marketing can benefit your business, contact us today.