As Bill Gates once said: “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.”
Text messaging is one such technology embedded into our everyday life.
Many of us feel naked without our smartphones. Some even feel anxious without a stream of pings, beeps, and buzzes.
That’s not to say that we always take notice. Emails and social media notifications often pass us by.
But, with SMS, it’s different. According to Gartner, open and response rates for SMS are as high as 98 percent and 45 percent. With email, it’s only 20 percent and six percent, respectively.
As such, SMS is often ideal for customer communication.
Recognizing this, many brands leverage the channel to enhance customer experience. Here are seven ways in which they sometimes do so.
1. Make It Rain Discounts
Humans rarely buy with logic; we buy with our emotions.
Consider the following statistic: Two-thirds of people say they’d make a purchase if they had a coupon, regardless of whether they initially planned to buy something.
Thanks to its reach, SMS offers the ideal platform to deliver these coupons to customers.
Yet, this does not guarantee results. Thankfully, there are steps to get smarter with this strategy.
When a customer posts a negative review or leaders poor feedback, a timely discount may help rebuild the relationship.
Alternatively, a personalized offer to a customer who has left glowing feedback may help the business to leverage that sentiment and extend their value potential.
As evident in these examples, personalization is often the value driver.
2. Keep Tabs on My Appointments
Nowadays, people are busier than ever. Moreover, everything is designed to grab our attention.
As a result, appointments, deadlines, and other diary obligations often slip away from us, with distractions aplenty.
Therefore, many customers appreciate helpful reminders, which keep the customer journey on track and allow businesses to optimize their team’s time.
Moreover, customers want to receive these reminders via SMS.
Indeed, 83 percent of consumers would like to receive appointment reminders via text, according to G2. Unfortunately, only 20 percent of businesses currently send them this way.
3. Warn Me of Deliveries
Many people now work from home. Yet, that doesn’t mean they’re always there. They may work from their back garden or take a stroll down the road to refocus.
It is incredibly frustrating to do so, only to find a “sorry we missed you” note at the front door upon returning. After all, the customer then has to travel to a faraway depot to retrieve their package.
An SMS with an approximate delivery time can save a lot of hassle here, smoothing over a particularly irritating customer pain point.
In addition, consider how proactive text messages can relieve customer anxiety when there are shipment delays – a stark reality with today’s fractured supply chains.
Thankfully, customers are more likely to tolerate issues when warned in advance, affording organizations the opportunity to safeguard their business.
4. Keep Me Safe
Two-factor authentication provides an additional protection layer to ensure online accounts are secure beyond meager passwords.