The current situation is impacting industries across all sectors and causing organisations of all sizes to reconsider their business processes and communication strategies. Social distancing and the growing number of people working from home are putting extreme strain on most brands, particularly those working within the travel and retail sectors, with many struggling to cope with the ever-increasing call volumes.
With no confirmed end in sight, businesses need to look at alternative communication methods that allow them to ease the strain on contact centres, without compromising on customer experience.
At times like these, with more people working from home, businesses have a responsibility to effectively and efficiently communicate with their customers, contacts and staff. With so much uncertainty, brands can help to alleviate the disruption and soften the impact with SMS messaging, to ensure that critical broadcast messages reach as many people as possible, in the most accessible way.
Adaptation of communication is crucial to stay connected
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Nick Millward[/caption]
Mobile messaging is a form of communication that many people know how to use regardless of their demographic and the immediacy that it offers is critical for messages delivered within a crisis. With 98% of messages being read within two minutes, SMS messaging is an ideal choice for efficient and reliable delivery of key updates.
Here are a few ways in which contact centres can utilise SMS messaging in their current communication strategies to help keep business operations running smoothly and efficiently during this difficult period:
Reduce the strain with messaging options
If there’s one thing that consumers value most it’s their time and during this exceptional period customers are looking to get the answers to their questions in a quick, efficient and accessible way. By providing an option that allows them to enter their mobile number online, businesses that are experiencing tremendous strain on contact centres such as travel organisations, are able to text customers back to ask how they can help with their inquiry. This offers a significant reduction on the load of call centres, without compromising on the customer service expected.
Ease waiting times and more convenience to customers
Messaging can be used to enhance customer service by offering an alternative form of contact when call volumes are high. With chat functionality, SMS messaging provides a system in which live agents are able to deal with a vast range of customer enquiries through text messaging. Not only that but it offers customers a way to reach businesses quicker when reaching out for an urgent issue, with research showing that enquiries are generally picked up in less than 30 seconds and resolved in less than a minute – making resolution times significantly lower than traditional service channels.
It also has a place for non-urgent enquiries, in which customers have the capability to message a brand with a non-time-sensitive query and can chat back and forth at a time that is convenient to them – even if this messaging spans over a few days - as it gives the customer a chance to respond and ask for further information when they have time to follow up on the request.