Text messaging is a powerful tool for businesses. However, with 64% of consumers believing businesses should use SMS messages to interact with customers more than they currently do, plenty of businesses are clearly missing out on fantastic opportunities.
Text messaging can truly transform the way you do business and the way you engage with your customers. Read on to find out how.
Why customers opt-in for text messaging from businesses
Before we delve into the ways in which text messaging can change your interactions with customers, it’s important to understand why customers want to hear from you in the first place.
According to a survey from Salesforce, there are six main reasons why customers choose to opt-in to receive text messages from businesses:
For coupons or deals (77%)
To receive personalised alerts (50%)
To stay in the loop (48%)
For access to meaningful content (33%)
They don’t want to visit a business/website/app to get information (31%)
To gain quick access to information (29%)
On the flip side of this, the same survey found several reasons why people opt-out of text messages from businesses:
When SMS messages are disruptive
If they don’t provide more meaningful content
If they no longer need quick access to information
Text messages decrease their battery life
Now that we’ve got more of an understanding of the psyche of customers who want to receive text messages from businesses, let’s look at ways you can use SMS to transform your own business communications.
1. Take personalisation to the next level
The modern consumer doesn’t just enjoy personalisation - they expect it. Businesses can create truly personal experiences through SMS. And we’re not just talking about putting ‘Hi [Name]’ at the start of a text message, either.
Use the information you have about your audience to your advantage, and send text messages based on things like their preferences, buying history, and habits. For example, if you’ve just launched a new product and have customers in your contact database that have made similar purchases previously, this is a great chance to promote directly to them.
Personalisation at this level works best when you’ve segmented your contacts. Whispir’s intelligent contact management abilities make it easy to group your audience based on certain criteria, so that you can send relevant text messages to the right people in just a few minutes.
Learn more about Whispir’s contact management capabilities.
2. Be available 24/7
Thanks to our phones, we have the whole world at our fingertips. We expect to be able to read the news, surf the net, scroll newsfeeds, and get answers to whatever questions pop into our heads at any time, day or night.
Increasingly, this expectation has expanded to businesses, and more and more consumers expect to be able to get a response from organisations no matter what the time. Automated SMS messaging provides a fantastic solution to this.
Using automation, you can set up text messages that automatically respond based on certain keywords that people text in. That way, you can do things like send a simple response or text through a link where people can find more information.
Discover how two-way messaging can work for you.
3. Cut down on call costs
Most businesses waste a lot of time and money on making calls when they could be automating or streamlining this process using text messages. From reminding customers about upcoming reservations and appointments, to sending a text message ahead of time to check whether someone is open to a sales call, you can save a significant amount of time, money, and effort.
Not only does adjusting your shift from expensive phone calls to automated SMS messaging help your business, but it also provides a more integrated and enjoyable experience for your customers. People prefer being able to get things done over text, so having the option to do so when dealing with your company can significantly improve customer experience.
Learn more about Whispir’s call center deflection capabilities.
4. Get more bang for your buck on sales and promotions
When running a sale or promotion, it’s imperative that you get the word out to as many people as possible. While you might have the in-store banners and even socials covered, have you thought about putting your promotions directly in the hands of customers who might be interested?
SMS, with its 98% open rates (90% of which are opened within 3 minutes), is an incredibly engaging and powerful form of communication. And, using bulk SMS, you can get your sale or promotion out to a large number of people with just a few simple clicks.
Unlock the power of bulk SMS with Whispir.
5. Build brand awareness and authority
Getting your name out there can be quite a battle, especially if you’re in a heavily saturated or competitive industry. SMS offers a unique and tried-and-true way of cutting through the digital noise and standing out from your competitors, to truly engage and build awareness with prospects.
With the ability to change the ‘sender’ field, you can ensure the text messages you send are branded and don’t get discounted as spam.
Get the facts on how SMS stands out from other channels through our mini guide.
6. Get the word out quickly
Using a text messaging sending service for your business can be incredibly quick and efficient. That’s because, unlike comprehensive emails or professionally designed marketing assets which can be time-intensive, you can build and send SMS messages within minutes.
With Whispir’s pre-designed templates, this process is even more streamlined. Select from a template library, and ensure your messages stay consistent and on-brand.
See how Whispir’s ready-to-use template library works.
7. Create an open dialogue
It’s easy to think of business communications as strictly a one-way road. However, customers can provide an incredible amount of value, if you’re open to hearing their feedback.
This can be two-fold; firstly, when customers have constructive critiques that you can learn from. It’s not easy to hear negative feedback, but if you aren’t willing to take it on board, it’s likely you’ll continue to create the same pain points for other customers.
Secondly, when customers have positive feedback to provide. It’s a great feeling when people are shouting your praises from their (digital) rooftops, but are you doing anything constructive with that feedback?
Managing both positive and negative feedback in one central, accessible platform makes it possible to take the appropriate actions. Whether that’s letting a customer know you’ll take their suggestions on board, or incentivising a customer to share their review on a public forum, to drive more people to your business.
Unfortunately, many people don’t proactively provide feedback to a business. By being proactive yourself, and leveraging those aforementioned great SMS engagement rates, you can text out surveys for your customers to fill out after they’ve made a purchase or used your services. Using Whispir, you’ll be able to send those text messages, monitor their reach, and track the feedback you get - all from the one platform.
Download our guide on customer feedback forms.
Is your business ready to start sending text messages? Try Whispir
Whispir is an all-in-one communication platform that allows you to build, send, and monitor not only SMS messages, but email, voice, social media, and more. We’ve designed our platform to be incredibly easy to use, so you can spend less time stressing over your messaging, and more time on what you do best.
Don’t just take our word for it, though. Request a demo using the form below, and see how Whispir can work to help you seamlessly send text messages and transform the way you do business.
