Customer Relationship Management

How to integrate SMS messaging with customer experience

SMS & customer experience

Customer experience is the backbone of any successful marketer today. This has come about because of the advances in technology and the influx of SMS messaging that has raised expectations with customers.

Customer experience will soon become the defining aspect of a brand, which means that you need to act now in order to improve the experience you’re giving your customers. Integrating SMS with customer experience is the way forward, and outlined below are just some of the ways you can do this.

Why is customer experience important?

Customer experience can make or break a business. After all, your customers bring in the cash flow, so, it’s important to ensure that their experience is as positive as possible. The experience you provide your customers with is closely tied to how they perceive your brand. If done right, it will help to improve your bottom line.

The age of ever-evolving technology has been both a massive benefit and a thorn in the side of businesses. This is because consumers can use SMS, messaging services as well as social media platforms to let the world know their opinions of brands. And they do this whether the experience is good or bad.

The customer journey is one of the most important aspects of marketing. It includes every experience that the customer has with your brand. And with consumers demanding more communication with brands, it is easy to see why SMS messaging is the way to go to improve this journey and make it one that is enjoyable for both the consumer and your brand.

How to integrate SMS messaging with this journey

SMS messaging is used daily, by almost everyone across the world. Consumers use text messaging for a plethora of applications, from mobile banking and opting-in to subscriptions to accessing verification SMS messages for orders. This makes it a platform that is unrivaled in terms of reaching customers. Integrating this into the customer experience will help to grow your business exponentially.

Make sure it forms part of your omnichannel strategy

Allowing customers to interact with your brand via SMS is important, but you need to ensure that it is optimized for stellar customer service. Your employees need to know that they should treat it like a live chat, sending replies timeously, efficiently and using “human” language.

An effective way to use SMS as part of your omnichannel strategy would be to update customers about their order, providing them with a link to their order on your website that coincides with the confirmation email that you sent them. From this, they should be able to access their order information and this information should be the same across all of the channels.

Use targeted SMS messaging

Have you ever opened an SMS only to see a generic message? Your consumers are equally as likely to ignore this type of message, so it is best to personalize all SMSes you send out. This is because you are talking to an individual, not to a crowd. And an individual will not appreciate a message meant for a group.

You can base the messages to customers on demographic factors, their tastes, and the way they behave online. Creating a personalized message increases the value of the message by reducing the number of irrelevant messages that consumers receive on a daily basis. If every message you send out has the same value, consumers will begin to trust your brand and will be more encouraged to continue using your products and services.

Use it instead of your call center

An effective SMS messaging system can eliminate the need for a call center with salespeople. You can use an SMS to provide information on the status of a customer’s order rather than have them phone in and wait for an agent to answer their query.

Or you could use an interactive system known as two-way SMS where a customer can reply to a message with a simple “Yes” or “No” answer. This eliminates the need for a call center as your agents can look at the replies and send out the relevant responses. Not only will this improve the customer journey, but it will make dealing with queries and complaints easier and more efficient.

Opportunities to use SMS messaging during touchpoints

You might have a fantastic product but a single wayward touchpoint is going to leave your customers feeling disappointed after interacting with your brand. Some of the common and most useful opportunities for SMS integration into touchpoints are listed below:

  • When time is of the essence: SMS messaging is highly effective for special offers, and promotions can also be useful in instances when time is of the essence. For example, a clinic or doctor can send out urgent reminders for appointments if clients are late or a salon can send out offers for specific holidays ahead of time to encourage bookings.

  • Reviews after a product or service: You can use SMS messaging to gain important information about clients and how they perceive your brand. One touchpoint of the customer journey that many businesses forget about is, well, the end. Sending an SMS out after a consumer has used your product or service will make them feel valued and appreciated.

  • Confirmation SMS messages: Customers value communication with a brand, which is why sending out confirmation SMS messages is an effective way to improve the customer experience at important touchpoints. Send out a confirmation SMS when a customer signs up to your newsletter, when they have made a payment or if they have booked an appointment with your company.

Customer experience trumps all

Customer experience is vital to the success of any business, so you’ll need to ensure that you always provide an outstanding one to your customers. This can be done by integrating SMS into their journey by sending real-time confirmation messages, using it as part of the onboarding process and sending updated information to customers via text message. SMS messaging is such a successful way to interact with customers, so why not find out more about Clickatell Platform for your business today.

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