Local businesses usually regret the fact that they have limited advertising revenue and think that advertising is a strategy most suitable for larger businesses only. Customer service, however, is one area where they can particularly beat the big players.
Strangely enough, small businesses are not that confident that they can win this game out against the leading guys in the industry. There exists a notion, which is false, that the modern marketing platforms, including SMS marketing services, are for large-scale business and require extensive budgets.
The truth is: text marketing is a simple and one of the most affordable communication channels that small and large businesses alike can take advantage of. It certainly makes a great pair with small businesses. No matter how few (or how many) employees your company has, SMS (short message service) can really be used to help improve your customer service and support.
What Defines SMS Text Messaging for Customer Service?
A large number of organizations are using SMS broadcast systems and other similar tools to provide their customers with a more effective support option. SMS customer support means the practice of using SMS messaging as a communication channel for customer service and support purposes.
Unlike bulk SMS campaigns where a mass notification is transmitted to the audience, text messaging for customer support purposes represents a personalized service that allows you to communicate faster with your customers and clients having questions or queries about their order or a certain product(s) in stock or any other special requests, while providing them the engaging experience and making them feel happy and satisfied with your service.
You basically have two types of interactions with your customers, clients, or consumers. One is reactive support and the other is proactive support or information. In the former, your customers are not entirely happy with their shopping experience, putting you in such a situation to rectify their problems as quickly as possible. While in the later, you send them confirmation notifications once they place an order, shipping notifications when the order leaves the warehouse and upon arrival, and even inventory alerts and limited-time deals, sales, and coupons.
By adding text messaging into your customer support strategy, you can go the extra mile, especially in providing your current customers and prospects with proactive information. The happier your clients will be, the better it will be for your business. Because when they have an awesome experience with you, they’ll most probably refer their friends and family to you.
Why Should You Use SMS for Customer Service and Support?
Why? Well, that’s basically a question that should arise every time a business is confronted with an idea to invest in an SMS system for customer service. I will suggest you look back to a past incident where you placed an order or filed a complaint on a company but felt completely ignored by them. Had you received a quick response, you might have stayed with that company and have never gone on to a different, more supportive competitor.
When it’s the matter of customer service, it’s how quickly you can respond to customers’ requests or questions and find a solution to keep things smooth for them. That is where text messaging can come handy and pave a path for outstanding customer care interactions. You can add SMS to your customer support strategy because:
Text messages have an impeccably fast delivery rate and there are only 2% chances that your message will be ignored, thanks to the 98% read-rate of text messages.
The average person takes one and a half hours to respond back to an email but responding to a text takes only 90 seconds.
SMS text messages are perfect to deliver time-sensitive information to your customers and keep them engaged in just a fraction of minute.