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Thirty years after the first text message was sent in 1992, SMS is more popular than ever – but not just in the realm of texting friends and family. SMS messaging has taken off among customer service and support teams too, and the reasons are straightforward. Customers find SMS support more convenient and faster than other communication channels, while organizations offering SMS customer support can engage with more customers and prospects.
With SMS messaging platforms like Comm100 Outreach, organizations can reach customers on an individual, personalized basis at scale, providing them with the very best CX – all while funneling responses into a unified inbox for efficient and organized support.
SMS messaging is capable of facilitating a wide variety of support types. In this blog, we’ll look at some of the top ways that customer service and support teams are using SMS customer support today.
When SMS is adopted by customer support teams, the speed of support is vastly improved. Customers can simply text a question or response and the message is received into a unified inbox. From there, an agent can respond in real-time, providing the instant support that today’s customers so highly value – 83% of customers expect to engage with someone immediately when contacting a company. SMS is the ideal platform for fast support, and when agents need a speedy response to close an outstanding request, SMS is just as useful in providing customers with the means to quickly reply.
Adding SMS to support can directly boost engagement with customers. With our phones glued to our sides, it’s perhaps not surprising to hear that 90% of SMS messages are read by the recipient in the first three minutes. Also, 75% of people aged 44 and below like contacting businesses via text. The strong customer preference for SMS support means that it’s a great way for organizations to meet customers on their terms, boosting engagement that can drive sales and loyalty, as well as improve CSAT.
Deliver bulk and personalized SMS messages to your customers, and engage in personal, two-way SMS conversations – all from one unified platform.
Find out moreAccording to consumers, some of the most valuable types of texts from organizations include appointment reminders and updates on delivery status. In the case of scheduled messages, an SMS platform can either target groups based on customer data or focus on individual service outcomes.
Organizations looking to develop connections with customers can use automated SMS messages for greetings like welcome messages, or follow-ups to recent interactions. Compared to the low 20% open rate of email, business SMS has a 98% open rate, meaning that these messages are almost always seen by recipients. The high open rate for SMS messages also makes them ideal for emergency alerts and the time-sensitive customer communications.
Consumers now look for proactive SMS support from organizations, and proactive alerts are rated as some of the most valuable types of texts. 64% of consumers rated appointment reminders as one of the most valuable types of texts, while new discount offers and alerts to refill prescriptions were highly valuable to 29% and 16% of consumers respectively.
These numbers also fall in line with research showing that most consumers want businesses to send text messages more often. By offering an SMS platform that can send proactive SMS support messages, organizations can provide great CX to increase loyalty, generate new traffic to websites, and increase sales through promotions.
Customers are looking for more SMS communication with organizations, so it’s little surprise that SMS support has become an ideal way to collect customer feedback. Organizations can also expect a much higher response rate via SMS compared to other channels. Thanks to ease of response and high open rates, people are more than four times more likely to reply to SMS messages compared to email.
In fact, 45% of text message users have already interacted with businesses and organizations for surveys or polls. These numbers are continuing to grow as more businesses and organizations start texting with customers.
As more consumers expect to use SMS for customer support, it’s an ideal time to introduce an SMS platform to your organization. Learn more about Comm100 Outreach below.
Deliver bulk and personalized SMS messages to your customers, and engage in personal, two-way SMS conversations – all from one unified platform.
Find out more
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