President at Sinch, the global leader in cloud communications.
The past few years have been a rollercoaster for businesses. From supply chain issues and inflation, to staff shortages and the impacts of a pandemic and global conflict, business owners have had their resilience tested like never before. Now, every investment they make must be done with the bottom line in mind. There’s no sense in nice-to-haves if they’re not driving any tangible, positive impact—especially if you’re running a small to medium-sized business.
Amid the height of the pandemic, digital customer experience (CX) became paramount for businesses of all sizes—and it remains so. That said, not all digital investments are equal, or deliver the same ROI for today’s companies. Investing in building a branded app, for example, may be advantageous for large companies, but smaller businesses often don’t have the development teams (nor the resources) for that to be realistic.
However, as the president of a company that helps with customer communications, I’ve noticed one of the most ubiquitous digital channels has potential for businesses of all sizes: SMS.
The Benefits Of SMS
The SMS inbox is impressively active. According to Gartner’s data from 2016, SMS has a 98% open rate. It’s designed for 1:1, real-time engagement, and while it started as a way of communicating with peers, now consumers are truly eager to interact with businesses via SMS. SMS has a 16% average ROI.
The immediacy of SMS is one of its greatest strengths. Just think about how convenient it is to quickly digest a short text message from a brand and click through to enjoy a personalized offer. One-way SMS is a natural first step for businesses to connect with customers on a channel they’re checking almost immediately, but I think two-way SMS conversations are the magic opportunity for boosting customer experience.
One-Way Vs. Two-Way
Inviting customers into a conversation is often more welcomed than the traditional one-way “blasts,” which are impersonal and don’t give customers any say into the content they want to receive. Plus, it feels more natural to respond to business messages over SMS—much like you’d respond to texts from your friends—and there’s customer demand for it: My company’s research found that 89% of customers want two-way conversations via messaging channels and apps.
Many customers want to text back because it’s easier for them to manage text messages than phone calls amid their busy lives. And two-way SMS gives power back to your customer: They can respond to your inbound messages and expect to hear back within that same channel. Letting customers get a word in or ask questions not only helps you learn about them but makes them feel listened to and valued.
Determining When Two-Way Messaging Is Best
There are quite a few use cases that benefit from two-way engagements.
1. Appointment Confirmations
Perhaps you’re a service provider looking to remind a customer of an upcoming appointment. You could send a one-way text with a link for the customer to confirm their appointment on their browser. But that extra step forcing them outside of the SMS inbox could mean they forget to click confirm.
By contrast, sending an appointment reminder via two-way SMS lets them simply respond directly in the SMS inbox. Removing friction is a win-win for you both and gives your team peace of mind that their next appointment won’t be a no-show.
2. Promotional Offers
Sending promotional offers to customers via two-way SMS can also enhance that 1:1 customer experience. Instead of merely blasting your SMS list with the same generic offer message and a link to register for sale reminders, try wording your initial message to encourage a customer’s response. For example, “Sale coming up…you in?” is inviting and intriguing and will give you a better sense of what kind of results to expect from your promotion.
3. Customer Support
Finally, two-way SMS is a powerful solution for simple customer support queries. Customer call centers are costly to run, so anything that cuts queues and service time helps. If a customer has a question, they can reach out to your dedicated SMS number, confident in a timely response from your team. It’s a quick and easy way to answer questions, so that customer support teams can focus on more difficult queries.
Getting Started With Two-Way SMS
Whether your business already has a messaging provider in place, or you’ve been handling customer communications in an ad hoc manner, one of the greatest barriers to achieving meaningful two-way messaging is scaling your communications—especially if you have a smaller team. Opening up your messaging channels for customers to respond is great, but if they’re not hearing back from you then you’re sacrificing customer relationships.
For businesses with a more localized and smaller customer base, tapping one of your team members to respond to inbounds will likely suffice. If your customers are more spread out (and across time zones), it may be worth setting up automated responses. Since 72% of customers expect immediate responsiveness from brands, automation is a great way of ensuring customers who message outside of your business hours still feel heard and valued until you’re back online.
It can also be challenging if your messaging solution doesn’t integrate with all of your marketing or CRM tools—making automated campaigns or contact sharing a headache. With relatively new technology like this, it’s not uncommon for some solutions to be slower to integrate than others. If you’re shopping around for a messaging solution and have a strong allegiance to your existing tools, make sure to ask whether prospective messaging vendors offer integrations with what you’re already using.
In the shift from face-to-face to digital CX, what’s often lost is the 1:1 interaction that your customers have grown to love. Two-way SMS is a straightforward—and cost-effective—way of strengthening your CX and bottom line while also catering to your customers’ digital preferences. It’s a two-way street.
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