Remembering to send out text messages to your audience can be a major mental burden. It's more than likely that if you don't have an automated text message service in place, your employees are wasting their energy and efforts to send out various business text communications one-by-one.
This method won't bring your company as much success as it could. Engagement is time-sensitive business and it's difficult to get customers to interact as it is. Continuing to use manual communication can only limit you further by restricting your interaction to working hours. When the right message gets sent at the wrong time, lead conversion only gets harder.
Automated Text Message Tools Do It All For You
Text automation methods give you the ability to contact customers automatically whilst reducing the risk of human error that cause issues with accuracy and consistency. You can send text messages to customers at any moment with numerous time-based options available; from 24 hours before a scheduled appointment, to 5 minutes following a transaction. With the right tools, each SMS message can be personalized.
For example, if a customer orders an item on your website, five minutes later, they will receive a pre-written message thanking them for their purchase, whilst also including unique information such as their name, product and order number. Despite the fact this is an automated message, it still provides a level of human touch and individuality that demonstrates how your business values their customers.
The concept of paying for automated texting can deter companies from benefiting from these services, however it's a lot more affordable than you may expect. Not only is SMS automation incredibly cost-effective, but it's a long-term systematic solution that you can truly rely on. Think of it as hiring an employee that's remarkably efficient, entirely dependable and works around the clock.
By taking this draining task off of your employees' hands and passing it over to a system, it's the perfect way to make the most of their time with little to no disturbance in the process. This labor-saving method will do all of the heavy lifting so that your employees can focus their time and resources elsewhere, ensuring your company doesn't unnecessarily miss out on revenue.
How Does Automated Text Messaging Help My Business?
It's a great tool for customer service; automated SMS doubles up as a way to manage your company's reputation. Prompt texting shows that you're an active business with fast responses and great communication, which in turn, improves the customer experience.
Here are a few uses for automated text that can benefit your business:
- Product delivery notifications
- Customer feedback and review requests
- Personalized SMS marketing
- Recovering non-purchased carts
- Contacting customers after working hours
- Bulk SMS/Mass text
There are many ways you can convert leads with text message automation. Customer follow-up methods, as listed above, keep consumers in touch. A simple message suggesting to take a look at the unpurchased items in their cart, or offering a personal discount code can convert them from a potential buyer to an active consumer. As a personalized and direct way of communicating with your audience, you begin to build stronger relationships.
But, automated text messages aren't just for marketing methods. Businesses can utilize this service to communicate with various stakeholders, such as clients, employees and patrons. You can create a set schedule to send reminders automatically for meetings and appointments, keeping everyone notified at the optimum time and reducing common instances of no-shows. It's a fantastic way to keep business running smoothly.
Ways that you can use automation to communicate internally within your organization include:
- Notifying individual teams of work-specific situations (e.g. client cancelations)
- Sending a reminder for high-priority team meetings
- Informing staff of shift patterns for 0-hour contracts
- Alerting staff of security issues
Communicating via SMS with employees can also help overall efficiency in your organization. With ever-changing workloads and a constant flow of emails, effectively communicating with employees is a difficult problem to tackle. But with text message solutions, employees just need to check their phone, ensuring staff remain informed on a company-wide scale.
Text Messaging Gets Results
Following the growth of business text communication, statistics have shown positive feedback from consumers. According to G2, 83% of customers would like to receive appointment reminders via text message, and 85% of consumers prefer to receive a text over an email or phone call. The truth is, people prefer SMS messaging because it's convenient and easy to monitor.
SMS automation streamlines the process of mass texting for SMS marketing and saves time for everyone involved. It utilizes one of the most reliable and cost effective channels of communication and, with high levels of interaction, there's no better way to reach out to your audience.
Automation Methods
There are various triggers available to send out automatic text messages. Here are some of the different ways in which a bulk text can be scheduled ahead of time:
Contact-based – When new consumers subscribe their phone numbers to your contact list, you can trigger messages to be sent to them upon joining or any other time. Make the most of your text message marketing campaign by utilizing the contacts available — but keep it appealing.
Time-based – Texts can be sent through regular intervals. This can be used to create reminders for important monthly meetings where all team members must attend. The text can help jog their memory and make sure they don't miss any important details.
Inbound – Set pre-written texts to be sent out once a message has been received. This is beneficial for when a consumer gets in touch for customer support. Shortly after their inbound text, you can let them know their message has been received and is getting looked into. To provide a formatted example:
'Thank you for reaching out! Our team has received your message and we're on it. We will be back with an answer shortly.'
Not all SMS providers allow you to receive inbound communication, despite it being a great factor in retaining customers. With Swift SMS Gateway, our SMS API service includes inbound messaging on all of our plans, so that your customers feel supported.
Set Up and Reap the Benefits
An automated text messaging service isn't just a great way to convert leads, but it also functions as an exceptional tool for business organization and effective communication. Keep your business on top of the game and send the right message.
At Swift SMS Gateway, we offer a range of text-based solutions for your company. You can get in touch with us where we can discuss how to make the most out of your business communication. Start a free demo with us today!
