Two-Way SMS: How To Build Better Customer Relationships

Today, customers now expect more from the brands they love and tend to pay more attention to brands that respond to their needs and address their pain points quickly and effectively.

To make sure you meet these high standards, you must have the capability to have a conversation with your customers, wherever they are. Anything less, and you risk losing business to your competition.

With two-way SMS you can solve this problem and always be at the forefront of your customer’s shopping experience.

What Is A Two-Way SMS?

Two-way SMS refers to the process where a conversation is taking place between a brand and its customers.

Two-way SMS uses the most affordable and flexible channel for dialogue and it amplifies the purpose of text messaging by giving your business a channel to converse with your customers.

How Can Two-Way SMS Improve Your Communications?

The benefits of two-way messages far outweigh the cons. With two-way messaging, your conversations become truly interactive and you can engage customers in back-and-forth dialogue using keywords, and natural-language conversation.

Similar to chat windows or instant messaging apps, two-way SMS lets you and your customers constantly exchange roles thereby creating an unforgettable experience with your brand.

What Are The Benefits Of Using 2-Way SMS?

• Trust and Transparency: With two-way SMS, your prospective and existing customers know that your business is fine with feedback and issues can be resolved in minutes. When Apple failed to explain why older iPhones were slowing down even though they had good intentions, it received a lot of backlash for not coming out clean to its cult-like customers.
• Makes your brand seem more human: Brand empathy is a quality that a lot of customers expect from you. When customers think of your brand, they do not want to imagine a robot behind the wheel and a lot of companies are catching up to this trend now. Tesla’s CEO is one of the world’s most exciting entrepreneurs and their customers buy into his ideas because he represents the brand so well.
• Improved sales: When you integrate two-way SMS into your business, customer feedback begins to help with changes to your products and services. Once your customers have an opinion and it is taken seriously it translates to revenue.
• Immediate delivery: SMS texts deliver within seconds and this means your business can send time-sensitive messages quickly. Your customers can arrive at a decision quickly due to the speed of SMS.
• Automation: two-way SMS saves time and resources by having preloaded automated and dynamic responses that are based on predefined keywords that recognize your customers’ preferences.
• Low cost, high conversion: two-way SMS conversion rates are quite high due to messages being short and clear. With 2-way bulk SMS testing beforehand, your SMS campaigns can have lower running costs when compared to other channels for marketing.

5 Ways 2-Way Texting Can Improve Communication With Your Customers

With everyone glued to their mobile devices these days, customers are expecting two-way communication as the bare minimum from businesses they patronize, and as a business, you do not want to be left behind. Here are 5 ways to improve customer communication with two-way messaging:

1. Sales Engagement

With two-way SMS, you can build strong customer relationships during the sales process and follow it up with ongoing and helpful sales support.

2. Customer Support

Your customers will be able to get answers to questions and resolve issues quickly. Your customer support would also be getting continuous feedback from the chat history of customers reaching out to you. You will be able to see the product/service lifecycle from the point of view of the customer.

3. Appointment Setting And Confirmation

Set appointments, send confirmation texts, and have your customers respond to the same text to confirm their availability and remove the issue of “no-show” from your processes.

4. Deliveries

Put your customers’ minds at rest by keeping them in the loop regarding their orders and scheduled delivery times. You can also communicate delays empathetically and as long as you give a timeline, your customers will continue to trust you.

5. Feedback

You can request feedback interactively from your customers using two-way SMS. Getting them to fill out surveys and service ratings is easier with two-way SMS as you can immediately address any issues they face.

Wrapping up

Communication with your customers is invaluable and you can take advantage of BSG’s full suite of communication tools that help you connect with your customers today.

Read Also:

• Improve Your Company’s Customer Service With These 6 Ideas
• The Personal Touch – Keeping Customers Happy With Your Business
• 5 Reasons Why Companies Are Always Careful With The Use Of Customer Data
• What Is Customer Engagement And How Does It Differ From Customer Satisfaction?