In a world where everyone likes everything at their fingertips, text message marketing is the new rage when it comes to connecting with your customers in real-time. From convenient ways to chat back and forth about in-the-moment questions to easy access to secure documents and new products, the options are abundant when it comes to text message marketing. As we dive headfirst into 2021, text message marketing is less about robotic automated messages that get sent to customers throughout the day, and more about creating viable connections between your business and customers (both active and potential) through direct text messages with knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives. It’s time to avoid the long wait and elevator music that can come with customer service phone calls and the implementation of convenience and care at your customer’s fingertips.
Here are our top 5 reasons why you should integrate text message marketing into your overall marketing strategy today.
The immediacy and response time are unparalleled.
Whether you’ve waited online to speak to the next available customer service representative in the chat queue or spent hours as number 12 in line on a phone line, wait time can feel so heavy. It is a burden for those who need immediate attention or don’t have the extra time to wait on hold for their thoughts and questions to be taken by your customer service team. No matter the amount of time you spend on building a team that excites, engages and cares for your customers, time plays a critical role in a customer’s overall experience and opinion of your organization.
Calls are becoming a thing of the past for many, especially those in the newer generations, so having the availability of text message service to ask questions, provide feedback or get support is critical to those who believe that customer service and immediacy go hand in hand. When a customer can openly text your business they feel more at ease knowing that they will receive a faster response without having to be put into a queue. Sure, texting can take a minute or two, but it is nowhere near the time that calls or chats take up. One of the top priorities for many, no matter the industry, is timely handling of their situation, whether it be an issue or praise. If you’re looking for a way to boost your customer service experience for your business, text messaging is the way to consumers’ hearts.
Real-time access to non-bot customer service representatives provides instant relief.
As with the precious nature of time, human to human messaging is extremely important to customers, too. There may be nothing more dreading than hopping on a customer service line and talking to a robot, especially when said robot doesn’t understand your request or asks you to repeat your response more than once. Real-time engagement is a huge deal and can typically solve problems faster than an automated line with various options can.
Another useful way to help your customers is to provide appointment reminders or product launch messages via text. This alleviates them having to search or remember when upcoming events are on the horizon, instead, you act as their own personal assistant, providing them with the date and time of their next connection with you.
If you’re looking for an instant leg up in your industry, open up your lines of communication to customers by having customer service representatives easily available via text message throughout the entirety of your open business hours. Your customers will feel relieved and secure knowing they can jump into a human conversation any time you’re open.
Easy access to secure documents and payment portals increase ease of use.
What’s more convenient than accessing your documents on your phone any time day or night? Not much at all. Providing an outlet for customers to request any documents they need, from receipts to new order forms, securely boosts your overall engagement numbers almost instantly. As part of your text message marketing plan, make sure that security is at the top of your list as far as features go. The added option to access documents can be a real win for you and your customers and lessen overall back and forth correspondence, putting the power in their hands for their specific needs.
Feedback is more in-the-moment and can help lead to fast improvements.
The best feedback is from a fresh mind. If customers feel like they need to jump through hoops to provide sound feedback, good or bad, about products or services, they often just opt out of saying anything. This can hinder your overall key performance indicators and skew your view of what’s working and what’s not. By sending customers surveys via text message they can instantly click on the survey and access it via their phone without much time or issue. This will generally provide more responses being received and give you more sound feedback about a current visit to your location. Customers provide the best feedback right after they’ve visited your store (or site) so make sure to send these relatively soon after they exit. Allow them the option to text with a live customer service representative should they have any immediate questions or concerns to discuss.
An opportunity to upsell is always open via text messaging.
Text message marketing, if done tactfully, can provide some wonderful opportunities to upsell to brand loyalists. Selling via text is one of the most natural and casual ways to tell customers about new products or services you have to offer, especially after they’ve already bought into some of what you have. In situations where it makes sense, you can easily offer customers additions to their existing order or suggest new products that are fit for their needs. You can quickly grow brand loyalty by staying connected to customers and join in on their own buying experience.
Text messaging is the new normal when it comes to day-to-day communications. Customers build brand loyalty through their trust in your communication systems and how quickly your business can address and solve their problems or share their praise. As you begin to build out your marketing strategy for 2021 and beyond, consider incorporating text message marketing as one of your main methods to communicate directly with your customers, through highs and lows. Moving with the times sometimes requires changing up old methods and replacing them with a fresh perspective from a customer-minded standpoint. Text messaging marketing will improve your customers’ experience and expand your brand footprint if implemented correctly.
