SMS business text messaging was a little slower to catch on than texting for personal use. Fortunately for businesses, technology has advanced to a degree that SMS text messaging for business is now a valuable tool. In fact, various departments within your business have opportunities to leverage text messaging to streamline their operations and make progress toward their goals.
Best practices for the rules and etiquette of business text messaging are starting to evolve, however, so it’s important for business owners to get acquainted with them before implementing their own text messaging campaigns. The right business SMS text messaging provider will guide you on how to use business texting to enhance the customer experience and grow revenue for your company, while also creating more versatile teams.
Before you chose the best provider to work with, here’s a guide that covers everything you need to know about using SMS business text messaging in your company.
The technical term for texting is SMS, which is an acronym for Short Messaging Service. In simple terms, it’s the part of most telephone, internet, and mobile app systems that lets you shoot off a quick text to someone. Behind the scenes, the technology that powers SMS text messaging uses standardized communication protocols that allow for messages to be sent and received between devices.
Another term that’s often connected with SMS services is MMS, which is an acronym for Multimedia Messaging Service. MMS is similar to SMS, in that it powers messages between devices. The difference is that MMS messages go a bit beyond text messaging, with the ability to transfer images, videos, and audio messages as well.
How is business text messaging different from personal text messaging? The answer lies in having greater capability to manage large quantities of text messages.
Just imagine waking up in the morning and getting notified that your large or small business has hundreds or thousands of text messages to answer. It would take hours for a representative to manually reply to that many responses, maybe even all day. An SMS text messaging service solves that problem.
With advances in digitalization, businesses can now use cloud calling software, CRM platforms, and digital business tools to send and receive incoming messages between cloud phone numbers and customers’ iOS or Android mobile devices. What’s more, businesses can send automated text messages in large volumes and still manage them effectively.
Successful businesses focus on improving the customer experience to drive better sales performance, customer satisfaction, and retention rates. By giving your customers opportunities to get a text from your company or send one in return, it makes their lives a little easier, and therefore helps contribute to a better overall customer experience.
Texting also gives them an additional channel to connect with your brand, and it tells them you’re committed to being available for them when and where they need you.
Here are a few more reasons why mass text messaging is useful for modern businesses:
Taking photos and text messaging are the most popular non-voice features of mobile devices. The majority of adults send text messages at least occasionally, and these numbers have been growing. Would you believe that people send anywhere from 10 to 40 text messages on average every day?
Here are some ways that using SMS business text messaging can help you engage with your customers on a channel they’re already actively using:
Your customers like the convenience of being able to connect with someone from your business quickly. But, let’s face it: customers get annoyed and frustrated with the amount of time that it takes to place a phone call, wait on hold, and explain their issue, when they just need a quick minute of your time.
On the other hand, if a representative from your business needs to reach out to a customer, text messaging can be a less intrusive option than calling. Customers get frustrated when they receive calls from companies at inconvenient times, but when you reach out to a customer via text, they know you’re there, and they can respond when it’s convenient for them to do so.
To be competitive with other companies, you have to use multiple channels to keep your customers engaged. As your customer base grows, it’s challenging to keep up with communications and keep your messaging relevant.
Business text messaging provides a way to keep your brand front-of-mind for your customers and ensures that you have a strong voice in the marketplace. It takes time for customers to build trust in a company, so relationship building is a high priority. Text messages are an effective way to grow relationships with your customers, because they allow you to connect with your customers anywhere, even when they’re on the go.
One of the great things about business text messaging is that it makes it easy to automate communications, even on a large scale.
Short, concise messages can be an effective part of your overall communication strategy, especially if your customers aren’t responding to phone calls or emails. Marketing messages often need to be sent a few times before customers pay attention to them. However, too many phone calls or emails are intrusive. On the other hand, text messages don’t take up much of anyone’s time, so customers are less likely to be frustrated by a well-spaced series of text messages.
With the right cloud calling software, you can send out text messages to entire customer lists, making the job of SMS marketing a snap. If you’re having a time-limited sale, text messaging using autoresponders is a speedy way to get the word out to the masses and send them countdown reminders so they don’t miss out on a deal.
SMS messages work well for sales promotions, but there’s so much more you can do with them. Have you considered the benefits of using texts for other departments in your business?
Here’s a breakdown of how to leverage business text messaging in a variety of ways for various teams and departments in your business:
You probably can’t count the number of times that you received a text from a friend and thought, “Wait…what?!?” It’s easy enough to hit the wrong key or let autocorrect get the better of you when you’re sending off a text. Good friends will understand and forgive your mistakes – they might even have a good laugh over them.
Customers that receive your business texts won’t find them as humorous, and they’re not likely to forget them, either. In fact, a bad text could easily go viral as a blooper and damage your reputation. It’s not professional by any standard.
Timing is another thing that gets companies into trouble with business texts. Promotions that are sent out at the wrong time or at inconvenient times will likely turn your customers off.
Make sure you’re aware of what to do and not to do to prevent problems with business text messaging. This list should help you out.
Choosing the right business text provider is essential for long-term success. However, more and more SMS text messaging platforms are entering the marketplace, so how do you choose the right one?
Think about these 8 areas when evaluating SMS business text messaging providers. Make sure you’re choosing the right one for your needs:
A cloud-based phone system brings the power of business text messaging marketing into your call center.
Text messaging using your cloud phone system is as easy as making or receiving a call. VoIP technology meshes nicely with mobile phone technology, giving you the benefit of sending text messages between parties from your existing digital systems.
This is because a cloud-based phone system uses an open API technology that brings all your software applications into one convenient, central location.
Here are a few SMS service providers to check out if you want to integrate business text messaging with your cloud calling software:
Here are some more advantages of using a cloud-based phone system for business text messaging:
With competition as fierce as it is, your sales and support teams need to be as agile and versatile as they can be. Business text messaging gives them one more tool in their tool belt to help them improve the customer experience.
With Aircall, you get the benefit of a robust set of voice calling features and the ability to connect with your customers on their most preferred channel – via text.
