CSAT scores are great measures of how delighted a customer is after a single experience with your company. Measuring customer satisfaction is a must for most industries.

The first place our customers use text messaging is in sending satisfaction surveys. When they’re measuring customer-service interactions or conversations, our customers tend to send out surveys by text immediately after the interaction. With products like furniture, they may wait several weeks to give the customer time to enjoy the new additions before sending a satisfaction survey.

The surveys often consist of only one question or just a few carefully chosen questions. If our customer needs responses to a longer survey, they can link the text message to an online survey form. And with text, the response rate goes up almost immediately.

The greatest benefit to sending any survey by text is that your customers will read it and respond. We know that globally we send 5 billion texts a day, and we open 98 percent of them. Conversely, we only open emails 22 percent of the time, according to Gigaom. Research from Asurion shows that we look at our phones 96 times a day or once every 10 minutes.

If you want to know what your customers are thinking, ask them via texts. You can use text-only SMS messages or multi-media MMS messages. Visit our recent blog to determine which is best for your use.

In addition to sending surveys via text messaging, you can improve your customer experience with text messaging. Here’s an insider secret from one of our customers – consider using the SMS-Magic Mobile App.

One of our customers is a property management company, and needed a way for tenants to reach property managers during an emergency. The PMs weren’t always at their desks waiting for the calls to come in, and tenants were frustrated by what they perceived was a lack of concern.

Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Often during working hours, the property managers were out visiting properties. After hours, they weren’t in the office, but relied on a dedicated phone line to handle emergencies. The only problem was that tenants texted the company instead of calling, and no one responded to them. The system wasn’t set up to respond to texts.

So, the company deployed the SMS-Magic Mobile App. A tenant could text the company about emergencies, and the PM on call could field the text on a personal mobile phone. The text would even be recorded in the company’s CRM as if it had come through the desktop computer in the office. You can imagine how much happier the tenants are – their emergencies are getting prompt attention. And how much happier staff members are because they can handle emergencies away from their desks.

Another of our customers is a disrupter in the world of travel accommodations. The company works with condominium and apartment developers to identify properties that are empty during the construction phase in major U.S. cities. They design high-end interiors, stage the empty condos and apartments with furniture and accessories, and rent them to travelers looking for luxury accommodations in highly desirable neighborhoods, mostly in downtown areas.

SMS-Magic helps the company’s customer service reps easily reach out to the right people to resolve issues. For example, if a guest is arriving late and has a question about checking in — they can call, email, or text customer support. The inquiry is logged in the support center and any customer service rep who checks that guest record later can see the complete interaction. It makes solving guest issues easier, especially when handing off open cases during shift changes.

Connecting a guest and a customer service rep via text is an important functionality needed to resolve issues. Text is also likely to be a guest’s preferred method of interaction since messaging is the fastest growing conversational medium on the planet.

We can help you set up automated responses to incoming texts. With an automated system in place, your customers will have an immediate response that often can provide the information they need. You have the option to switch to live responses when you need to.

We’ve also thought about the customers who use more than the native SMS capability in their phones. You can receive, track and respond to multichannel queries such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, text and MMS.

Security is always top of mind for us. With all our products, we ensure data privacy and regulatory compliance while you’re using text messaging to manage your customers’ issues.

It’s a competitive world and if you’re able to respond to your customers faster than your competition, you have earned an amazing competitive advantage. Your customers may not expect much from customer service, but you can earn new customers, while keeping your existing customers, by delighting them every time they contact you. Quick responses to their emergencies or inquiries can help you develop the positive customer relationships that drive your business.

We’d like to help you wow your customers with outstanding customer service. Contact us for more information about the SMS-Magic family of products. We have a solution that’s right for you!

“While good customer service is desired in any circumstance, during a disruption it becomes paramount,” said business applications and outsourcing company CGS CEO Phil Friedman. “Good service isn’t just good for the consumer, it’s beneficial to the brand in the long term. Findings also confirm the need for personalization while balancing consumers’ data privacy.”

Today, your business is likely unable to create memorable in-person experiences. Retail and brick-and-mortar shops have been forced to close or pause operations. Virtual experiences are now your best, and likely only way, to try and stand out.

It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of uncertainty. But if you can maintain great customer service and trust amidst cancellations, refunds, and changes, customers will remember those good experiences and it will benefit your business long-term. How your business responds during a crisis will make or break your reputation and customer relationships.

How SMS Boosts Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction Virtually

1. Personalization

Customers want to be understood and appreciated by companies they give their business to. Today, customers are being more selective with their purchases while simultaneously having higher expectations for customer service. In fact, research shows 59% of customers say that they have higher expectations for customer support than they had a year ago.

SMS gives you the opportunity to create personalized support experiences for your customers, virtually. You can create these experiences by providing them with specific content that resonates with them personally. This could be helpful content related to their specific problems or needs or personalized follow-up messages to make sure their issues have been resolved.

2. Conversational history

No one wants to have to repeat themselves multiple times when describing a problem they’ve encountered with your company. Conversational history solves this problem by archiving every message exchanged with a customer so they’ll never have to re-explain their issue. Even if a new agent steps into the conversation, they’ll be up to speed in seconds by glancing through the conversational history with a customer. This eliminates frustration on both ends and creates a smooth, happy experience.

3. Trust through compliance

Customers want to know that their data is safe and protected, especially with everything moving to virtual interactions. People feel more vulnerable sharing information over a computer or via text. You are on the hook for following compliance rules and regulations, which at first can seem overwhelming. There is a lot to learn and follow when it comes to compliance. But, by partnering with a solution provider that ensures compliance, you won’t have to worry and you can let customers know they can trust that their information is safe. By providing that trust you’ll retain loyal customers that will last for years.

The Bottom Line

Customer satisfaction can make or break a company’s reputation and bottom line, especially when tensions are heightened during a crisis. With SMS you can connect virtually with customers and create personalized, reliable support that will lead to better customer satisfaction and increased loyalty. Your audience will remember the experiences they had with your business during this time, making an impact to your company both in the short and long term.

Want to see how SMS-Magic Converse helps clients achieve all of this with text messaging? Reach out and we’d be happy to give you a personal tour and share examples from our clients!

Customers want to be heard. But they also want to experience an engagement model tuned to their needs. Text messaging platforms are built to support the modern customer who is mobile and impatient. Messaging allows them to converse from wherever and whenever they choose to engage. Messaging is also a medium they are familiar with, so it’s comfortable and satisfies their need for immediate engagement.

Deloitte predicts that phone calls for customer service will likely fall from today’s 64% of contacts to 47% in 2019. Meanwhile, chat and messaging is expected to grow from 6% to 16%, ahead of both video chat and social media. With less than half of service interactions relying upon phone as the preferred channel for customer service in 2019, it’s time to adapt to what your customers want.

After all, customer experience drives customer choice. Contact center respondents to Deloitte’s survey agree, saying customer experience is predominantly influenced by providing accurate service and information (66%) and by making interactions effortless (62%).

Customer Experience Drives Customer Choice

Conversations with customers are markedly better when the engagement is enhanced by context. One of the things customers dislike most is having to repeat themselves and feeling like an anonymous account to the companies they contact for support. They may remember the experience, but are they remembering for the right reasons?

Converse is the text messaging platform that puts conversations in context. Each conversation is recorded in the customer’s record in your CRM so that customer service agents can quickly access the right conversation and step seamlessly into the conversation as needed—and whether synchronous or asynchronous, over time.

It’s important to remember that customer experience is the customer’s perception based on the outcome of each interaction, conversation, or engagement with your company’s people, products or services. And customers are clearly voting for the ease of a conversation, just not as often over the phone. That’s where conversational messaging comes in. Messaging and chat are replacing phone calls.

Your customers want accurate information via efficient and easy service interactions. Their preferred methods of engagement with family and friends, as well as how and where they shop are habits that work for their lifestyles. Text messaging is fast, efficient and easy. It’s comfortable and allows them to communicate with businesses from wherever they are and whenever the need arises.

In fact, research by NewVoiceMedia found that only 27% of survey respondents said calls are the most effective way to resolve an issue. When the experience—as defined by the customer—is inconvenient or inadequate, they are likely to jump ship. And defection is on the rise with consumers who reported leaving a business due to inadequate customer service jumping from 29% in 2016 to 67% in 2018. That’s $75B in economic value that walked in just the United States.

Move from Cases to Conversations with SMS Tool for Call Centers

Keeping pace with customer expectations means that companies need to consider how they show up in their customers’ lives in a way that provides mutual value. When you think about a “case” – it’s most likely to be a series of disconnected actions by the company and the customer. At least, that’s how customers have reported they feel when interacting with traditional customer service channels.

Yet, when you think about text messaging as a conversation, what you have is a connected set of “turns” or engagement and responses in relation to a customer’s inquiry and resolution of their issue. The beauty of it is that conversational messaging can be synchronous or asynchronous, but it will still be contained in the context of one conversation—easy for both your customer and your agent to follow and continue—without need for repetition.

Part of the resistance by contact centers to conversational messaging is the investment of time that increases costs to serve. The contact center has long been considered an obligation and a cost, rather than a top-line contributor, a focus on reducing costs via reducing average handle time (AHT) has had an adverse impact on customer satisfaction and lifetime value.

However, as first call resolution (FCR) takes precedence—given customers’ demands for accurate, fast and easy service experiences—this is the optimal time to consider adding messaging to your service channels. And the cost trade off will not be as high as you may have estimated.

One of the benefits of using a SMS tool for call centers is that an agent can handle six messaging conversations to one phone call. A combination of automated and human-driven messages can keep the all the conversation moving forward, allowing the agent to spend time in the conversation where she or he is most needed.

In comparison to chat bots that are mostly used for simple inquiries, using messaging that combines automated and human interactions can allow them to tackle more complex cases without needing to ask the customer to change channels. Creating continuous, connected conversations helps customers reach successful outcomes in the use of your products, on an emotional level and in brand affinity.

As to why they prefer texting as a communication channel for business, the top two reasons were convenience and speed of response. Easy to do on a mobile device, they’re familiar with it, and not having to speak to a person directly rounded out the list.

Your customers are your most important asset. If they want texting for customer service, make sure your contact center gives them the option to have it their way. The best part is that texting is not just a benefit for them. An advanced text messaging platform also brings value to your company.

You might also like to know that a recent survey found that 66% of consumers said they’d be willing to pay more for a product or service if it’s supported with a mobile messaging channel.

5 Ways A SMS Tool for Call Centers Improves Customer Service

1. Text messaging ramps up productivity

Messaging enables your agents to handle multiple customer requests simultaneously, increasing their productivity. Serving multiple customers concurrently increases efficiency and responsiveness to customer issues, improving satisfaction and retention or renewal rates. With the ability to see the entire messaging history with a customer, your agents will always have the right context to be relevant and avoid asking them redundant questions. Think of how much your customers’ experience will improve.

2. Texting doesn’t need internet

Your customer and your agent can carry on a conversation over text even in areas where internet service is spotty. This is especially useful if you are in an industry like transportation or agriculture and have customers in remote or rural areas you need to advise a customer about the status of a service appointment.

3. Texting integrates with CRMs

You likely rely on your CRM to keep track of your service interactions with your customers. An advanced SMS tool for call centers with native integration to your CRM makes it easy for your agents to access and quickly remember conversations held with different customers. With text messaging, your customer also has a record of the interaction for easy reference.

This conversational history eliminates the need for a customer to repeat their issue if they interact with various agents if several interactions are required for issue resolution.

4. Messaging automation increases efficiency for agents and satisfaction for customers

You can combine the simplicity of SMS messaging with the sophistication of automation. By sending an automated acknowledgement when a customer texts in an issue, you reassure her that you’re on the job. Once a service interaction has finished, confirm it with an automated text so that you end your exchange on a positive note. Then trigger a survey to gather feedback for continuous improvement. Setting up triggers for automated messages based on case status is simple with an advanced messaging platform.

5. Texting encourages customers to self-service

Gartner has predicted that by 2020, customers will be managing 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human. You can give customers an option to access FAQs by text or walk them through setting up a product via text, by sending them the information they need to enter or using an MMS message to send a video instruction.

Companies have seen reduced call volumes of up to 15% after they implement texting for customer service. Serving customers faster and better is within reach when you choose to offer texting for customer service. Your customers will thank you.

In Summary

Customers prefer short, interactive, and mobile-friendly communications. Texting fits the bill. It’s quick, intuitive, and is their preferred channel for customer-to-business communication. Messaging also makes sense for your business, as it boosts your agents’ productivity and reduces their workload through self-service and lower call volumes.

Given the fickleness of consumers and the low cost of switching brands, companies large and small can take advantage of SMS messaging to grow their business.

3 Reasons Your Customers Will Thank You

1. They’ll think you “get” them.

Customers want to be understood and appreciated by the companies they choose to do business with. They hate waiting and they don’t want to have to explain themselves again and again as they move from one agent to another to resolve an issue.

Automated messaging flows can be set up to answer FAQs instantly in response to a customer texting a keyword to trigger the answer. A standard HELP keyword can be routed to the next open agent to respond directly to the customer via text while an automated response is asking for the customer to explain their issue. Your agent steps in seamlessly and your customer is overjoyed at your in-the-moment responsiveness.

Advanced messaging platforms also help you meet these needs by archiving every message exchanged with a customer so that they’ll never have to explain their issue again. Even if a different agent must step in, they’ll be up to speed in seconds by glancing through the conversational history with the customer.

2. Messaging gives your customers more control than online chat, phone or email.

Online chat has taken off for customer service, but there’s a problem. Once the chat is over, so is your customer’s access to the information shared. When you use messaging, the customer has a record of your exchange in the messaging app on their phone. This way, if the agent has shared any links or instructions, the customer can refer back to them as needed. They can also choose when to delete the message thread, putting them in control of their issue resolution.

If they find they need additional help, they can send another text and it will be archived in the same conversational thread, making it convenient to see all the information in one place—for your agents and for them. If they returned to an online chat, it would start a new session which may or may not be connected to any past inquiries about the issue that needs to be resolved.

3. Communication is foundational for customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Keeping your customers informed about the status of their resolution of a complex issue is of the utmost importance in keeping frustration at bay. Text messages can be automated to send a status update that lets them know where the issue is in the resolution. If your company needs to send out a service technician, a message can be sent informing your customer the name of the technician and what time he or she will arrive. Yes, SMS messages could put an end to the dreaded 4-hour service window.

Messaging also offers an easy way for you to get additional information needed to resolve a customer’s issue. Simply text the question and you should receive a reply within minutes due to the responsiveness to messaging by consumers. This results in customers knowing that you’re actively working on their issue, as well as shorter time to resolution—and that means happier customers.

SMS for Customer Service is Smart Business

SMS texting hasn’t become the most used function on a mobile phone because it’s difficult. It’s native to mobile phones and always within arm’s reach. It’s concise and immediate and many of your customers grew up using it to communicate with friends and family. They’re now telling companies that it’s their preferred communication with brands, as well.

As with any channel, there are best-use applications for it and times when an alternative channel is better suited to serve your customers. If you’re unsure if texting is a preferred channel for your customers, have your agents start asking them if they’d be open to using SMS for customer service. Giving customers what they want is definitely smart business.

The 2018 Mobile Loyalty Survey discovered that consumer frustrations include:

• My rewards expired before I could use them (31%)
• Don’t know when I have rewards available (23%)
• Carrying the card (14% – execs were right about this one)
• It’s hard to access my rewards information (13%)

Loyalty programs appear to be out of sight, therefore out of mind for many consumers. The effort they must expend to use loyalty programs is just too high. Your customers need information and reminders to engage with loyalty programs—and with your brand.

But don’t make them log into a website or download an app. They don’t like those options much either. What they really want is to easily access their rewards from their smartphones. Rather than forcing them to pull their rewards data to them, make them happy by pushing information to them on their mobile devices.

In fact, 75% of consumers said they’d be likely to increase participation in a loyalty program if they could access it easily from their smartphone. The top answer when asked their preferred method for accessing rewards program information is via a link in a text message. That’s 25% higher than those who said through a mobile app.

Their top two communications preferences for loyalty program information are emails and text messages. It’s time to add messaging as a channel to drive participation and engagement for your loyalty programs.

Build Your Contact Strategy with SMS Messages for Loyalty Programs

Given that text messaging is in demand by loyalty program members, it’s time to get started building an effective contact strategy. Follow these steps and you’ll be quickly on your way to better customer engagement.

Identify Customers Who Prefer Text:

When your customers sign up for your loyalty program, offer them a selection of communication channels to choose from. With an intelligent messaging platform, when they check the box for text messaging, their record will be timestamped and updated with their consent, ensuring your contact strategy meets compliance regulations.

You can also email them with an offer to opt-in to text message updates for their loyalty rewards information by texting a keyword to your short code or text-enabled number. Or post a keyword and short code on your loyalty program page to encourage them to pro-actively opt-in for messaging. As when choosing preferences, their record in your CRM will be updated to allow you to text them.

Create Your Message Strategy:

Determine which information should be sent within a text message and when inserting a link to loyalty program information is the better option.

Information within SMS messages could include:

• Welcome text to new loyalty program members
• Monthly notification of their rewards status
• Confirmation as they earn more points or rewards or reach a new tier
• Notice of upcoming reward expiration dates with prompts to use them
• Keyword surveys to gauge affinity toward a specific feature of your program

SMS messages with links could include:

• Notice of their monthly rewards statement with a link to view
• New rewards they may be interested in with a link to more information
  • Note that you could send an MMS with a picture or embedded video
• Updated terms and conditions with a link to the policy web page
• Confirmation of a reward redemption with a link to track their order

These messages can all be created in templates and automated via data changes in your CRM that triggers the send. Additionally, should they call customer service for help in redeeming rewards, your agent can easily send a 1:1 text confirming the conversation.

All messages sent or received will be logged in the customer’s record in your CRM or Service desk giving you a complete conversational history to help you understand how members are using your loyalty program, as well as to glean ideas for optimizing its ability to increase customer lifetime value (CLV).

Consider Blending Channels to Increase Engagement:

Since email and text messaging are the two most preferred channels for loyalty program engagement, blending their use can be a boon for participation.

Let’s say you send an email with details of their monthly status in the program. A few days later you see that a percentage of your members haven’t opened the email. Pull a list of those customers and send them a message that suggests they check their email to see their rewards standing.

Because SMS messages have a nearly perfect open and read rate, this approach can keep your loyalty program emails from languishing in your customers’ inboxes.

Give Your Loyalty Program Members What They Want

Simple text messaging platforms, like Converse, make using text messaging for loyalty marketing and engagement simple and effective. As interest in messaging continues to grow with consumers, you don’t want to be left behind. Our preconfigured Apps will also make adding a messaging contact strategy a slam dunk by taking away the need for coding and development.

It’s never been easier to use SMS messages to build better relationships and program participation.

What’s interesting is, if a majority of organizations have enabled digital channels for customer service successfully, why in this research were only 5.4% of the service interactions consumers had recently resolved over digital or messaging channels?

Are companies not truly implementing these channels? Or, perhaps they’re not making it easy for their customers to find and use them?

This may be the answer:

Expectations about the responsiveness of digital and messaging channels changes dramatically from those for service interactions conducted over the phone.

Where 30 minutes seems to be the breaking point for response via phone call, over 50% of consumers surveyed expect a response on a digital or messaging channel within 5 minutes.

However, the research also found that 78% of respondents are willing to wait longer for a response from a messaging channel if their query is acknowledged. The reason 51% stated was that they wouldn’t be tied to a phone call, so there’d be no wait time. Not having to talk to an agent or needing to navigate multiple menu options were additional reasons stated by more than a quarter of consumers.

This indicates the overwhelming desire for low-effort, low-friction service interactions. It’s also an indication of how much consumers value their time. Not only that; 68% of consumers who used a messaging channel to contact a business preferred it to using either phone or email.

Contact Centers Meet Sky-High Expectations with SMS Messages

Text messaging platforms enable your contact center to instantly acknowledge a service query via automated text. This means you can easily satisfy that 78% who are willing to wait once you’ve acknowledged them.

Using messaging channels for customer service also satisfies those who prefer not to speak with an agent or navigate multiple menu options.

The use of messaging channels for customer service is simple for your customers.

Here’s how it works:

You publish a keyword and short code for customer service requests, such as:

“Text SERVICE to 123456” with your service inquiry.”

Once a customer texts the keyword, your text messaging platform automatically creates a service case then triggers to send a response telling them their query was received and the case number, with an instruction to ask a question or get the status of their case. Text-to-case is a fast and highly responsive way to manage service cases.

“Thanks for your inquiry. Your case # is 109678J. We’ll update you on progress. To get status updates or ask a question, just reply to this message. ABC Company”

Because text messaging is asynchronous, all the messages related to the customer’s inquiry will appear in the message conversation on your customers’ mobile phone.   All message interactions in the conversation are also attached to the customer’s record and case within the CRM. This makes getting service super easy as they don’t have to remember their case number, find your email address or jump through hoops to get their issue addressed.

Agents Use A SMS Tool for Contact Centers to Reduce Customer Effort

Messaging isn’t just easy and frictionless for your customers. It makes your customer service agents’ jobs easier and helps them work more productively to meet your customers’ soaring expectations.

Once the service case has been created in your CRM, the case is routed to the appropriate agent who receives an alert for the new query.

The agent can reply to your customer and ask a question, provide a status update, or notify them their issue has been resolved. If it takes longer to resolve an issue and shifts change, the next agent on duty can see the entire conversational case history so they can easily continue to complete the case resolution and keep your customer in the loop.

Intelligent agent desks also create prioritized worklists within your service desk, so your agents know which cases need responses and they can always quickly find any specific case through contextual filtering.

The Bottom Line

Using a sms tool for contact centers means your contact center can not only keep up with your customers’ expectations but will result in more satisfying experiences that drive higher loyalty and lifetime value.

According to the report, the most important aspects of a good customer service experience are getting the issue resolved in a single interaction and knowledgeable agents. It follows that the most frustrating aspect of a poor customer service experience are agents who lack knowledge and the ability to resolve the issue along with the customer being asked to repeat information multiple times.

Customer experience is gaining in prominence over both product and price in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, Dimension Data reports that nearly 80% of contact centers say their current customer service systems won’t meet their future needs.

As customer preferences change and reliance on mobile devices grows, incorporating text messaging for customer service can help you gain the “big-picture view” of your customer’s history with your company enabling better, faster service. Since Forrester Research finds that 77% of people say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service, messaging should be on your short list to reduce customer effort.

7 Reasons a SMS Tool For Call Centers Improves CX

Speed to Resolution
A SMS tool for call centers is designed to allow agents to engage in messaging conversations with more than one customer at a time. Traditional phone call resolution requires agents to work on one customer call at a time.

Reduce Costs
An SMS text message can be up to 600% less expensive than a phone call and the ability to handle more customer conversations simultaneously boosts agent productivity to handle a higher volume of service requests with the same headcount.

Increase Responsiveness
Customers say waiting on the phone for an agent is one of the most frustrating parts of the customer service experience. Intelligent text messaging can combine automated and 1:1 messages to instantly respond to your customers—removing that frustration.

Knowledgeable Agents
Customers are also frustrated by having to repeat information to agents. An intelligent text messaging platform records the entire conversation of what’s said by both parties. Because text messaging conversations are asynchronous, if the conversation takes longer and a new agent must respond, all the information about the customer’s history is on the screen providing the big-picture view that enables them to respond in context, on the spot, and within that single conversation.

Incorporate Voice of Customer
Nearly 90% of consumers have a more favorable view of brands that give them the opportunity to provide feedback. However, 37% of customers say they’re only asked occasionally for their thoughts. Text messaging for customer service gives you the opportunity to solicit feedback during or after every service conversation. This can be as simple as an NPS survey or as comprehensive as asking open-ended questions to understand their feedback in context—whether automated or exchanged 1:1 between the agent and customer.

Easily Promote Self-Service
Many contact centers are reducing call volume by providing self-service options via a website or portal to help customers resolve their issues themselves. However, sometimes this can be frustrating to customers who must sift through a lot of information to find the answer to their question. An agent in a texting conversation can send the customer a link directing them to just the information they need, instantly, reducing their effort.

Provide Proactive Service
The automated workflows provided by an intelligent text messaging platform can also allow your contact center to provide proactive outreach based on triggered alerts. These could be set to notify customers of product or policy updates, upcoming renewals, newly available products that complement products they already own, and more.

The Bottom Line

Reducing customer effort is paramount for improving customer experience. While this means doing so across the customer lifecycle, a reduction in effort to obtain customer service is a great focus that will payoff for your company.

Customer experience is becoming table stakes for every company. And today that means instant and on-demand. Text messaging for customer service and using a SMS tool for call centers delivers that in a convenient and low-friction manner that will delight your customers and show them how much you value their satisfaction and loyalty.

SMS messages offer the fastest time-to-response of any communication channel. The majority of customers prefer messaging to any other customer service channel, primarily because it eliminates the frustrations of being on hold while waiting for agents to respond.

Responding quickly to a customer requesting support is a powerful way to soothe problem situations and show you care, providing a boost to customer satisfaction.

Text messaging empowers service organizations to do just that.

3 Ways SMS Messages Speed Customer Responses

1. Instantly confirm service requests. SMS messages can automatically send a response that confirms you’re paying attention, as soon as your customer submits a question or a ticket. You can immediately let them know that you’ve received their request, introduce the agent that will be handling their case and set their expectations about when they can expect a follow-up contact. And you can do all of that before a human agent can even answer the call.

2. Automate the queue. The submission of the service request can also notify the agent or agents who will be providing support that a new request has been submitted. They can then quickly review the request and begin moving resolution forward. While they do that, your customer will already know you’re on it thanks to your quick response.

3. Use messaging to drive self-service. It’s also easy to automate responses to the most common issues, such as a password reset or locating a user manual. By providing ways for your customers to quickly resolve simple issues through self-help resources, their problem is solved, and more tickets are closed without direct intervention with a support agent.Should a customer reply HELP, an agent receives an automated alert and can immediately respond to the message to resolve your customer’s issue.

The Bottom Line

These three examples are only the start to how SMS messages can help your customer service agents shorten time-to-response at the critical moments in your customer relationships.