5 Reasons Why SMS Customer Service Is a Must-Have Now
SMS is an underestimated way of solving customer problems. At first glance, these two ideas don’t overlap.
It’s because written communication is more related to having quick and efficient contact with other people, especially via Messenger.
For example, you write whether your friend is open to the night out, he writes back, yes or no, end of the story. Or, you send him a meme, he sends a laughing emoji, that’s all.
When you want to share some long stories and talk about specific subjects, call him by phone or meet him in person.
It leads to the wrong impression that a phone (or a meeting at most) is the only possible way to solve complex customer problems. The fact is, almost two-thirds of potential customers want to reach brands by phone.
But what about the rest?
In this article, I’m going to show you that SMS communication is the perfect alternative customer service tool. That’s a part of the strategy to satisfy all types of customers.
Your goal should be to diversify your customer service as much as possible. SMS communication is the way to do so, no matter the size of your business.
We already know that differences between these two ideas are only apparent. So, let’s move to the features that they have in common.
So, ready to learn all the benefits of introducing this type of customer service in your company? Here we go!
Table of contents:
- SMS customer service provides the well-constructed message
- There’s less room for misunderstandings in SMS customer service
- SMS customer service can help you with reminders and notifications
- SMS customer service is less likely to be seen as annoying
- SMS customer service is a comfortable way to get customer feedback
- Launch SMS customer service in your business with Channels
- SMS is a missing piece in the perfect customer service puzzle
SMS customer service provides the well-constructed message
A customer needs to express his problem in a clear and comprehensible way. This is how he can get a satisfying response from your customer service.
Having a meaningful phone conversation with customer service requires some time. With a lot of things going on at a particular moment, sometimes it’s just easier to communicate through written messages.
Besides, there is more time for a customer to prepare well-formulated questions without holding customer service employees on the line for too long.
The extended message pops in, your co-worker sees it, he comes up with a solution, customer thanks for it, that’s all. This is how you can save priceless time.
There’s less room for misunderstandings in SMS customer service
When we talk through the phone or face-to-face, sometimes there might be some misunderstandings.
For example, we want to refer to some statement mentioned by whichever side of the conversation, but we’re not sure if we remember it right.
SMS customer service makes this problem disappear. It’s because we have everything clear as day – if we want to make sure we understood everything correctly, all we need to do is scroll up the conversation and find the sentence.
Then all we need to do is just quote it, even by copy-paste, and another part of the conversation will know what we mean at once and everything will be clarified.
I don’t use the names “customer” and “customer service worker” on purpose, because that’s the solution that works well for both sides.
A customer may not fully understand the solution suggested by customer service. If he wants an elaboration on some facts, it’s better to have it written down. This is how he can find his doubts and name them easily.
It works the same another way round – your customer service employees need to do their best and come up with quality solutions all the time. This is why they need to fully understand customers’ problems.
In both cases, written communication makes it much easier.
SMS customer service can help you with reminders and notifications
SMS customer service is not limited to live communication with your customers. You can also use it as a tool to send notifications, reminders, etc. This is how you make your customer service proactive.
Of course, the majority of customers prefer to speak with a real-time person. SMS is a magical tool that can be set to the level that the other side won’t feel the difference.
So, hypothetically, you are on the verge of satisfying everyone – automated written messages can work as a time-saving solution for your customer service. Not only time is saved – you hire fewer people, so your budget can be allocated somewhere else.
With the growing number of duties, your customers are more likely to forget about some everyday issues, such as payment for service, required upgrade of a mobile application, etc. When you schedule the plan of notifications and reminders well in advance, you shouldn’t be worried about cooperation.
As you can see, SMS communication works perfectly both as a live and automated customer service tool.
SMS customer service is less likely to be seen as annoying
We take written messages as a quick and effective way of communication in everyday life, I’ve already mentioned Messenger, WhatsApp, and other platforms.
Therefore, if we include dealing with customers there, we won’t spot the difference. This is non-verbal communication at its finest.
Another thing is that SMS is a safe way to deliver a message. I would say that it’s even safer than mentioned communication apps, as it goes only through the mobile network, with no third party included.
You don’t feel the pressure known from Messenger when you see that someone has displayed your message but is still yet to respond for, let’s say, 15 minutes. Both customers and your representatives can build a relationship by trusting each other.
Your customers take their time to form the question, while your employees can provide a satisfying response. This is everything a customer can ask for.
SMS customer service is a comfortable way to get customer feedback
Once in a while, we’re obliged to collect customers’ opinions about our products or services. The most common way to do this is to send a link to a customer survey prepared in Google Docs.
There’s no doubt that it’s easier to pass the link using a text message rather than a voice one. Can you imagine dictating your customer a URL with all dots, slashes, letters of different sizes, and so on? Nobody does that.
This is why SMS customer service is the perfect solution not only to answer questions but also to do it in reverse.
When customers are open to answering your questions about the quality of your product, you know exactly what is going well and what needs some improvement.
And I can assure you that when a customer has all his problems solved through SMS communication, he’ll be more tempted to click on your link and repay you with detailed feedback.
Both sides win in this case!
Launch SMS customer service in your business with Channels
As you might imagine, there’s a growing number of SMS customer service fans. Channels is a data-driven platform that helps you in building this way of communication with your customers.
You receive a two-way SMS helpline. By that, you activate a possibility for your customers to write to you and come up with a quick response. All the things that make SMS customer service special are included in this article.
There are more great things coming from joining Channels. They cover both text and phone customer service. Here are a few features:
- it’s a data-driven platform: customer service representatives see all necessary customer details before a call;
- Web Call – a customer can call you with one simple click from your website;
- international phone numbers;
- personalized voicemail greeting along with Interactive Voice Response (IVR);
- and many more.
You can try Channels now!
Get Channels for free now.
Serve your customers by both SMS and phone. Let all your customers choose the way that suits them perfectly.
Right now, Channels offers you a 7-day free trial during which you’ll get full access to the software, a free phone number, and a few $$$ so you can fully test it out! No credit card is required.
What’s stopping you?
SMS is a missing piece in the perfect customer service puzzle
SMS customer service gives a unique opportunity to achieve full customer satisfaction, including the most demanding customers.
It’s because there are two ways of solving issues with your customer service – one is a spoken word, the other is a written one.
People tend to put a greater emphasis on phone customer service at the beginning of the journey with the business. This is why SMS might be neglected.
However, with all mentioned benefits, it’s great to introduce this way of customer service simultaneously. This is how you can meet all expectations at once.
Do you have any more questions? Feel free to ask – SMS customer service has no secrets from us!
