How SMS Can Help Your Business Right Now
SMS can be the key to your customers’ hearts, and your brand’s success. In addition to automatically (or manually) answering inquiries from clients and potential clients, SMS can do so much more to make your business successful, while reducing workload and costs. Here’s how:
New Ways to Do Business
Business isn’t the same as it was six months ago. Our world is becoming increasingly digital, and it’s important to keep up with current customer expectations.
SMS is a great tool to facilitate curbside pickup - an essential service these days. You’ll be able to answer questions, receive orders and alert customers when orders are ready for pickup. Together, this creates a contactless experience that minimizes workload and ensures safety for both customers and staff.
Although this solution was created to meet pandemic-related needs, its convenience factor means it’s here to stay. SMS ordering and pickup will continue to make things easier for businesses and their customers for years to come.
Protect your Staff and Clients
Businesses also have a responsibility to keep staff and customers safe. Text messages can be used to dispense crucial information that prevents COVID-19 transmission, including social distancing measures and building policies. Clients who physically visit your business will pay more attention to a text than a posted sign, and will be more likely to comply if they read about precautions ahead of time. SMS can also replace any building’s face-to-face check-in or registration for less contact between visitors and receptionists.
Similarly, health check-ins ensure that your staff is healthy before interacting with customers and other employees. The right check-in will monitor staff for any symptoms before a shift to keep everyone safe. This application is currently being expanded beyond staff for both university students and hotel guests.
Boost Sales and Grow Your Brand
With SMS it’s easy to inform clients about new offerings or services. You can even segment your clients into lists to provide recommendations based on their interests. It doesn’t stop there - to boost sales, we recommend sending promotions and coupons via text. This builds loyalty, generates repeat business and ensures that your promotions don’t get lost in clients’ email inboxes.
SMS also allows you to monitor and improve your reputation, by automatically requesting feedback after a client receives your product or service. This is an excellent learning experience for your brand, and an opportunity to correct simple mistakes that could be costing you business. As an added bonus, you can also prompt satisfied customers to leave online reviews, boosting your online reputation.
Notifications for Transparency
SMS notifications can go a long way towards client peace of mind, and the transparency it provides will decrease costs and customer service inquiries down the road.
For example, missed appointments are a huge source of lost revenue and administrative workload. A simple notification before an appointment or reservation prevents no-shows and cancellations, with no additional work for your staff. Giving customers the opportunity to confirm appointments over text rather than phone calls will save your business time and money.
Shipping and delivery confirmation texts are another way to reduce incoming inquiries from clients wondering if their products have shipped. For sensitive items, the option to reschedule via text will prevent deliveries from arriving when no one is home to sign for them.
Keep Client Information Secure
In today’s digital world, it’s never been more important to ensure security for your clients. Believe it or not, SMS can provide this for you as well. Two-factor authentication is an easy way to keep accounts secure for any business. Beyond that, SMS can send automated fraud alerts to clients, which will reach them instantly, whether they are at home or on the go.
Automated messaging also makes viewing and paying bills easy for clients, with access to online bills and current balances available at the touch of a button. Payment confirmation via text provides transparency and eliminates any confusion that can lead to a customer service issue in the future.
Interested?
Large corporations have been using SMS for years to keep clients happy and costs down. Ameniti’s goal is to provide the same advanced tools to any business in an intuitive format. Check out our free trial or schedule a chat to learn more.