5 Ways to Improve Customer Service With SMS
Updated April 23, 2024
Good customer service is often praised as the secret to establishing and maintaining positive relationships between companies and their customers. But how do you define good customer service?
Since the technology you use to ensure a positive customer experience can always be improved and will evolve with the latest advances, the quest for the best possible customer service might not ever be complete — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to continuously improve.
Wondering how to improve your customer service? We’ve broken down valuable customer service ideas to help you get started, including ways to improve customer service using SMS text message marketing.
What Is the Definition of Good Customer Service?
Good customer service will not only satisfy your existing customers but also entice others to check out your business due to your positive reviews and reputation. However, improving your customer service is impossible without knowing what good customer service means to you and your business. When it comes to customer service, the difference between acceptable and outstanding can be measured by customer satisfaction and is ultimately reflected in your revenue.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a customer service representative handles complaints, processes orders, and answers questions. They’re employed in nearly every industry and are generally required to have training in communication and technology.
So how can text messaging improve or even replace this essential role in your business? Depending on your industry and company size, text-based customer service could simultaneously cut costs and improve your relationships with consumers.
5 Ways to Improve Customer Service Using Text Messages and Customer Service SMS in 2024
Here’s what you can start doing right now to improve customer service and kickstart the process of integrating text broadcasts into your company’s customer service models l.
1. Reach a Larger Audience
According to a government study on text messaging, texts are under-utilized by companies despite over 2 trillion texts a year being sent in the United States alone. From health systems to department stores to restaurants, text messaging can be a valuable platform when it comes to communicating with your company’s audience.
Accessibility is key to positive customer service experiences. Leveraging a mass texting service could be the best way to maximize your company’s customer service resources, as you’ll have the capability to reach more people with important messages via text than you would by email or phone call.
SMS allows you to communicate directly with customers to provide shipping updates or troubleshoot issues. It also allows you to text many clients at once to let them know immediately of any product updates or changes they need to be aware of.
2. Offer Exclusive Coupons
It’s no secret that customers love to feel like they’re getting special treatment. When you build a text list, you’ll be able to offer exclusive text promotions to your contacts. Customer service includes reaching out to loyal customers to acknowledge and reward their continued loyalty. By building a list of phone numbers that have opted in to text message communication with your company, you’ll have the unique opportunity to offer this list special discounts and “VIP” treatment. Keep customers happy by using text messaging to reward their participation in your text list.
Make sure you’re offering valuable discounts when reaching out to consumers via text. If you communicate too often without adding value, they might opt out of your text list—not to mention associating your company with spam messaging. Consider the offers you’re sending to your contacts and whether or not they’re truly worth their time.
3. Automate Texts to Improve Efficiencies
SMS customer service solutions are a cornerstone of text marketing and can answer general questions that human customer service reps would otherwise have to spend time addressing. This helps you maximize your team’s resources. Deploy employees in situations where questions are nuanced and emotions are heightened, but let an automated workflow do the heavy lifting until that point.
Agents often spend their time answering general questions which could be answered by an automated text. It’s time to reverse that trend. Our advanced automation solution can detect chat sentiment to deliver appropriate automated responses or flag a chat for follow-up by a customer service specialist.
Plus, our business texting features allow users to schedule, trigger, and drip text messages to provide customer service to customers over time or as prompted. With this service, you can even automate a response to trigger questions, among other useful features.
4. Provide Updates and Information
One way to improve customer service is to answer questions before your customers even have them. You can do this with a steady and informative flow of updates and important information to your audience. On a global scale, 5.5 billion people send and receive SMS messages. Since text messaging is such a widely used form of communication, it also serves as a casual way to keep your audience in the loop.
Why not use email for this task? According to a recent survey, almost two-thirds of respondents reported ignoring emails at work. Because email is often easily ignored, text updates can be a great way to reach people on your contact list. By actively updating consumers with important news, you’ll be able to avoid unnecessary customer service interactions — thus saving your agents for the interactions that require their attention the most.
This became increasingly important in 2023 due to supply chain disruptions that made shipping times unpredictable. Texting shipping updates regularly can help reduce frustration and increase transparency for customers.
5. Request Feedback and Reviews Via Text
A powerful way to gauge the effectiveness of your company’s customer service is to simply ask how you’re doing. This is easy to do via text by sending a short text survey. While you’ll want to do this sparingly, no one has better feedback on customer service than past and present customers themselves.
Consider reaching out to contacts once a year with a simple customer service survey to measure their experience. If you can offer a thumbs up or thumbs down option to get maximum responses, this kind of outreach can give you a general consensus on how you’re doing. You can also send respondents a link to review your company on important third-party review sites to provide prospective customers with an accurate idea of what they can expect if they use your products or services.
Not to mention, solid data on the response to your customer service efforts can be used as a tool for years to come. You’ll have a new metric that can be used to measure customer service progress as you make changes to better suit the needs of your public.
Customer Service to Fit Your Company Needs
Through changing economies, industry standards, technological advances, and consumer demographic changes, customer service will be a crucial thread that keeps your business afloat. If you choose to improve customer service by utilizing text messaging, always make sure the changes are servicing your company and improving your ability to communicate with consumers.
Ready to start with your SMS customer service program? Kick off your free trial today, or get in touch with our team for more information.
