Delivering quality customer service is crucial to any business. After all, if you can’t communicate effectively with your customers, you won’t be able to sell your products or services. There's no business without your clients, so ensuring you provide a good experience should be one of your top priorities.
Quality customer service can improve satisfaction and boost sales, encouraging more clients to become repeat buyers. On the other hand, poor service can affect your company’s reputation and success.
You probably already have a customer service strategy implemented, but are you doing everything you can to delight customers when they have inquiries, concerns, or complaints? SMS customer service can help you communicate more effectively with your clients by adding convenience.
Keep reading to learn more about SMS customer service and how to use it to increase satisfaction.
What is SMS customer service?
SMS customer service is the use of text messages to communicate directly with customers. Most companies already use email, phone calls, or support tickets for customer service. However, SMS allows clients to conveniently voice their opinions and concerns wherever they are.
Texting customer support is a more modern approach to customer service, which allows consumers to contact your support team without making a phone call or sending an email.
SMS customer service can be used to:
- Collect customer feedback. Are your customers enjoying your products or services? You can use SMS campaigns to solicit feedback about your business, including customer service experiences and product satisfaction.
- Send appointment reminders. Customer support text messaging is much more convenient than emails for sending appointment reminders because everyone texts but not everyone checks their email regularly. With SMS, you can send appointment reminders and links to virtual meetings to ensure your customers are always in the loop.
- Send order and delivery updates. If you’re an e-commerce business, you can use customer service messaging to send order and delivery updates to keep your customers updated on the purchases.
- Resolve issues. If customers have an issue with a product or service, they want it resolved quickly. Text messaging is immediate and allows your customers to contact you wherever. Additionally, since SMS customer service software integrates directly with customer service automation tools, your support team can resolve issues faster than ever.
- Answer questions. Sometimes, customers have simple questions about a product or service and don’t want to wait for a response. Texting customer service allows them to message your team, whether in a crowded public space or at the office, making it more convenient.
Benefits of SMS customer support
SMS customer support is crucial. Text message marketing is becoming as popular as email marketing because it’s convenient and encourages people to click links to websites on their mobile devices to view products and complete the checkout process.
In addition, SMS support can increase your customer success metrics, helping you improve satisfaction and encourage loyalty.
Here are a few of the benefits of SMS customer service:
Lower costs
Managing and responding to inquiries is much more cost-effective via text than any other method because it’s faster and SMS customer service software plans are inexpensive.
Customer service calls cost money, but providing support via texting can reduce your expenses and allow your team to resolve more support tickets.
Increased convenience
Text messaging is one of the most popular forms of communication because it’s convenient. Calling a customer support number and waiting on hold is time-consuming and can interrupt your customers’ daily lives.
However, allowing them to send a text message and wait for a response is more convenient and helps them avoid long wait times via phone calls.
Faster response times
Text customer service allows businesses to increase their response times. A phone call can take several minutes or more, depending on the customer's needs.
However, clients can provide the information you need with SMS messages without staying on the line. Instead, you can resolve issues faster and move on to the next one to accomplish more in a single day.
Better engagement
SMS support can increase engagement because it’s a more personal method of communication. Additionally, with faster response times and better convenience, customers are more satisfied with the business and its support.
Greater efficiency
Customer service text messaging offers better efficiency when handling multiple inquiries. By using texts, emails, phone calls, and online portals, customers can choose how they communicate with your business, enabling your support team to respond to more clients throughout the day.
Why SMS customer service is growing in popularity
The way people communicate has changed over the last decade, and businesses need to keep up. Most people read their messages within minutes of receiving a text. This shift in behavior has created new expectations for how companies should interact with their customers.
Changing customer communication preferences
Today's customers prefer quick, convenient ways to get help without jumping through hoops. Phone calls feel outdated to many people, especially younger consumers who grew up texting. They'd rather send a quick message than wait on hold for twenty minutes.
With SMS for customer service, consumers get convenience and control. Customers can reach out when it works for them, get the information they need, and move on with their day.
Customer service texting gives people the flexibility to multitask while getting support, whether they're at work, on public transport, or taking care of kids at home.
Impact of mobile-first behavior on customer expectations
Most people spend hours on their phones every day, so it makes sense that they expect businesses to meet them where they already are. When someone has a question about their order or needs help with a product, they want to handle it right from their phone without switching between different apps or platforms.
This mobile-first mindset means customers expect timely responses and smooth experiences that work just like texting with friends or family.
Companies that don't offer text message customer support often seem behind the times, which can hurt customer satisfaction and drive people to competitors who make communication easier.
SMS customer service complements other support channels
Smart businesses don't replace their existing support methods with texting; they add SMS as another option that works alongside phone, email, and chat support.
Some customer inquiries are perfect for texting, like order updates, appointment confirmations, or simple questions that need quick answers. Other issues might still need a phone call or detailed email exchange.
Giving customers choices lets them pick the method that makes the most sense for their situation. This approach helps customer service teams handle more requests efficiently while making sure each customer gets the type of support they prefer.
How to implement customer service text messaging
Now that you understand the importance of customer service and how SMS support can improve your business, it’s time to learn how to implement it.
Implementing a new process can be challenging, but you may already have a support workflow with other channels. Ultimately, you must decide how you want text messaging to fit into your overall customer service strategy.
Here are a few tips to help you implement customer service text messaging:
1. Choose your SMS customer service solution
There are several SMS customer service solutions available, and they all have similar features.
Features to look for in a robust SMS customer service platform include:
- Two-way messaging
- Multimedia messaging
- Automation and workflows
- Templates
- Metrics and analytics
- Integrations with marketing and other customer service tools
2. Determine your workflow
You should determine various workflows for customer service representatives. For example, if you have agents for different regions, you can create automated workflows to ensure the right person in your organization receives the proper inquiries.
3. Train SMS customer support staff
You probably already use a customer service platform to manage and reply to inquiries. However, learning a new tool can take time and effort.
Teaching support teams how to use SMS for business customer service is crucial to ensure a consistent experience across all channels.
Communicating via text is often much different from engaging with clients via phone and email. As such, you may have to create a new standard operating procedure (SOP) for how your team should respond. This may include guidelines on using abbreviations, slang, and emojis.
4. Monitor and analyze your performance
Analyzing your performance regularly can help you find bottlenecks preventing your team from reaching its goals. Text message customer service platforms provide key insights into your customer service success.
The types of metrics will vary by provider, but you should look for stats like average response times, time to ticket resolution, and the number of customers responded to every day.
Integrating SMS with your existing customer service channels
Getting the most out of customer service texting means making it work smoothly with your other support methods. Your customers shouldn't feel like they're dealing with completely different companies when they switch from email to text to phone calls.
The goal is to create a unified experience where customer conversations flow naturally between channels and your support team has all the context they need to provide exceptional customer service.
Combining SMS with email and live chat
The best customer service setups let people start a conversation or submit an inquiry on one channel and continue it on another.
For example, a customer might begin with a text about a billing question, then move to email for detailed documentation, and finish with a live chat session for immediate resolution.
Your customer service texting software should sync with your other platforms so agents can see the full history of customer interactions, no matter how someone reaches out. This prevents frustrating situations where customers have to explain their problem multiple times to different representatives.
Using SMS alongside CRM systems for better tracking
Integrating SMS customer service with your CRM system gives you a complete picture of each customer relationship. When support agents can see previous purchases, past issues, preferences, and communication history all in one place, they can provide much better help.
This integration also helps with follow-up. For instance, you can send payment reminders, gather customer feedback, or check in after resolving an issue.
Customer support agents armed with this information can personalize their responses and solve problems faster, which leads to better customer engagement.
Ensuring brand voice consistency across platforms
Your company should sound like the same organization whether customers text, call, or email you. This means training your customer service teams to maintain the same tone, language style, and level of professionalism across all channels.
Create clear guidelines about how to communicate via text, which might include when to use casual language versus formal responses, how to handle emojis, and what abbreviations are acceptable.
Consistency builds trust and helps enhance customer satisfaction by creating a cohesive customer experience that feels authentic and reliable.
Best practices for SMS customer service
Implementing an SMS customer service platform is only half the battle. Using it effectively can increase your support team’s efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. Here are a few best practices to help you maximize your SMS customer service strategy:
Automate the process
Automation is crucial when working with an SMS customer service platform because it will allow you to create workflows and send automated replies to increase efficiency.
For example, instead of manually responding to every inquiry, you can leverage text messaging chat bots or set up automatic responses and templates to answer common questions.
It’s important to remember that automation can help you save time, but it shouldn’t replace human interactions. Some inquiries require a human customer service agent, while other consumers may prefer it. Therefore, you should always have an option for customers to communicate with a live representative.
Personalize messages
Personalization is crucial when communicating with your customers because it shows you’ve taken the time to listen to them. For example, if a customer has a complaint, always refer to them by their first name and address any issues from previous text messages to ensure that you deliver top-notch service.
Use the right tools
Your customer service platform must integrate with your other tools to keep everything in one place. Whether clients call, email, or text, these interactions should be kept in the same place.
Additionally, it's best to use tools to organize inquiries under the customer’s name. For example, your clients may likely use all forms of communication to contact your business throughout the relationship, so your service tools should keep detailed records of all interactions.
Communicate in real time
Some companies already use SMS to market products and services to their customers. However, the tools they use might not always permit clients to respond.
Consumers want to communicate with your business in real time, so you should ensure that any platform you use allows them to respond directly to you.
Obtain feedback
Getting feedback about your service efforts is crucial because it provides insight into how customers feel. For example, after each SMS interaction with a customer, you should send them an automated text asking them to rate their experience.
Soliciting feedback will allow you to learn from any mistakes you’ve made and take corrective action to ensure your support team continues to delight clients by solving their problems.
Promote your SMS support system
Your customers won’t text you if they don’t know they can. You should promote your SMS support system to ensure customers know they can use text messaging to communicate with your business.
Include information on how to text your support team on your website, social media, and other marketing materials to help clients get started.
Common mistakes to avoid in SMS customer service
Even with the best intentions, companies often stumble when implementing SMS for customer service. These mistakes can damage customer relationships, hurt your reputation, and create more problems than solutions.
Learning from these common pitfalls will help you build a text messaging strategy that actually improves the customer experience:
Over-messaging customers
Nobody likes being bombarded with texts, even from companies they do business with. Sending too many messages, whether they're updates, promotions, or follow-ups, will annoy customers and likely result in opt-outs or complaints.
Keep your messages focused and valuable. Only text when you have something important to share or when the customer has specifically requested information. Remember that SMS should make life easier for customers, not create another source of digital clutter in their already busy lives.
Using impersonal or generic language
Text messages feel personal by nature, so robotic, corporate language stands out in a bad way. Customers can spot copy-and-paste responses from a mile away, and these generic messages make people feel unimportant.
Take time to craft responses that acknowledge the specific situation and use natural language that matches how people actually text.
While templates can save time, they should serve as starting points that agents customize based on each unique customer conversation.
Ignoring opt-in and compliance rules
Text messaging comes with strict legal requirements that vary by country and region. Customers must explicitly agree to receive texts from your business, and you need clear records of this consent.
Failing to follow these rules can result in hefty fines and legal trouble that far outweigh any benefits from SMS customer service.
Make sure you understand the regulations that apply to your business, get proper opt-in consent before texting anyone, and always include clear opt-out instructions in your messages.
Use SMS to boost your customer service
SMS customer service can help you improve your customer service strategy and satisfaction rates by offering clients a convenient method for contacting your business.
Mailchimp offers SMS text messaging to help customers connect with you, book an appointment, make purchases, and receive order confirmations and notifications.
Use Mailchimp SMS to start communicating with your customers today.
Key Takeaways
- SMS customer service increases convenience and speeds up response times, making it a popular modern approach to customer support.
- Text messages can be used for various services: collecting feedback, sending appointment reminders, order updates, resolving issues, and answering questions.
- Benefits of SMS support include lower costs, greater engagement, faster response times, and increased efficiency.
- Best practices for effective SMS customer service include personalization, proper tool integration, real-time communication, automation, and active promotion of the SMS support system.