5 Ways Businesses Use Text Messaging

What is the one thing that almost never leaves your side?

The answer is rather common for everyone: Their mobile phone.

TRAI recently reported that India just crossed 1 billion mobile subscribers. What sounds like a massive milestone is viewed by experts as just the beginning of a dramatic change.

SMS (Short Messaging Service) is accessible to every single mobile subscriber, even those with the basic mobile phone or what we call a feature phone. SMS has been around for over two decades and as a result, consumers are already familiar with the service.

The average person touches his phone a staggering 2617 times a day, catapulting the open rate for SMS to a whopping 98%. What makes it even better is that every SMS is opened within 3 minutes of delivery.  

With consumers getting more comfortable with accepting and responding to text messages from their preferred service providers and merchants, SMS marketing is emerging a powerful tool in the mobile marketing toolkit for businesses big and small.

Just like everything else, a good business text messaging campaign has to be a mix of great value and interesting content to hold the attention of the receiver.

Here are five intuitive ways in which customers can leverage the ease of use and reach of SMS marketing.

1. Delivery Status updates

Every transaction with your customer can be used to strengthen the relationship with the customer. The simple act of sending them the status of their transaction with your business entity can increase engagement because it makes the customer feel part of the process at every step. This is especially true for services that involve multiple steps in the completion of a transaction – like an eCommerce delivery or a processing of a government service. Setting up automated SMS Reminder Software would help with an update of delivery status to customers is a cinch with our Transactional SMS services, suited for sending out status updates to customers in complete sync with the progress of the transaction.

Haptik, a platform that provides you with a personal assistant to remind you about daily chores and activities integrates their interactive application with Exotel’s business text messaging service (via our SMS API) to remind customers about upcoming meetings and appointments. A reminder message or a call are triggered to help customers keep up with their appointments.

Watch how Exotel’s SMS platform helped Go-Jek increase their SMS delivery rates to 92%

2. Survey & Feedback

Serious market research involves a lot of customer interaction. Traditional surveying methods like paper/ email or SurveyMonkey not only have long-winding questionnaires but also require multiple follow-ups. Administering these surveys to a large audience can be a time-consuming and tedious process. If you’d like a quick word from the customer on their opinion for a survey, SMS is your best tool.

An important role text messaging for businesses play for every customer-facing team is customer feedback. And timely feedback goes a long way in improving customer satisfaction as well because it paves way for immediate resolution.

Related: 3 ways to set up an automated feedback system

3. Marketing

Bulk text messaging opens up powerful options for businesses. Bulk messaging usually brings the image of annoying irrelevant messages filling up your inbox, which may alienate a customer. However, via careful segmentation of existing or potential customers, Bulk SMS can be a highly sophisticated tool to bring in awareness about business offers and promotions. Penetration is the highest with these services since even the non-tech-savvy segment is easily reachable through these services.

To know more about Exotel’s offers on Bulk SMS, see here.

Our transactional opt-in/opt-out service safeguards the privacy (number masking) of the receiver. Needless to say, the real-time monitoring of click rates helps businesses a great deal to modify their promotional messages according to the response they see.

Amnesty International, one of Exotel’s earliest clients uses Exotel’s automated Text reminder service to set up SMS with specific dates and timings. Business text messaging solicit actions to be taken by supporters, which helps maintain momentum and garner support for their initiatives, ultimately making them members of Amnesty International. Amnesty now has over 3 million people extending their support, all managed through Exotel’s IVR and SMS systems.

Note: These text messages can only be sent to non-DND numbers.

 4. Reminders for Appointments & Bill Payments

If your business requires people to show up for appointments or you need to keep them up-to-date on payment schedules- an SMS comes as the gentle, non-intrusive reminder during a busy day. Exotel’s SMS service makes it a cost-effective solution while keeping the conveyed message short and concise.

Practo, an online platform that connects millions of people to quality health care services uses Exotel’s SMS service to remind their customers of upcoming appointments. They also have an integrated SMS feedback survey that is administered immediately after a visit to the doctor, making it easy to validate the quality of healthcare service of the provider.

Care24, a care service provider based out of Mumbai works with Exotel’s easy-to-configure SMS service to cater to their services like daycare,  caretakers for the elderly and home services like physiotherapist, clinical tests etc. They also send out Text reminders to their customers about the transaction and upcoming consultation. 

5. App Installs SMS Campaigns

If you need to remind your customers to either download, use, upgrade or reinstall your app, an SMS is a great way to skim at the top of your customer’s minds.  

These messages can be sent to

• A new user who signed up via desktop
• Users who have uninstalled the apps
• Users who have the app installed but rarely use it( these kinds of SMSs reduce app uninstalls to a great extent)

Example: Here’s how business text messaging can be used to regain customers & gain feedback:
Mobikwik sends out several SMSs aiming at users to re-install the app and start using their services again.

Business text messaging or SMS marketing when used right can help you rally up a ton of customers to take action, whet your product or service and become customers for life. After all, doesn’t it fit perfectly into our mobile-themed world?

Further Readings:

Read: What is Computer Telephony Integration? Read here.

Read about why SMS Campaigns are beneficial for your company’s marketing efforts.