SMS Customer Support
Actively engage with your customers and foster genuinely intimate relationships
SMS Fusion’s 2 Way SMS and virtual number features allow you to engage in actual conversations with your customers. This level of interaction is especially ideal for your customer support team as they can ask for feedback or confirm appointments and expect to receive an answer in virtually no time. Here are a couple of stats to back that claim,
98% of SMS are opened and read within 5 seconds of them arriving. Email open rates sit somewhere around the 20% mark.
45% of SMS will receive a response. Email elicits a response rate in the 6% range.
And those figures above are just an overall average. The better your relationship with your customers and the more value they associate with your brand and messaging, the response rates in particular will soar.
From Your Customer’s Point of View
Let’s try and get into your customers’ heads for a second here and look at your support from their perspective. How do they perceive the various modes of communication you employ? Well, if they are aged between 18 and 34, they would definitely prefer to communicate via messaging. In fact, we could go so far as to say they expect to communicate through SMS. Here’s another stat for you to ponder,
70% of Australians in the Millennial (25-34) and the Gen Z (18-24) age groups prefer to communicate through text, rather than voice.
Let’s just repeat, that shall we. “70% of 18 to 34 year olds would prefer to send and receive a text, rather than make and receive a phone call.”
While that sinks in, let’s take a quick look at what people think of all the mediums as a whole.
Phone Calls: are only for urgent enquiries or an absolute emergency.
Email: if you’re not in a rush and want to compose a more formal missive.
Live Chat: Great! If you’re prepared to keep your browser window open, wait in a queue and then follow all the necessary steps when it’s your turn. And even then, it may only be “great” if you’re talking to a real person and not a bot?
SMS is a Team Player
The point here is not to say you should forgo all other modes of communication in favour of SMS. Every method has it’s advantages and the more opportunities you have to engage with your customers and they have to reach out to you, the better. What we are saying is that SMS is a vital component of your outreach. It must be included, but as a complimentary customer support option.
Synchronizing SMS and Email, for Example
SMS Fusion’s Email to SMS service enables you to conduct conversations between multiple team members and customers by sending and receiving SMS via email. In this way, all conversations will be recorded in an easy to read thread.
