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Slack SMS - Send and Receive SMS via Slack
Slack SMS is a feature that allows you to send and receive texts from within the Slack messaging app. It is an add-on within the Slack messaging interface that you can use to send SMS to your customers which drives much better engagement as you can reach your customers on their phone’s native texting app.
The best part about Slack SMS is that it allows you to simplify your workflows by facilitating connection with various other tools. From project coordination to work-related conversations, from social interactions to team collaborations; you can streamline all your communications with a Slack SMS integration.
If you have a support query coming in via webchat, with a Slack SMS integration all messages can come directly into your support channel on Slack. You can respond to that message from Slack itself and it will be delivered in the form of an SMS to the recipient. Also, Slack provides flexibility with respect to adjusting different communication preferences while also allowing seamless collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
How to Send and Receive SMS through Slack?
To send and receive SMS through Slack you need a Slack SMS integration. Slack cannot send SMS by itself. It needs the help of a software integration that can seamlessly integrate SMS messaging into Slack.
To send and receive SMS through Emitrr slack integration you can follow these simple steps:
STEP-1: Login to your Emitrr Account
STEP-2: On the left side, select a location.
STEP-3: Go to settings and from ‘General Settings’, click on Integrations
STEP-4: You’ll see a Slack Integration option, click on ‘Add to Slack’.
STEP-5: Allow the permissions, and you’re all set!
Here is a detailed video on how you can set up Slack texting through Emitrr.
What can you do with an Emitrr-Slack SMS integration?
Once you integrate Slack with Emitrr for SMS, here’s what all you can do:
- Send direct text messages – You can directly send text messages to your customers via Slack SMS. They would receive the text on their native texting app.
- Text multiple people at once – You need not go through the hassle of texting one person at a time as you can text as many people as you want in one go. In such a case, the responses will come in as separate message threads aka Mass texting.
- Initiate group chats – You can create specific groups on Slack and engage in group texting. Here the responses will come in the same group, and all members will be able to see each other’s responses.
- Customize notifications – Slack allows you to pick which notifications you would like to receive and which you’d like to pause. For eg – You can receive or pause notifications from Facebook, Google My Business, Group Messages, and one-on-one message on Slack.
- Select a channel for notifications – When you set up your integration, you can go to settings and choose which slack channel you wish to receive the notifications on.
- Ensure secure texting – Both Emitrr and Slack are secure texting platforms and with such integration, you can text your customers or colleagues without having to worry about the security of your data.
- Use slash commands- If you wish to look for specific customers, search conversations, or start chats; you can simply do that using a simple slash command on slack and send them a personalized text.
- Manage team members – You can assign conversations to different team members and choose which member should reply to conversations.
- Text enable numbers – You can assign different numbers for different channels and any message that goes to a particular number will reach the channel it is associated with. For instance, if +123456789 is a specific number for the marketing channel, any message received on that number will straightaway go to the marketing channel. you can also choose to text enable a landline number with Emitrr.
- Route conversations from other messaging channels – When your customers text you from different channels like Facebook messenger or google my business chat, you can even route those messages to your Slack channels and respond from within Slack using the Emitrr Slack SMS integration.
- Use templates to respond to text messages – With a Slack-Emitrr integration, you can make use of pre-existing templates available on Emitrr to respond to customers on the fly. When your customers text you back, you’ll receive those texts in your designated Slack channel.
What is Slack SMS Integration?
With a Slack SMS integration, you can use Slack for all your communication needs. You can host your phone number and integrate your text messaging service with Slack and seamlessly send and receive SMS messages to people who don’t use Slack.
With a Slack SMS integration you get updates in real-time, centralize all communication, can customize notifications, and ultimately facilitate better and more effective communication.
For instance, if you’re using a texting service like Emitrr, you can enable Slack integration from within Emitrr’s settings and can manage all your communications from Slack. You need not keep switching between Emitrr and Slack all the time. If you get a message on Emitrr’s dashboard, the same message will appear on your preferred channel in Slack, and you can respond to it from within Slack.
Advantages of Slack SMS Integration
There are the core benefits that you can achieve when you integrate Slack SMS:
- Helps reduce costs and centralize communications
- Makes it easier to collaborate and manage conversations
- Helps increase efficiency and drastically improves response times
Let’s dive deeper into each of these.
Using Slack SMS to reduce costs
Here are some ways Slack SMS integration helps reduce costs:
- You don’t need to manually transfer data, which reduces errors and hence minimizes the costs associated with marketing and customer acquisition.
- You don’t need to pay for multiple subscriptions or licenses of other communication apps like webchat, Email marketing etc. Once you integrate with Slack there is no need to buy multiple logins or upgrades.
- You can message people directly, which reduces the need for face-to-face meetings and hence reduces overall cost.
Using Slack SMS to Improve collaboration
With a Slack SMS integration, you can easily collaborate across departments, teams, and locations. Here’s how:
- You can automate all your tasks such as following up on emails and text messages, updating CRM records, and scheduling messages. This helps reduce the time which can be dedicated to more strategic initiatives.
- You can send messages from Slack workplace’s interface easily in real-time, thereby reducing delays. You can easily streamline operations, customer support, and sales with Slack SMS.
- You can organize communications via threaded conversations
- You can make use of the ‘mentions’ SLACK (screenshot) feature to ensure that the messages reach the right people. To mention people, you just need to type ‘@’ and then choose the people you want to mention from the list that appears.
- You can have dedicated channels for specific teams, projects, and departments
Using Slack SMS to increase efficiency
With Slack SMS integration, there are three teams that benefit greatly:
- Sales
- Support
- Marketing
Here’s how the sales team can benefit from a Slack SMS integration:
- Quickly address queries and resolve issues on the go
- Communicate with prospects and customers in real-time, thereby reducing response time
- Easily centralize data and analytics and make informed decisions
- Get real-time updates on any leads or opportunities
- Easily integrate all sales tools with Slack and manage all conversations from Slack itself
- Set up alerts and notifications to stay on top of important metrics such as deal closures and lead conversion rates
- Automate follow-ups on leads
- Automate customer engagement
When you integrate with Slack, you improve the conversion rates, lower the Customer Acquisition Cost, and improve the Customer Lifetime Value.
With such an integration, the sales team will be able to communicate more effectively and efficiently, reduce duplication of efforts, and have happy customers.
Here’s how the support team can benefit from a Slack SMS integration:
- Address new tickets easily
- Reduce unread/unanswered messages
- Communicate with team members and customers through dedicated channels
- Use canned responses to reduce the first resolution time
- Open SMS as a Customer Support channel to improve customer experience
- Can respond on the fly
When you streamline support tasks through a Slack SMS integration, you reduce response times, improve the Net Promoter Score, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
What is Net Promoter Score?
Net Promoter Score or NPS is a metric that is used to measure the likelihood of a customer recommending a product or a service to their friends, family, and colleagues. The higher the NPS, the better it is.
Here’s how the marketing team can benefit from a Slack SMS integration:
- Send marketing campaigns on the fly via Slack
- Use the slash command feature to select campaigns from the menu to track performance
- Centralize data and analytics to track metrics and make informed decisions
- Share feedback and insights with team members
- Use templates to respond, send notes, forward text messages, share files
- Receive real-time updates on campaigns and address queries
- Engagement and nurturing
- SMS marketing
A Slack SMS integration will help the marketing team operate more efficiently, communicate effectively, and save time; which will further improve engagement and drive business growth.
All in all, you achieve better visibility into workflows and projects. For instance, integration with a CRM tool can give you better access to insights and opportunities, integration with a project management tool can help get updates on milestones, and integration with a texting service like Emitrr can help respond to queries seamlessly.
Community Discussions about Slack SMS
Head to these Reddit threads to know how other users are making use of slack SMS.
FAQs on Slack SMS Integration
Is it safe to use Slack SMS integration?
Answer
Yes, it is safe to integrate Slack with your tools as the app offers data encryption, system controls, and two-factor authentication to ensure that all your data is secure. But you also need to ensure that the apps you’re integrating Slack with don’t have any security vulnerabilities.
What tools can I integrate with Slack?
Answer
You can integrate Slack with:
- Customer communication and engagement software like Emitrr
- Project management tools like Trello
- Marketing automation tools like Mailchimp
- Customer support tools like Intercom
- DevOps tools like GitHub
- File storage and sharing tools like Google Drive
- CRM software like HubSpot
- Video conferencing tools like Google Meet
- Social media management tools like HootSuite
- HR management tools like Workday
- Analytics tools such as Google Analytics
You can also customize integrations using Slack’s API
Can I customize my Slack SMS notifications
Answer
Yes, you can specify which notifications you wish to receive via text on Slack. You can also choose the frequency of receiving notifications and even schedule when you want to receive notifications. Also, you can set Do Not Disturb hours for the times you do not wish to be interrupted.
How do I send commands on Slack SMS
Answer
To send commands, just go to a conversation or start a conversation by entering a phone number, enter ‘/’, and then the keyword. Hit enter and sit back. Slack will interpret your message as a command and perform the required action. For instance, if you want to invite someone to a Google Meet call, and if you have integrated Google Meet with Slack, you can simply go to the particular conversation, type in ‘/’ and you will be presented with a list of all tools that you have integrated with Slack. Just select Google Calendar from the list, and from there you can either create a new event or even view your upcoming events.
Can I send mass texts on Slack
Answer
If you have integrated Slack with a texting platform, you can send mass texts. Here’s how you can do it:
- Make sure your Slack account is integrated with the texting service
- To send the mass text, either create a new channel or select an existing channel
- Use the slash command feature to send the mass text
- The message will be sent at the same time to all the people in the channel, but their responses will appear in separate message threads
Conclusion
All in all, having a Slack SMS integration is vital to keep upfront with updates, manage conversations, save time, improve productivity, and drive business growth. Now that you have a clear understanding of Slack SMS and what all it can do, make sure you integrate it with your existing tools and streamline your communication processes.
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