Introduction
The global SMS marketing industry is expected to reach a valuation of $84 billion by 2030. One of the major reasons for this growth is the adoption of SMS marketing by a majority of businesses to manage customer relationships.
SMS is an effective marketing and communication channel that helps you acquire and retain customers. Modern businesses also use customer service texting to foster consumer loyalty.
In this article, we dive deep into how text messaging can be an excellent channel for customer service and the best practices you should follow.
What Is Customer Service Texting?
Customer Service Texting is when a business offers support via business text messages.
Businesses that aim to offer omnichannel support offer SMS support, among various other channels.
Use Cases for Customer Service Texting
You can use text messaging to confirm orders, share updates, and send quotes. We discuss the use cases for text messaging for customer service below.
1. Booking, Order, And Appointment Confirmation
Confirming bookings and orders via SMS is a common practice among e-commerce businesses. They use automated text messaging systems to confirm a buyer’s order. Similarly, clinicians can use SMS to confirm a patient’s appointment.
Automated systems eliminate the need to have someone on your team make calls for confirmation. You save time and money and make a more professional impression by sending automated text messages to confirm bookings, orders, and appointments.
2. Delivery And Delay Updates
Modern buyers want constant updates about their orders. If their order reaches the local warehouse, they want to know. If the delivery is delayed, they want to know.
Sure, you can add a tracking link to the orders. But tracking links requires your customers to manually track the link. Instead, you can automate text messages for delivery and delay updates.
3. Notifications And Reminders For Customer
As a medical, legal, or business professional, you’ve probably had clients cancel at the last minute or never show up. The result? You lose revenue and time.
Appointment notifications and reminders can help minimize no-shows. In fact, consumers want to receive text messages for appointment reminders. If you need inspiration to get started, we have some appointment reminder templates that might help.
4. Resolve Customer Queries
Text messaging is one of the fastest ways to help your customers. Imagine being able to text customer support when you need help instead of waiting for support via live chat or email.
SMS enables you to resolve queries regarding your opening hours, closure dates, and more in real time. You can even set up a dedicated SMS customer service platform to help clients.
5. Payment Reminders For Customers
Reminding clients about payments is always tough. So why not let automated systems remind clients about payments for you?
Payment reminders aren’t tough just for you. They can be embarrassing for the client as well. Using SMS to remind clients about payment looks more professional and makes you and the client more comfortable about the situation.
Benefits Of SMS Customer Service
With all its use cases, does SMS customer support offer any major benefits? Here are the most prominent benefits of using SMS for customer support:
1. Preferred Consumer Channel
While using texting for customer support is a favorable decision for your business, your customers are keen on receiving texts from you too. Consumers are happy to receive texts from brands they interact with, and they find text messages more engaging than emails.
2. Cost Efficient
Offering support via text messages costs less than phone or email support. If you can establish a reliable SMS support system, you’ll free up a good amount of your support team’s time, further adding to your savings. Put simply, SMS is a low-cost support channel that earns back time for your staff.
3. Personalized Communication
Modern customers crave personalization. SMS is more personal than emails and more convenient than calls. If building strong relationships with your customers is one of your priorities, using texting for customer support is a great decision.
4. Quick Response
Text messaging is fast and convenient. Like emails, text messages don’t need a witty subject line or extensive copy. In fact, the more succinct you are, the better. Text messaging is a great way to help customers in real-time with quick and short responses.
SMS Templates For Customer Service
1. Call/Text For Assistance – Template
Thank you for reaching out to {Business Name}. If you need assistance with a support issue, please text or call XXX-XXX-XXXX for immediate assistance. Thank you for being a valued member of our {Business name} community.
Best regards,
{Business Name}
2. Refund Process Delay – Template
Hi {{firstName}},
We deeply apologize for the delay in processing your refund, and we genuinely understand the inconvenience and frustration this has caused. Please know that we sincerely regret any disruption this may have brought to your experience.
We want to assure you that our team is diligently working to expedite the refund process and resolve this matter as swiftly as possible. Your trust is invaluable to us, and we are fully dedicated to rectifying this situation promptly. Once again, we extend our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this has caused, and we genuinely appreciate your patience and understanding during this time. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to our caring Customer Support Team, who will be more than happy to assist you in any way they can.
Thank you for choosing our services.
{Business Name}
3. Addressing Poor Customer Experience – Template
Hi, {{firstName}}. Thank you for taking the time to contact us, and I’m so sorry about your experience. We’re usually known for providing great customer service, and we regret missing that standard. We’ll have someone reach out to assist you. You may also contact us M-F 6am-6pm at XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. We strive to provide excellent customer service and are pleased to hear we were able to help you. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if there is anything more we can do for you.
4. We Are Closed – Template
Thank you for texting {Business Name}.
You have attempted to reach us outside of our normal business hours.
Office hours are M-F 8 am-5 pm and Saturday 8 am – 12 pm. We are closed on Sunday.
If you need a quote, please click on this link and fill out the form: {Form link}
We will follow up on the next business day.
{Business name}
5. Requesting A Feedback – Template
Thanks for choosing {Business name}. We pride ourselves on customer service and it’s your feedback that makes it possible!
We’ll send you a $15 Amazon gift card if you take a minute to leave us a review on Google. Just click the link below or search “”{Business name}”” on Google and leave a review there.
{Review Link}
Thank you,
{Business name}
We highly value your opinion and want to improve our services to better meet your needs. We kindly request that you take a few minutes to fill out our survey form, which can be found at {website}.
Your feedback is important to us, and we appreciate your time in helping us better serve you.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
{Business name}
6. Technical Issues – Template
Hi {{firstName}},
Our system is encountering some issues at the moment. Give us a moment to look into this and we will make sure you’ll get taken care of.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Customer Service, {Business name}
Hi {{firstName}},
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by the queued transactions. We encountered some unexpected errors that slowed down our processing time. We understand how frustrating this can be for you, and we want you to know that we are doing everything we can to expedite the process.
Rest assured that we are taking measures to prevent such errors from happening again in the future. We are constantly reviewing our systems and procedures to ensure that we provide you with the highest level of service and reliability.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any further concerns or questions.
Best Regards,
{Business name}
7. Payment reminder – Template
Hi {{firstName}}, we just wanted to follow up with you regarding an outstanding payment for the cleaning that was performed a couple of days ago. Please give us an update on when you will be taking care of your payment. If payment has been made, please disregard this message.
Thank you!
Hi {{firstName}}! Thank you for your business. Please make the payment for the co-pay by clicking the link here xxx. The total amount owed for the visit is $xxx.00. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at Business Phone or reply back to this text.
8. Appointment Reminder – Template
Hello {{firstName}} ! Just wanted to send you a quick reminder that we have an appointment scheduled for :
Appointment time:
Appointment Date :
Location :
Looking forward to seeing you then!
Best Practices For Customer Service Texting
Follow the best practices below to make the most of your customer service texting strategy.
1. Determine Your Goals
Identify the reasons to offer your customers SMS support. Doing so will help you achieve your goals faster and with fewer resources.
Here are a few reasons why you might decide to use customer service texting:
- Improve customer support and enhance customer satisfaction and improve overall customer journey
- Minimize dependence on human agents and decrease customer support costs
- Make your employees more productive
2. Follow TCPA Guidelines
Compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) guidelines is mission-critical. Non-compliance can land you in legal hot water, potentially costing you thousands in penalties.
Always get consent from your clients before you start sending them text messages. Also, add your business name to all messages. Even when you have consent, never text your customers outside of business hours.
3. Choose A Robust Texting Platform
A good SMS strategy is bound to fail without effective execution. That’s why you need a flexible and scalable SMS platform like Emitrr.
With Emitrr, you can:
- Import your contacts quickly
- Automatically sync data from your current CRM
- Integrate with various business apps
- Send personalized text messages in bulk
- Send and receive messages
- Get detailed insights on your campaign
- Run drip campaigns
4. Train Your Agents
Training support agents is critical to deriving the full benefits of your SMS solution. Employees must learn texting etiquette for business messaging. Train them to use a tone of voice that’s polite, friendly, and welcoming. Be clear about which abbreviations, GIFs, or emojis they can use in text messages.
5. Balance Automation With Human Connection
Not all questions require human intervention. AI-powered chatbots help automatically respond to common customer questions. Of course, you can set up the AI chatbot to bring in a support agent when it can no longer satisfactorily answer the client’s questions. Using a combination of AI and real people lets you strike a balance between lowering costs and offering a frictionless customer experience.
6. Set Up Systems To Handle Queries
Which queries should the support agents tackle first? If you prefer a first in, first out (FIFO) approach, what about high-priority queries? Do all queries end up with an agent, or do you have an automated system to tackle basic queries?
Set up a system that effectively prioritizes and assigns tasks to team members. Avoiding ambiguity is key to offering quick support. Another way to speed up responses is to use message templates that answer the most common queries you receive from clients.
7. Get Customer Feedback
Seek feedback proactively. Customers can help identify gaps in your support that you might’ve missed. This gives customers a chance to let you know their preferences, and you get valuable insights to improve the customer experience.
However, customers might not be willing to spend time on feedback or filling out lengthy forms. Consider offering them incentives, such as extra discounts or gift cards, to incentivize them to provide feedback.
8. Integrate With Other Support Channels
Integrating support channels, like SMS, emails, and calls, facilitates seamless data exchange and enhances omnichannel communication. This gives your customers the option to reach you via a channel they’re most comfortable with.
9. Follow Up With Customers
Show your customers you care about them by following up. This can be as simple as checking in with them if you haven’t heard from them in a while. You can even follow up if they abandon their cart or don’t show up for the appointment they scheduled.
10. Be Direct And To The Point
Be direct and concise. Don’t use lengthy texts or words, and be contextual. Make sure most of your messages aim to inform the reader rather than promote your business. To leverage customer service texting, add a CTA in your messages and provide a number or embed a link your clients can use to gather more information
Build Customer Loyalty Through Emitrr’s Texting For Customer Service
SMS for customer support can help you acquire new customers, foster loyalty, engage your customers, and offer fast and reliable support. However, you need a comprehensive SMS solution to offer top-notch customer experiences over SMS.
That’s where Emitrr comes in. Emitrr is an all-in-one communication platform that helps small businesses interact with customers more effectively and put customer engagement on autopilot.
If that sounds interesting, schedule a demo today!
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