The Importance of SMS Text Messaging in Business Communication

In this blog post, we will explore some of the benefits of using a business SMS service to text with your customers using your existing business phone number and how it can help you grow your business.

What is Business Text Messaging?

Business text messaging or landline texting is a service that allows you to send and receive text messages from your customers, leads, or employees using your existing business phone number. You can use business text messaging for various purposes, such as customer support, marketing, sales, recruiting, and more. Business text messaging helps you scale your communication processes and simplify your internal communication. Unlike personal texting, business texting also enables you to use various features such as auto-reply, private notes, shared inbox, team chat, scheduling, and canned responses to enhance your customer engagement. The best part is that there are no changes required on your phone service and no expensive hardware necessary either. You’ll still be able to talk on the phone but now you’ll be able to also send and receive text messagesin parallel.

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Are businesses using text messages?

Business text messaging is becoming more popular among businesses for several reasons. One reason is that many customers, especially millennials and Gen Z, favor texting over email or phone. Another reason is that texting enables fast and efficient communication, with customers having the flexibility to read and reply to messages when they want. Business texting also allows for more personalized and targeted communication, with businesses sending customized messages and offers to customers based on their preferences and history. Lastly, business texting can help boost customer satisfaction and loyalty, as it provides quicker and more responsive customer service, which can result in higher customer satisfaction and retention.

According to some statistics on business text messaging:

• 39% of businesses and organizations use SMS text messages to communicate
• 58% of people say that texting is the most effective way for businesses and organizations to reach them
• 34% of people say they’ve started a text conversation with a business or organization within the last year
• 56% of people receive texts from businesses or organizations at least once a month
• 47% of consumers prefer native SMS to message businesses compared to 34% of consumers who prefer native SMS to message family and friends

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Why is business texting gaining popularity?

Business texting has been proven to revolutionize customer communication, providing a convenient, fast, and personal way to engage with your valued customers. It allows businesses to reach their customers instantly, wherever they are, and to enhance their customer service, marketing, sales, and other key functions. Texting also has many advantages over other channels such as email or phone calls. For example, text messages have a 98% open rate and a 45% response rate, which means they are more likely to be seen and answered by customers. Texting is also the top reason why 88% of people use their mobile phones, and the preferred way of contacting customer support for more than 50% of consumers. Furthermore, texting can help businesses boost their revenue and lower their costs. Businesses that use texting report that SMS marketing contributes 12.8% of their online revenue, and that texting can reduce their support costs by up to 60% per customer interaction.

Some reasons for businesses using texting messaging to communicate with customers are:

• Texting is convenient and fast for both businesses and customers
• Texting has high open rates and response rates compared to other channels
• Texting can be used for various purposes such as customer support, marketing, sales, recruiting, and more
• Texting can be integrated with other tools and platforms such as CRM, email, social media, etc.
• Texting can help businesses save costs, increase conversions, and build loyalty

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What are the benefits of business text messaging?

Business text messaging offers a range of benefits that can transform customer communication. It provides convenient and fast engagement, allowing you to reach customers instantly. This personalized approach enhances customer service, fostering trust and loyalty. Additionally, it facilitates targeted marketing, seamless sales communication, and improves team collaboration. With business texting, you can elevate customer experience, drive growth, and stay ahead in today's competitive landscape.

Explore the benefits of business text messaging below:

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Benefit #1: Auto-reply minimizes missed opportunities

One of the advantages of using a business SMS service is that you can set up auto-reply messages to greet your customers or respond to text messages receiving during off hours. This way, you can ensure that your customers always receive a prompt and professional response from you, even when you are not available. With auto-replies, you save time, minimize missed opportunities, and enhance customer satisfaction.

You can use auto-reply to:

• Thank your new customers for contacting you, collect information such as their name and let them know when you will get back to them
• Show appreciation to your returning customers with a friendlier response while assuring them that you will be available to assist them shortly
• Provide a warm greeting to customers who text you during off hours, informing them of your business hours and when they can anticipate a response
• Auto-reply can help you save time, reduce missed opportunities, and increase customer satisfaction.

Benefit #2: Private notes improves productivity

Another benefit of using a business SMS service is that you can leave private and contextual notes inside the text message thread for yourself and your team members. These inline notes can help you improve your customer service quality, collaboration, and productivity by keeping track of important information about your customers, such as their preferences, feedback, or purchase history and even internal discussions with your team members, all within the text message interface. 

You can use internal private notes to:

• Record details about a customer’s order or issue
• Share tips or suggestions with your colleagues
• Assign tasks or responsibilities to your team members
• Add reminders or alerts for yourself

Benefit #3: Shared inbox increases response and engagement rate

The shared inbox feature lets you and your team members see and manage all the text messages in one place and have more clarity and responsibility for your business text message communication. You can also delegate the text messages to different staff & team members based on their relevance.By assigning text messages, you can effectively minimize the number of notifications you receive. In the notification settings, you have the option to customize your notification preferences, ensuring that you won't be notified when the business number receives a text message that has been assigned to other team members.
This can help you increase your customer response rate and engagement rate, as text messages have a 45% response rate compared to 6% for emails and a 98% open rate compared to 20% for emails.

You can use a shared inbox to:

• Monitor all your incoming and outgoing text message interactions to ensure a good text message experience for the customers 
• Organize and filter your messages by messages that are unread, assigned to you, assigned to others or unassigned
• Transfer or escalate messages to other team members or departments when there is a need. You can also add a private note before assigning it to others to provide better context
• Help follow up on unresolved or pending messages that are assigned to others

Benefit #4: Team chat fosters collaboration

Team chat is a feature that facilitates internal communication among team members, eliminating the need for external chat platforms. By utilizing team chat, you can foster a positive and collaborative work culture within a single platform. Additionally, you have the freedom to express yourself with emojis, gifs, images, or videos, making your conversations more enjoyable and engaging.

You can use team chat to:

• Have group discussions with relevant team members in private channels
• Ask for help or advice from your colleagues
• Share updates or news with your team
• Celebrate achievements or milestones with your team
• Provide feedback or recognition to your team members

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Benefit #5: Scheduling text messages reduces no-shows

With text message scheduling, you can set up text messages to be sent later to boost your time efficiency, customer satisfaction, reduce no-shows/missed appointments, and more.

You can use text messagescheduling to:

• Send promotional offers or discounts to your customers at the best time (as long as you already have their express written consent)
• Remind your customers about their appointments or payments
• Wish your customers a happy birthday or anniversary
• Send seasonal greetings or thank-you messages to your customers

Benefit #6: Canned responses boosts time efficiency

Canned responses are pre-written text messages that you can use to reply to your customers quickly and easily to improve your response time, consistency, and professionalism. You can also customize them with variables such as customer names, dates, and other data to make them more personal and relevant.

You can use canned responses to:

• Greet your customers in just a few clicks without the need to type
• Quickly respond to frequently asked questions
• Provide directions or instructions
• Request feedback or reviews
• Apologize for delays or errors

Conclusion

As you can see, using a business texting service can offer many benefits for your customer engagement. You can use various features such as auto-replies, private notes, shared inbox, team chat, scheduled messages, and canned responses to enhance your customer service and marketing efforts. You can also use your existing business landline or VoIP phone number to send SMS texts and MMS picture messages without changing your hardware or software. And you can send and receive text messages from any device such as a computer or a mobile phone.

If you are interested in trying out a business SMS service for yourself, we recommend Texty Pro. It is an easy-to-use and affordable solution that offers all the features mentioned above and more. You can sign up for a free trial or a get live demo see how it works for yourself.