When we talk about SMS integration, we mean integrating a dedicated SMS tool into other software that your business uses every day. Businesses are beginning to use SMS as a communication tool with customers, because it’s fast, effective, has a high open-rate, and it requires very little attention span.
If you’ve wondered how SMS can help grow your business and streamline communications, these are the integrations to consider.
Payment and billing systems
One of the best ways to chase down those late payments is with an SMS reminder. Let’s face it, most of your customers do the right thing, and missing a payment is simply a mistake. If you’ve integrated an SMS service into your payment and billing system, you can automatically send reminders when accounts go overdue. Hopefully, this results in customers quickly making payment without issue.
When it comes to saving time, this is much more effective than having your account staff trying to call every single customer when their account falls overdue.
SMS integration with calendars
You can integrate an SMS system with your calendars and booking systems. This is great on so many levels. You can use this internally to remind staff of certain meetings, or use it to remind customers about appointments. It’s a great way to reduce no-shows, especially in professional service businesses. Use SMS keywords to ask customers to confirm their attendance with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, and if the response is negative, your staff can be alerted to an open spot on the calendar.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems
If you’ve got a CRM in your daily operations, you’re already familiar with trying to provide multi-channel customer service and support. However, most CRMs only handle digital communications with customers like email or online live chats. By integrating an SMS service into your CRM, you get the best of both worlds.
This integration makes it easy to send deals, offers, reminders, notifications and much more to all your customers. But more importantly, you can tailor the messages to each customer, making it feel more personalised.
SMS integration with eCommerce
In the world of eCommerce, the customer experience is so important. That’s why it makes sense to have SMS incorporated into your eCommerce platform. It provides better communication, and therefore a better overall customer experience. You can use an SMS service to confirm orders and even notify when an item is shipped or delivered.
SMS can also help boost your revenue in eCommerce, with simple reminders such as abandoned shopping carts. A quick text message, and you could draw that customer straight back in. That’s some clever remarketing!
Finally, let’s not forget the most basic integration available. Email! If you already use some kind of email list for marketing activities, why not use SMS too? It’s much better for simple things like reminders and alerts, plus, it opens up a great channel of communication. SMS integration with email means you can provide customer support and service through your email client, even if the customer is using SMS to send queries.
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