How Do You Communicate With Your Customers When Your Business Is Closed?
Are your customers leaving you a VM (voice message) when you’re closed? Is there a better way? There is!
Is there a better option and a more modern approach to communicate with your customers when your business is closed? There is. Let’s take a look at what used to be reasonable, and what the new normal is that your customers are expecting you to offer them when they need to reach you, even if your business is closed.
As we continue to point out in this blog, we want nothing more than to show SMBs that trends and changes are occurring within the customer engagement landscape.
You probably remember when you purchased your first phone system (Landline or VOIP). You might even have fond memories of that that IVR system you enabled for the first time. It felt great when you bought those services (and hardware) for better customer service. To some extent, they felt like tangible objects; they even appeared on your PL statement (for better or worse).
But now SMB is starting to hear they need to communicate via TXT. It might seem confusing — no tangible object to communicate with your customer, “How can that be,” you might think?
This is where having a traditional VM system for your customers to reach you after hours, might need a new, modern approach. Is there something else you can offer your customers that better fits their lifestyle and expectations. “There is.”
As we know, 96% of American adults own a smartphone. We all TXT throughout the day, so your customers are making a connection and wondering why can’t they text you 24/7? And when they do, they should still get an acknowledgment that you received their message even though your business might be closed at the time (this is the modern-day business VM).
Let’s take a look at what that looks like. When your customer sends you a text after regular business hours as well as holidays, you can set up your TXT message platform to send those customers a courtesy message, letting them know you received their message, and that you’ll get back to them immediately when you’re back in the office. You can also make that reply back message a picture instead. Pictures sometimes speak better than words, and in case it will make a better image for your company.
And since you have a Unified Inbox, SMS won’t get lost when you get back into the office. Everyone in your company will see those awaiting a reply-back message. Much better and easier for you to manage than VM.
As you can see, not having a TXT reply back mechanism set up for your SMB will start to cause more and more frustration with your customers. So, keep those customers happy. Customer satisfaction will be higher when you start to send your customers a TXT even while your business is closed.
